[SFDXA] Effort Under Way in Puerto Rico to Reclaim Desecheo Island (KP5) - From ARRL

[Bill]

    Effort Under Way in Puerto Rico to Reclaim Desecheo Island (KP5)

11/13/2015

A legislative effort is under way in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to 
reclaim *Desecheo Island* 
<http://www.fws.gov/refuges/profiles/index.cfm?id=41523> (KP5) and to 
include it within the municipality of Mayagüez. According to a *report* 
<http://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/politica/nota/gobiernoreclamaratitularidaddedesecheo-2117766/> 
in /El Nuevo Día/, the Puerto Rico House of Representatives of Puerto 
Rico approved two bills on October 26 that call on the US government to 
return ownership of Desecheo Island to Puerto Rico.

The island was the site of the KP1-5 Project’s *K5D DXpedition* 
<http://kp5.us/> in early 2009 that logged nearly 116,000 contacts. KP5 
was added to the ARRL DXCC list in 1979 under the “separate 
administration” rule. While this was subsequently removed, Desecheo and 
other entities were grandfathered.

Desecheo currently is under the administration of the US Fish and 
Wildlife Service (USFWS) within the US Department of the Interior. It is 
about 16 miles west of Puerto Rico, in the Mona Channel between Puerto 
Rico and the Dominican Republic. The legislative effort is headed by 
Popular Democratic Party Rep Charlie Hernández, who would like to see 
Desecheo become a tourist attraction. The legislation now heads to the 
Senate in Puerto Rico.

One of the House bills approved would repeal the legislation authorizing 
transfer of Desecheo to the US government for defense purposes during 
World War II and was used as a bombing and gunnery range until 1952. A 
second bill would alter the territorial limits of Mayagüez to add the 
nearly 5 square mile Desecheo.

“This refuge is close due to the presence of unexploded military 
ordnance, the USFWS says on its Desecheo Island web page, which also 
says that travel to the small island is “not applicable.” Desecheo 
became a US Wildlife Refuge in 1976. Currently Amateur Radio groups 
wishing to operate from Desecheo Island, a separate DXCC entity, must 
first obtain permission from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. In the 
wake of the 2009 DXpedition to the island, Desecheo dropped from the top 
10 to number 43 on ClubLog’s *DXCC Most Wanted List* 
<http://www.clublog.org/mostwanted.php>.