[SFDXA] Amendment to ARRL DXCC Rules Will Expand DXCC List

[Bill]

    Amendment to ARRL DXCC Rules Will Expand DXCC List

01/23/2018

The ARRL Board of Directors approved a motion to amend the DXCC Rules, 
when it met January 19-20. Section II, Subsection 1 of the DXCC Rules 
now will include a new Subsection (d): The entity has a separate *IARU 
member society* <http://www.iaru.org/member-societies.html> /and/ is 
included on the US State Department *Independent States in the World* 
<https://www.state.gov/s/inr/rls/4250.htm>.

“The discussion during the Board meeting and the rule change did not 
address any specific entity,” ARRL Radiosport Manager Norm Fusaro, W3IZ, 
said. “The amendment /could allow/ some additions to the current DXCC 
List of entities. It’s a good thing not only for DXCC but for all active 
hams.”

In fact, the Republic of Kosovo (Z6) has been added to the DXCC List of 
current entities, increasing the total number of current DXCC entities 
to 340. The addition of Kosovo raises to 331 the required number of 
current entities confirmed to qualify for DXCC Honor Roll; Top of Honor 
Roll is 340. DXCC award accounts are being tabulated to reflect the change.

This change qualifies as an “event,” effective on January 21, 2018, at 
0000 UTC. Nothing is retroactive.

A new Logbook of The World (LoTW) /TQSL/ configuration file (v.11.4) 
will be released on January 23. /TQSL/ will detect when this file has 
been released and will install the update automatically. Radio Amateurs 
outside of Kosovo should continue to upload their logs to LoTW in the 
usual manner. LoTW users within Kososvo (either with a Z6 call sign or 
reciprocal call sign Z6/</home call sign/>) will use /TQSL/ to request a 
new call sign certificate for their call sign. The request will use 
Republic of Kososvo as the DXCC entity, and the QSO Begin date will be 
January 21 or later. LoTW will reject call sign certificate requests for 
the Republic of Kosovo with a QSO Begin date /prior/ to January 21. Z6 
users requesting call sign certificates may *e-mail* 
<mailto:LoTW-Help at arrl.org> a copy of their Amateur Radio license.

Kosovo’s IARU member society *SHRAK* <http://www.shrak.org/en/> and its 
president Vjollca Caka, Z61VB, are hosting a 10th-anniversary activation 
to celebrate Kosovo’s independence in February, 2008. SHRAK Headquarters 
station Z60A now is active on several bands with multiple guest 
operators. Club Log will be used for this activation, while QSLs are via 
OH2BH.