news flash (possible new one!). members of the american samoa amateur
radio association (asara) have announced a dxpedition to swains island
(iota oc-200) to take place march 2-6th. operators will be kan/ja1bk,
john/k1er/kh6, tet/jh1jgx/ah7c, yuichi/jr2kdn, paul/f6exv, jim/n9tk and
burt/w0my (ex-w0rlx). the callsign will be kh8si. activity will be on
160-10 meters on the usual dx and iota frequencies. modes will be cw,
ssb and rtty. pilot base stations are: ah8lg, wa2moe, je2ehp and kh6bzf.
qsl manager will be ve3ho. the dxpedition's support team is: yaesu,
steppir, jh1buo and wd4ngb. the original asara project team members;
ja1bk, ah8lg, k1er, kh6bzf, k5fuv, w1ru, wa2moe and ah7c, believe
swain island, a privately owned island which is part of american samoa,
has a sufficient distance from tutuila (where pago pago is located) to
qualify as a new dxcc entity - per the original dxcc2000 criteria. they
also believe the island falls into the same category as chesterfield,
ducie, and the australes and marquesas. the american samoa's amateur
radio association had applied for membership in the iaru under article
ii, paragraph 2. of the iaru constitution, which states, "there shall
be only one member-society representing a country or separate territory."
american samoa, is in fact, a separate territory of the united states, and
is thus eligible. however, the arrl board of directors in january 2004
removed paragraph 1.c) from the dxcc criteria for determining a dxcc
entity. this provision, implemented in 1998 as part of the dxcc 2000
program, had provided that "an entity will be added to the dxcc list
as a political entity if it ...has a separate iaru member society."
for more details, maps and pictures, we "highly" suggest that dxers
visit the following web page:
http://www.swains-island.org/we also recommend you read the section under "the rough road to iaru".
