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 Previous: In Brief | ![Next (later) Story](/images/sty-up.gif "UK "Fivemeggers" Enjoying Experimental Activity"){kind=small} Next: UK "Fivemeggers" Enjoying Experimental Activity |
 The 7O1YGF QSL card. |
NEWINGTON, CT, Aug 15, 2002--It's been more than two years since a group of German amateurs claimed to have operated from Yemen--then considered the fourth most-wanted DXCC entity--as 7O1YGF (for "Yemen-German Friendship"). The operation, which began April 17, 2000, was cut short when Yemeni authorities shut it down almost 10 days later after some 35,000 QSOs. Despite some recent developments, DXCC approval remains elusive for this rare one.
"I'd love to count it," said ARRL Membership Services Manager Wayne Mills, N7NG, "but in DXCC situations, we have to know that it was authorized by the government. We don't want any operations to reflect badly on Amateur Radio."
The DXCC Desk also wants assurances that the Yemeni government would have no reason to disapprove of the ARRL's granting DXCC credit for the operation.
Mills said that while he has no reason to doubt that the German team actually was on the air from Yemeni soil, he still wants "tangible evidence" that it was and that the operation was not illegal. Documentation to date from the 7O1YGF team "contains nothing from the government at all," Mills emphasized. "In addition, there is no indication of any kind of its position on the 7O1YGF operation--either before or after the operators were asked to cease operations. This point in time is extremely important."
At the time, the 7O1YGF team blamed the shutdown on the fact that "no agreement on the final status of this unique special activity could be reached." The German DXpedition team had said in 2000 that its operating authority was to be granted immediately after it arrived. The team later characterized that assumption as a misunderstanding.
So far, Mills said, the DXCC Desk has "absolutely nothing"--directly or indirectly--from the Yemeni government in Sana'a to indicate that the 7O1YGF operation had its blessing. "It has to be some kind of evidence traceable to the government," Mills explained.
In Germany for the annual Ham Fair in Friedrichshafen in June, Mills met with DXpedition team member Dominik Weiel, DL5EBE, who supplied Mills with photographs, a narrative and a video. Mills said the photographs and video showed "views of an Arab country," but nothing very definitive, and there was nothing from the Yemeni government.
"Everyone then thought that they had come up with the long-awaited documentation, and they have been waiting hopefully ever since," Mills said. "We do see some evidence that the group entered Yemen with all of their equipment," he said. "Indirectly we may assume that they initially had permission to operate, although there is no evidence of this."
A lot of those pushing for DXCC approval of 7O1YGF point to the continuing operation from the once-rare North Korea of Ed Giorgadze, P5/4L4FN. That operation was okayed for DXCC credit as of last November--for SSB and RTTY QSOs only at this point.
"When we approved P5, they assumed that there was no license and no evidence that there was permission," Mills said, referring to the 7O1YGF team. "So, they assumed--as did many others--that their operation should count." On the other hand, Mills said, the DXCC Desk has "all sorts of evidence" that P5/4L4FN has been operating with the North Korean government's approval.
Mills said the German team continues to work with the Yemeni government and with ARRL to determine if the operation can, one day, be accredited.
"We'll try to come up with something," Mills said--indicating that he wants to be as flexible as possible. But he made it clear that the burden of proof in meeting DXCC criteria rests with the 7O1YGF team.
Meanwhile, The Daily DX reported this week that several
stations have received QSL cards from the 7O/OH2YY operation of Pekka Ahlqvist. The DXCC Desk has not yet
received any documentation from OH2YY, and the operation has not yet been
approved for DXCC credit.
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