Kosovo - DXCC or not DXCC? That was the question.

Originally posted on 'The wet string chronicles' in May 2010.

The eagle eyed reader might notice a few discrepancies in the total number of countries (DXCC entities) I have worked - I had previously claimed 177 countries but I have recently revised that downwards by removing Kosovo from the list. My total is now accurately stated as 176 countries worked.

Last year (2009) a number of stations operated from Kosovo with YU8 prefixes as speculation grew as to some form of Kosovan breakaway from Serbia. There was some discussion at the time as to the validity of these callsigns and the likelihood that Kosovo would eventually be recognised by either or both of the ARRL (who run the DXCC program) and the international community. Mindful of the ‘work them now, worry about it later’ maxim I logged any YU8 stations I worked at the time as Kosovo, just in case.

However, things didn’t happen in line with the speculation and in the course of tidying up my log I have recently amended all of those contacts to be Serbia. Just in case anyone was wondering how or why I’d ‘lost’ a country.