----- Original Message ----- From: "Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ" <dsumner@arrl.org>

...... Any separate status based on the existence of a "real" (i.e., not manufactured for the purpose) IARU member-society has already been granted.

Dave, I'm unclear on how you are framing this comment -- are you referring to the PIARA and French Polynesia societies, the ability to use IARU membership to somehow support parent country status in future even without the committee rule, or some other reference? (off-subject comments follow)

I really don't know why RSGB signed over its right to represent Pitcairn although I can ask the then-president, Don Beattie (who is now IARU Region 1 Secretary).

Tnx to Rod I arranged a sked with Don shortly after he got his G3BJ callsign...

.....I don't think the UK plays any active role in administering telecommunications on Pitcairn (which according to the CIA World Factbook has 17 telephones, all connected to one party line)

Well then things have changed since 1979, the year Janice and I were on Windjammer's final Yankee Trader circumnav. We stayed with Tom and Betty Christian and there were 2 party lines, each with 15 or so phones. Theirs was one of 2-3 houses that had phones for both lines. These were crank-type phones and Morse characters were used to ring the various houses on either line. Maybe that's why there are so many hams on Pitcairn? As far as UK administration, they arrange for a school teacher and 7th Day Adventist preacher (and occasionally an RN) from off-island to do a few years' duty there, and hire locals to do other government duties. In '79 radio licensing was through the Governor (who it seems may have been in Fiji) via New Zealand. I hadn't seen any external references to the KH8 society when I read your email, but then read Bernie's latest Weekly DX. Interesting that Larry and Uti Gandy are officers. On the aforementioned YT trip, KH8 was 2 stops after Pitcairn and we lived with Larry and Uti. I operated from Larry's shack. They divorced later, but got back together a few years ago. I think the laid-back family structure that Margaret Mead chronicled is still very much in play in Samoa. 73 Bruce