[OKDXA] # 339

[K8fu at aol.com]

The Caribbean Island of Saint Barthelemy (St. Bart's) was discovered
in  1493 by Christopher Columbus and was named after his  brother
Bartolomeo.  The Island was claimed and settled by the French in  1648.
Sweden purchased St. Bart's from France in 1784 and then sold it  back
to the French in 1878.  In 1946 Guadeloupe (FG) was granted  a
Department of France.  This included the island of St. Bart's.
 
Saint Martin (FS) was added to the DXCC list on July 1st (per May,
1955  QST) with an effective starting date of November 15, 1945  and
afterwards.  St. Barthelemy (FJ) QSOs have always counted as  FS-St.
Martin for DXCC, up until this point.  On February 21, 2007  French
authorities signed into law 2007-224 giving the island of  Saint
Barthelemy a new political status of "Overseas Collectivities",  which
was then published the following day.
 
On July 2, 2007 the United States State Department recommended  a
revision of their list "Dependencies and Areas of Special  Sovereignty"
list.  On Friday December 14, 2007 Saint Barthelemy was  added to the
"Dependencies and Areas of Special Sovereignty" public  list.
 
DXCC Political Entities criteria 1c states: "The Entity contains  a
permanent population, is administered by a local government, and  is
located at least 800 km from its parent.  To satisfy the  "permanent
population" and "administered by a local government" criteria of  this
sub-section, an Entity must be listed on either (a) the  U.S.
Department of State's list of "Dependencies and Areas of  Special
Sovereignty" as having a local "Administrative Center," or (b)  the
United Nations list of "Non-Self-Governing Territories."  St.  Bart's
clearly meets that criteria and should be added to the DXCC list as  a
new counter.
 
Here is the info you will want to input into your logging  software.
Prefix - FJ
Country Name - Saint Barthelemy
CQ Zone -  8
Start date - Probably February 22, 2007
QSL Bureau - Yes (REF  France)
UTC Offset - 4 hours behind UTC
IOTA - NA-146
ITU Zone -  11
Continent - North America
Longitude - 62.83 West
Latitude - 17.92  North
Other islands that will count for Saint Barthelemy - Chevreau,  Coco,
Fourchue, Fregate, La Tortue, Le Boulanger, Pain de Sucre, Pele  and
Toc Vers.
 
DXpeditioners have been monitoring the status of St. Barthelemy (FJ)
for  several months.  Immediately after the addition of St. Bart's to
the  United States State Department's Dependencies and Areas of  Special
Sovereignty list an initial two man seasoned DXpedition team flew  to
the Caribbean this past weekend.
 
The team instantly discovered a transportation shutdown on St. Bart's
as  flights and ferry passage to the new counter were shut down due to
local  strikes.  The team then hired a local private boat for
transportation to  Gustavia, the islands capital city.
 
OH2BH, Martti Laine, and OH0XX/HP1WW, Olli Rissanen, will be the  first
two operators of the team and are now in the process of building  up
two stations.  Depending on conditions, operator's schedules and  how
things go the operation could continue even into the  Christmas
holidays.  The team wishes to give those who Deserve another  DXCC
counter a most welcome Christmas present as they wish to pass  their
jubilant greetings far away from their family's Christmas  preparations
and to close another DX year the way we all like it best.
 
The team plans to begin activity today, Tuesday December 18th  around
1200 noon local (1600Z) as FJ/OH2AM.  They will have two  stations,
using an FT-1000MP and FT2000MP along with Fin Fet amplifier.   Initial
operations will begin on 20 meters SSB and 17 meters CW.  The  goal of
this operation will be to give as many DXers as possible a  new
country.  Additional bands may be added as the DXpedition  goes
forward.  Concentration will be to have one station on CW and one  on
SSB.  QSL cards for this operation should go via OH2BN.


RIBBIT..............................................RIBBIT....................
...................   BOHICA



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