In a message dated 11/24/2003 10:19:04 AM Eastern Standard Time, dsumner@arrl.org writes:

A few years ago we made what I believe was a mistake in rewriting the DXCC rules in such a way that, if a DXCC entity has its own IARU member-society, it is treated as if it were sovereign for the purposes of measuring distance to an island to see if the island is a separate DXCC country.

Dave: Thanks info. I recall that I specifically raised that concern at the Board meeting years ago when we passed the news rules. As I recall, the Int'l VP, Price then, not Rod, said, "Oh, don't worry, I assure you it is a difficult hurdle for someone to try." Or, something to that effect. That aside, and I was one of the authors of those new DXCC rules, I can say they have been working well since we cleaned the rules up. We certainly have not had those horrible new country battles like we use to years ago. 73, K5UR