Letter from Ràdio Club Osona, Unió de Radioafecciónats d’Osona and Ràdio Club Vic requesting to the AMERICAN RADIO RELAY LEAGUE (ARRL) to include Catalonia in the ARRL DXCC countries/entities list.
Dear Gentlemen of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL),
Ràdio Club Osona, Unió de Radioafeccionats d’Osona and Ràdio Club Vic are some of the various national associations in Catalonia. They maintain permanent relations with the administration of the Government of the Generalitat de Catalunya, which processes amateur radio licenses and collaborates with the drafting of laws, amateur radio regulations and general telecommunications laws.
Therefore, we request the ARRL to add Catalonia in the ARRL DXCC entities list that already have their own prefixes: EA3, EB3, EC3, ED3, EE3, EF3, EG3, EH3, AM3, AN3 and AO3.
We have every right to do so, as territories such as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have DXCC country status even though they are not independent states, nor do they have the management of radio amateur laws and regulations by their governments, they are simply historical territories like Catalonia. In Scotland a referendum was held for independence in 2014 and the people voted NO. In Catalonia in 2017, YES won by majority in the referendum on October 1.
We also do not understand how 1A0C, Sovereign Military Order of Malta which is just a simple NGO with a call sign not authorized by any country, is considered a DXCC country. On the other hand, Catalonia historically has every right to it, but you don’t recognize it.
If Catalonia is not recognized as a DXCC country/entity, neither should the aforementioned territories be. We also do not accept that the ARRL does not attend to and disregards the request of the great majority of catalan radio amateurs who have signed in favor of the recognition of Catalonia on the change.org platform.
On the other hand, the Federació Catalana de Radioaficionats has translated into catalan language, programs such as TQSL, WSJT-X, WSJT-Z and JTDX to facilitate the understanding of catalan radio amateurs who do not speak English. WSJT-X had catalan as its first language, apart from the original in English, thanks to the collaboration and interest of Joe Taylor, K1JT whom we want to thank for his work. We also thank Rick Murphy, K1MU for his work with TQSL which from day one helped us to have this excellent software in catalan.
The American Radio Relay League must attend to our request and cannot refuse it. It is a question of rights, justice and democracy.
EA3FHP 