e5a-e5z, cook islands (cook islands dxcc status change!). from the arrl
web page, the issuance of a callsign prefix block for cook the islands
has made them a dxcc political entity. "it has come to our attention that
the international telecommunication union table of international callsign
series now contains an entry for the cook islands," said arrl membership
services manager wayne mills, n7ng. "new zealand has been issued the e5a-e5z
callsign prefix block for the exclusive use of the cook islands. as a
result, the cooks become a political entity for dxcc purposes." mills says
the impact on the dxcc list will be minimal, however. "in reviewing the
distances, it appears that the first 'separation' from the south cooks
likely will be palmerston island, which is just over 350 km northwest of
raratonga," he explained. "the remainder of what has been known as the
north cooks is not sufficiently distant from palmerston to become an
additional dxcc entity." mills says the main effect of the change will
be for palmerston to count for north cooks instead of south cooks. the
change also may clarify a situation with the north cooks. "since the
addition of the manihiki islands (north cooks) in january 1959 was not
based on a specific distance, palmerston has counted as south cooks," he
said. "dxcc rule 5a comes into play now, keeping both north and south cooks
on the list, but moving palmerston to the north cooks because it is more
than 350 km from the south islands and becomes the first separation." under
the circumstances, mills said, it might now be appropriate to rename the
entity "palmerston and the north cooks." for more updates/details, please
read the arrl announcement at:
http://www.arrl.org
