Friday, July 6, 2018

ITU Chief: Kosovo's Z6 Prefix "Unauthorized and Illegal"


The secretary-general of the International Telecommuni- cation Union says Kosovo's Z6 amateur radio prefix has not been allocated to any country by the ITU and is therefore "an unauthorized and illegal usage of this international numbering resource." 

According to the ARRL Letter, Secretary-General Houlin Zhao's finding came in response to an inquiry from Serbia, which has never recognized Kosovo's secession, even a decade after the former Yugoslav province declared independence. Zhao also advised the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) that the Z6 prefix was unauthorized and asked that it remove the prefix from its website listing, even though Kosovo's national organization, SHRAK, is an IARU member. 
 
The ruling does not affect Kosovo's status on either the ARRL's DXCC list or CQ's country list for award and contest purposes. The ARRL notes that it now joins other entities, such as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (1A) and Western Sahara (S0) where amateurs are using "unofficial" prefixes.