There was an article on the front page of last Thursday's Wall Street Journal about the difficulty (and controversy) surrounding what constitutes a country. The reporter interviewed Sanford Smith, who is a California lawyer and ham on the board of the Traveler's Club (there is a Sanford Smith in our member database, N7PIB). Membership in the club requires visiting 100 countries. According to the article, Mr. Smith is the most influential member of their board when it comes to determining what constitutes a country. Mr. Smith, in turn, credits the League as the model on which their system is based. They require a resident population, so a lot of the entities on our list are not on theirs. Three countries that they recognize that we don't: Lampedusa, Srpska, and Transnistria. 73, Walt W0CP ________________________________ I've stopped 35,726 spam messages. You can too! Get protection at http://www.w0cp.com/mailwasher.htm -----Original Message----- From: James Weaver [mailto:k8je@arrl.org] Sent: Monday, November 24, 2003 10:32 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: [ARRL-ODV:9759] Re: Background American Samoa Dave, Thanks for the information and perspective. As to your later message on this subject, I agree with considering a fix. Jim W. AMATEUR RADIO: The only fail-safe communications system in the world. ARRL: The reason Amateur Radio is! Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director, Great Lakes Division ARRL 5065 Bethany Rd., Mason, OH 45040-9660, Tel. 513-459-0142, E-mail k8je@arrl.org <mailto:k8je@arrl.org>