7O6T and Israel – Amateur Radio Newsline

[IK0ZCW]

Note: the following info is reported in Amateur Radio Newsline #1813. Out of interest and clarity, it is re-posted here.

Israeli hams protest on-line against DXCC credit for the 7O6T operation from Yemen

A small but vocal number of Israeli hams have been arguing on-line that the 7O6T from Yemen should not be allowed for DXCC because the operators refused to make contact with 4X and 4Z prefix hams. They note that Israel has no banned countries list and as such refusal of the 7O6T operators to contact them was at least a violation of the principals and the spirit of the DXCC program.

While its true that Israel has no banned countries list, many of its neighbors consider themselves technically in a state of war with the Jewish state and have been since its creation through partitioning following World War 2. As such these nations ban hams operating under their jurisdiction from making contact with their counterparts in Israel.

The 7O6T operation reportedly has the support of Yemen’s Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Radio and the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology. As such it is a pretty good guess that not recognizing Israeli stations was a decree imposed by Yemen on the 7O6T operating team and not one of their own choosing.

At airtime, it’s not known if any of the protesting Israeli hams contacted the ARRL DXCC Desk regarding this issue or if it was just another of those cyberspace only arguments. Either way it came to an abrupt end on Saturday, May 5th. That’s when ARRL Awards Branch Manager Bill Moore, NC1L, issued a news release stating that the current 7O6T operation from Yemen along with the earlier 6O3A DXpedition to Somalia have been granted DXCC approval. As such, both will be counted for DXCC credit.