[OKDXA] Mt. Athos

[Roger Simpson]

I have been following the OKDXA thread regarding Monk Apollo's death. 
There is a writeup regarding Monk Apollo on today's Daily DX. It was 
written by Kostas SV1DPI. According to that writeup the Monastery of 
Docheiariou is going to have another monk obtain an amateur radio 
license.

I only worked Monk Apollo once. It was on 17m on RTTY. I just happened 
to be at the right place at the right time and heard him in a QSO and 
called him after that QSO and he came right back.  This was in May of 
2011.

I don't know why Mount Athos is considered a DXCC country. It is 
obviously NOT a "separate political administration" because people there 
have licenses issued by Greece. Also, it is not a separate physical 
place such as an island, like Hawaii, which is part of another country 
but separated from it geographically by at least a certain distance. I 
am not an expert on the DXCC rules but it seems to me like Mount Athos 
is more like Oklahoma which is part of the United States.  I think for 
DXCC purposes among the requirements for an "entity" is that the 
"entity" is listed by the US Dept of State as a Country and/or the 
country has a recognized Amateur Radio society.

I think the situation with the Vatican and well as SMOM, for example, 
don't apply to Mt. Athos because the Vatican and SMOM have call sign 
blocks assigned by the ITU.

73  Roger  K5RKS