QRZ, ARRL, eQSL and RadioID platforms have a problem with Catalonia. These platforms despise all catalan radio amateurs and violate their rights.
QRZ.com is an American search engine for amateur radio call signs where you can search for personal data (name, address, population, biography, email, etc.) of registered radio amateurs around the world. We don’t know if this is legal in Europe or if it violates the Law 15/1999 on the protection of personal data (LOPD), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The Logbook of The World (LoTW) is the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) database that provides a service for verifying contacts between radio amateurs. Using LoTW, radio amateurs can claim and verify contacts (QSOs) made with other amateurs, usually to apply for credits for diplomas such as the DXCC of countries. This type of verification used to involve exchanging paper postcards (QSLs) and sending them to the ARRL, which is a slow and expensive process.
eQSL is an electronic QSL card exchange service for amateurs. It’s designed to be the fastest, easiest, and most economical way to exchange contact verification cards, eliminating the cost and time of paper postcards.
RadioID.net is a website that manages the granting of numbers called “ID” to access the global network of DMR and DMR + (Digital Mobile Radio), as according to them, can not be accessed only with the call sign of radio amateur (issued by the public administration of each country after passing an exam) and it is essential to obtain this numbering which is granted by the administrators of this private website, managed by some radio amateurs (who hide in anonymity) and which are obviously no authority or public administration of the country in question. Therefore, these “authorizations” in the form of a number have no legal validity.
The owners of the four sites have a problem: they prohibit the inclusion of Catalonia in personal data, address, etc. of catalan radio amateurs and modify the accounts in such a way that they always eliminate the name of Catalonia and the official flag of Catalonia. It is a real nonsense and contempt for Catalonia and catalan radio amateurs.
In the case of QRZ.com, EA3FHP got that, between 2003 and 2010, this search engine had the possibility of configuring it so that the name of Catalonia and the official flag appeared in the addresses of catalan operators. From 2010, due to strong pressure from Spanish radio amateurs, the owner of the search engine AA7BQ decided to ban the official flag of Catalonia and the name of Catalonia permanently.
The case of the Logbook of The World (LoTW) consists in the fact that the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) refuses to add Catalonia to the list of countries of the DXCC diploma, although it meets all the requirements according to its bases and with the aggravating factor that ignores more than two thousand radio amateurs who have signed up to the change.org platform in favor of the recognition of Catalonia as an entity/country of the aforementioned DXCC diploma.
The case of eQSL, is practically the same, its owner N5UP, refuses to allow the name of Catalonia in the addresses of catalan radio amateurs and forces to put a country that is not the right one.
As for RadioID.net, an administrator has sent us this unfortunate answer: Your country cannot be Catalonia because it has never existed in history, what is certain is that today Catalonia does not exist, it is a region located in Spain and your repeated attempts to show it are inappropriate for the rest of users.
In the face of this discrimination, contempt and violation of our rights, we invite all radio amateurs to unsubscribe from all platforms permanently.
EA3FHP 