Today, 1,745 signatures have been reached from the radio amateurs asking the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) to add Catalonia in the DXCC countries list. To achieve the goal, we must continue to increase the number of requests. Those who haven’t signed can do it here: Sign the petition.

The main purpose of amateur radio is, among others, to contact every country in the world through the radio, establishing a competition among all, get diplomas, trophies and included in a global ranking of worked countries. When we talk about countries, we do not mean the list of the 193 states members of United Nations, is a list created by radio amateur matches and no official statements. These “radio-countries” are called DXCC entities.

The DXCC entities are part of a list drawn up by the DX Century Club and belongs to the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). The ARRL is the national association for amateur radio in the United States and is the one who drafted the specifications of this diploma. In the present case, the ARRL decided at the time, in 1945, to create a broader list of countries to make the competition more attractive and interesting. It is for this reason that radio amateurs are governed by a list of 340 countries (DXCC entities) and not the 193 official states.

The criteria for admitting a country in the DXCC list are geographical but also political and ideological, although many amateurs always say that this group does not enter into political issues, arguing that it is not legal, which is totally false. In general, the islands are always different countries but belonging to the same state. An example: Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Melilla and Canary Islands are three different countries but all belong to Spain. Scotland, England, Wales, Man, Northern Ireland and Jersey are six different countries but all belong to the United Kingdom.

Therefore, if Scotland is a DXCC entity, why not Catalonia? Seeing the example of Scotland, Catalonia has the perfect conditions, according to the rules of the ARRL, to become a DXCC entity today. We must continue demanding to the ARRL, including Catalonia in the DXCC countries list. The American Radio Relay League must add Catalonia to the DXCC countries list. Catalonia is a nation of Europe with more of 1,000 years of history.

• Radioaficionats