The ARRL Board of Directors approved a motion to amend the DXCC Rules, when it met January 19-20. Section II, Subsection 1 of the DXCC Rules now will include a new Subsection (d): The entity has a separate IARU member society and is included on the US State Department Independent States in the World.

“The discussion during the Board meeting and the rule change did not address any specific entity,” ARRL Radiosport Manager Norm Fusaro, W3IZ, said. “The amendment could allow some additions to the current DXCC List of entities. It’s a good thing not only for DXCC but for all active hams.”

In fact, the Republic of Kosovo (Z6) has been added to the DXCC List of current entities, increasing the total number of current DXCC entities to 340. The addition of Kosovo raises to 331 the required number of current entities confirmed to qualify for DXCC Honor Roll; Top of Honor Roll is 340. DXCC award accounts are being tabulated to reflect the change.

This change qualifies as an “event,” effective on January 21, 2018, at 0000 UTC. Nothing is retroactive.

A new Logbook of The World (LoTW) TQSL configuration file (v.11.4) will be released on January 23. TQSL will detect when this file has been released and will install the update automatically. Radio Amateurs outside of Kosovo should continue to upload their logs to LoTW in the usual manner. LoTW users within Kososvo (either with a Z6 call sign or reciprocal call sign Z6/<home call sign>) will use TQSL to request a new call sign certificate for their call sign. The request will use Republic of Kososvo as the DXCC entity, and the QSO Begin date will be January 21 or later. LoTW will reject call sign certificate requests for the Republic of Kosovo with a QSO Begin date prior to January 21. Z6 users requesting call sign certificates may e-mail a copy of their Amateur Radio license.

Kosovo’s IARU member society SHRAK and its president Vjollca Caka, Z61VB, are hosting a 10th-anniversary activation to celebrate Kosovo’s independence in February, 2008. SHRAK Headquarters station Z60A now is active on several bands with multiple guest operators. Club Log will be used for this activation, while QSLs are via OH2BH.