This is to provide the Board with advance notice of an upcoming change in an administrative procedure contained in the DXCC Rules. Prior to its scheduled teleconference last week the Programs and Services Committee received a recommendation from M&VP Manager Dave Patton, NN1N, for a change in the DXCC Rules to permit volunteer Card Checkers who have achieved DXCC on 160 meters to check 160 meter QSLs in the field, and all Card Checkers to check cards for Deleted Entities. Until now there has been a requirement that 160 meter cards be checked by Headquarters staff. The main issue has been that some cards for 18 MHz QSOs can be altered to show 1.8 MHz without the alteration being detected. Therefore, the time of the QSO becomes significant. Some cards for Deleted Entities date back to 1960 and before, and sometimes it is difficult in the field to determine what entity the card ought to count for. Deleted Entities do not count for the DXCC Challenge or for the Honor Roll but do count toward all-time totals. Dave also suggested, at the bottom of his proposal, that the committee consider permitting HQ to appoint Field Checkers solely to check 160 meter cards, since there are a couple of Divisions in which Card Checkers holding 160 Meter DXCC are rare. The PSC declined to endorse this suggestion at this time. After discussion during the teleconference the PSC unanimously voted to authorize staff to amend the DXCC rules as proposed but with no change in how Card Checkers are appointed, i.e. with the last two sentences of the proposal deleted. Sec IV Rule 1) a) is the specific rule that will be changed: Old rule: 1) Entities Eligible for Field Checking: a) All current entities dating back to November 15, 1945 can be checked. Cards for deleted entities and cards indicating 160 meters must be submitted to ARRL HQ. New rule: 1) Entities Eligible for Field Checking: a) All entities dating back to November 15, 1945 can be checked as follows: i) Cards for deleted entities may be checked by all DXCC Card Checkers. ii) If the DXCC Card Checker cannot determine the entity of a QSL for a QSO with a deleted entity, the Card Checker may photograph both sides of the card and email those images to the DXCC desk for final entity determination. The Card Checker must certify on the application that those images are made by him/her and are a true representation of the card. HQ will assign the final entity name as determined, to the applicant's DXCC. iii) Cards for 160 meters may be checked by DXCC Card Checkers who have themselves earned DXCC on 160 meters. Those Card Checkers who do not have 160 meter DXCC, may not check cards for QSOs on 160 Meters. iv) All other bands (other than 160), modes, and all entities may be checked by all DXCC Card Checkers. The benefits include: Further improvement in member/customer service at headquarters; improvement in applicants' experience with DXCC participation; improvement in QSO-validity review by allowing experienced DXers who are Card Checkers to review the 160 meter data; enhancement of the use and value of the new Online DXCC web tool. Assuming that Board members have no questions or concerns that have not been resolved prior to that, we plan to announce the change next Thursday, April 12. 73, David Sumner, K1ZZ Chief Executive Officer