After much controversy Bill Moore on the DXCC Desk has ruled on the OH2BH and OH0XX DXpedition to Saint Barthelemy. See my original story at http://monitor-post.blogspot.com/2007/12/fjoh2am-ops-may-not-count-for-new-fj.html
The final word from the ARRL website page http://www.arrl.org/blog/DXCC%20Dialog
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Announcement from the ARRL DXCC Desk
Jan 11, 2008 15:50 ET
Bill Moore, NC1L
FJ/OH2AM
This operation by OH2BH and OH0XX was conducted under CEPT Recommendation T/R 61-01. This Recommendation makes it possible for radio amateurs from CEPT countries (and certain non-CEPT countries) to operate in other CEPT countries without obtaining an individual temporary license from the visited CEPT country.
Complaints were received from several individuals. The main thrust of the complaints is that the operators used a club call for which Laine is station trustee, rather than their individual callsigns.
The intention of the operators in using a single callsign was to limit the number of duplicate contacts. Many DXpeditions use club or special-issue callsigns for this reason. The Recommendation makes no mention of club callsigns but says that the visiting license holder "must use his national call sign preceded by the call sign prefix of the visited country." Other operations using club callsigns from French territory, including in the Caribbean, have taken place under provisions of the Recommendation and have been credited for DXCC.
Since the question was raised, checking with various CEPT administrations and with the European Radiocommunication Office (ERO) has revealed different views regarding the use of club callsigns under the Recommendation. The ERO observes that the use of a club callsign could prevent an administration from determining whether a particular operator is qualified and concludes, "Club members, including the holder of the club call sign, should use their national personal call signs when abroad."
In the case of FJ/OH2AM, the two operators clearly were qualified to operate in St Barthelemy under the Recommendation. They utilized a call authorized to them by their national authority. The purpose of a radio station callsign is to identify the administration and the licensee responsible for the operation of the station. The use of FJ/OH2AM rather than FJ/OH2BH and FJ/OH0XX did not thwart this purpose.
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And this update from ICPO and David Raycroft:
We are delighted to inform you that QSL cards for the FJ/OH2AM operation
will start going out early next week now that the operation is
accredited for the DXCC award program as of January 11, 2008.
Full-color cards will be arriving from the printers in Poland on the
15th of January (Tuesday) and we will start processing direct requests
immediately. The legwork is already done, all envelopes opened and
sorted.
Those 23.340 QSOs made by the duo represent 11.730 individual DXers and
obviously that many QSL requests as well. The logbook will be included
in the LoTW later this year.
Because of the close DXCC Honor Roll submission date, March 31, 2008, we
plan to make out all QSLs received during January to be released during
the month of February. By the 20th of February we will release a status
report and probably another option to bypass the queue for those who at
that time still want to have QSLs received for a late March submission.
We thank you for your kind words about the operation and support
received through the QSL mail.
Jarmo J. Jaakola, OH2BN
Kiilletie 5 C 30
FI-00710 Helsinki
FINLAND
http://www.kolumbus.fi/oh2bn/barts.htm
