Joe,
I think we can all agree that Curacao and St. Maarten, since they are
becoming separate countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, most
likely are going to become separate DXCC entities from the remainder of the
soon-to-be-former Netherlands Antilles islands. As they will have different
political systems from Bonaire, Saba, and St. Eustatius, thus a political
separation, that's almost a given. (I say "almost" since until the DXCC
desk makes it's determination, all is speculation)
Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius are also undergoing political change and
will become separate Dutch municipalities.
So there are really only two questions:
Will Bonaire become the "successor" to the existing PJ2/4 DXCC entity, and
Saba & St. Eustatius the "successor" to the existing PJ5/6/7 entity, or will
the existing entities be deleted and replaced by new ones?
And
Will Bonaire remain a separate DXCC entity from Saba & St. Eustatius, or
will the political and geographical distances be enough to keep them as
separate entities?
Now, had the rules not been updated a few years back to permit new entries
to the Deleted Entity/Country list, I would have put together a strong
argument to retain the existing entities, just to avoid them disappearing
into never-never land.
With the update, though, it's not a big deal to me -- because I believe we
will end up with a net gain of two, one way or the other.
The bottom line is that until there is a ruling, we are only guessing. We
don't know how the desk will decide to split things up; we don't know if
they will delete the existing entities and replace them, or treat the new
countries as splits from the existing entities. And we don't know if they
October 10th date will be the "official" date of change for DXCC purposes,
or if there will be another date chosen based on other criteria, such as the
State Department list or something else.
Now, despite what a lurker on the list sent me privately (you know who you
are, and don't call me Shirley), I am confident that the DXCC Desk will rule
wisely. It's not like this is coming out of left field, it's been in the
works for years. In the meantime, though, there's no confusion... until the
official (for DXCC purposes) date of change, the entities count as they do
now.
Should the official DXCC effective date be other than the anticipated 10
October, then certain groups that are betting on the anticipated date will
be Sorry Out Of Luck. But they had to know that was a possibility in
setting the whole thing up.
Actually, in one sense, it will be a shame IF the desk does what we expect.
K3AIR & I haven't had anything to argue about on the trip to & from Dayton
since 7O1YGF got approved!
In short: WFWL & don't sweat the small stuff.
73, ron w3wn
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