Former Netherlands Antilles and CQ Awards and Contests

With several groups operating this week from the 'new' DX entities created by the breakup of the Netherlands Antilles, questions have arisen regarding their status for CQ DX awards and contests.

This announcement updates and supplements the preliminary announcement that will appear in the November issue of CQ magazine, which is already at the printer.

CQ DX Awards

Each of the five islands involved in the change of status retains its previous PJ callsign prefix
(Curacao - PJ2; Bonaire - PJ4; St. Eustatius - PJ5; Saba
- PJ6; and St. Maarten - PJ7).

According to CQ DX Awards Manager Billy Williams, N4UF, the previous entities of the Leeward Islands (PJ2/PJ4) and Windward Islands (PJ5/PJ6/PJ7) Islands were deleted as of October 9, 2010.
Four new entities - Curacao (PJ2), St. Maarten (PJ7), Bonaire (PJ4) and Saba/St. Eustatius (PJ5/6) - became active on October 10, for a net gain of two DX entities. Confirmations for contacts made with the new entities will be accepted for CQ award credit effective immediately.

New Multipliers in the CQWW

The country multiplier list for the CQ World Wide DX Contest (SSB weekend on October 30-31; CW on November 27-28) is based on a combination of the ARRL's DXCC list and the DARC's WAE (Worked All Europe) list. Since the ARRL has also made the same changes, deleting the old Windward and Leeward Islands entities and adding PJ2 (Curacao), PJ4 (Bonaire), PJ5/6 (St. Eustatius & Saba) and PJ7 (St. Maarten) as four new entities effective October 10, these "new ones" will each count as separate country multipliers in the CQWW.

There is no need to worry if your own contest logging software is not updated, according to CQWW Contest Director Bob Cox, K3EST. 'In the end, the log checking software calculates final tallies anyway,' he notes, adding that the software 'is very up-to-date and reflects any status changes.'

DX Marathon Double-Dip

Competitors in the 2010 CQ DX Marathon will have a unique 'double-dip' opportunity in working the islands of the Netherlands Antilles for Marathon points. Those who worked any of the islands before 10/10/10, get credit for either the Windward or Leeward Islands, as appropriate.

Hams who work them again on or after 10/10/10 will get additional credit for the new entities, providing a maximum of six country credits for working the islands in 2010.

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