QST de W1AW  
DX Bulletin 4  ARLD004
>From ARRL Headquarters  
Newington CT  January 23, 2018
To all radio amateurs   

SB DX ARL ARLD004
ARLD004 Amendment to ARRL DXCC Rules Will Expand DXCC List

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 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 Kosovo (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 Kosovo 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 a copy of their Amateur Radio license to,
[email protected] .

Kosovo's IARU member society SHRAK (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.