Re: [IRCA] [NRC-AM] Fw: Countries new or not new?

[<jrenfrew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

A couple of DXers have noted the recent changes in the Dutch islands in the Caribbean.  Here are some additional comments to muddy the water further:  

Aruba had previously moved to a separate status within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, so for strict country counters it had already become ATN and Aruba as separate "countries".

The NRC list had long ago separated the eastern portion of the Netherlands Antilles (Sint Maarten and Eustacia)from ATN because of an arbitrary "water separation".  By arbitrary I mean that the club set a standard distance - 75 miles I think - so that portions of a country separated by that much water were deemed two "radio countries".  This standard distance is a pure fiction that has no basis in inernational law or boundaries, it's just a hobby convention.  Hawaii and Alaska are well beyond that standard distance also, and have long been considered seperate "radio countries".    

With the official change in the relationship of the different Netherlands Antilles to the home country and to one another there is some rationale to add new radio countries to the list.  I don't have all that info in front of me (I'm out of town right now), but new degrees of autonomy coupled with water separation creates new countries if we use traditional club standards.  The big philosophical question, though, is whether a DXer can count having heard one of these new entities when the actual logging preceded the new arrangement.  Does a logging of Bonaire in 1973 now count in your book as Netherlands Antilles, ABC islands, or Bonaire?  Questions like this have long slowed my effort to rewrite the NRC country list, and the anticipated but uncertain changes in the Netherlands Antilles have been a major sticking point.    

Only Aruba is truly independent, the other islands now have different shades of autonomy, as I recall, some with a strong link to the Netherlands, and some weaker.  

Should my logging of a station in the former East Germany now count as Germany or is "East Germany" still considered a separate radio country?  I heard it earlier this year for the first time - seems a stretch to call in East Germany, since that country has not existed politically since 1990 or so.  But Ben Dangerfield heard it long before then, and it doesn't seem right to take it away from him.  But that leaves me unable to match Ben's country total, even though we actually heard the very same station.  Yikes, who knew that a simple hobby like DXing could become such a philosophical exercise!

Jim Renfrew, Holley NY


---- Chris Black <n1cp@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: 
> So if PJB TWR, Bonaire has always been a separate country, was the country designation of ATN that we all used correct? And what will be the new country designation? 
> 
> Chris
> Cape Cod
> 
> 
> From: Russ Edmunds 
> Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 4:31 PM
> To: NRC List 
> Subject: [NRC-AM] Fw: Countries new or not new?
> 
> 
>       So far as I know, these have been counted as separate MW countries by NRC and IRCA for decades, employing the distance between any two islands as the criterion. I can't recall what the exact number is though.
> 
>       Russ Edmunds
>       Blue Bell, PA ( 360' ASL )
>       [15 mi NNW of Philadelphia]
>       40:08:45N; 75:16:04W, Grid FN20id
>       <wb2bjh@xxxxxxxxx>
>       FM: Yamaha T-80 & Onkyo T-450RDS w/ APS9B @15'
>       AM: Modified Sony ICF 2010 barefoot
> 
>       --- On Mon, 10/18/10, amandx@xxxxxxxxx <amandx@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> 
>         From: amandx@xxxxxxxxx <amandx@xxxxxxxxx>
>         Subject: [NRC-AM] Countries new or not new?
>         To: "NRCDXAS" <am@xxxxxxxxxxx>, amfmtvdx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "MW DX" <mwdx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>         Date: Monday, October 18, 2010, 2:59 PM
> 
> 
>         Dissolution of Netherlands Antilles Creates Four New DXCC Entities
>         10/13/2010 The dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles has caused changes to the DXCC List. As per the DXCC rules, the two Netherlands Antilles DXCC entities will be deleted and moved to the Deleted Entities List. Four new entities will be added to the DXCC List: (1) Curaçao; (2) Sint Maarten; (3) Saba and St Eustatius, and (4) Bonaire. The event date and time for these changes was 0400 UTC, October, 10 2010. 
> 
>         This is from the ARRL DXCC listing. Does this mean there are new DX countries for AM DX also??
>         73 Best of DX
>          
>         Shawn Axelrod  VE4DX1SMA 
>         Winnipeg MB
>         Grid square   EN19kv 
>          
>         REMEMBER ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN HEAR FOREVER
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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