The ARRL Website has the official wording and discussion of this issue and should be consulted. Here is an edited version of the DXCC Entity criteria, as of June, 2006, defining 5 criteria for DXCC Entity consideration. The most difficult to understand is that pertaining to island areas, and that reason, some figures are included to attempt to better illustrate these points. Additional websites of interest are listed below.
1. Political Entities - Political Entities are areas that are separated by reason of government or political division and generally contain an indigenous population that is not predominantly composed of military or scientific personnel and meets one or more of the following criteria:
a) The entity is a UN Member State.b) The entity has been assigned a callsign prefix bloc by the ITU. (Exceptions to this are international organizations as the UN and ICAO, classified under Special Areas, 3.a; and Ineligible Areas, 4.b).)c) The Entity contains a permanent population, is administered by a local government, and is located at least 800 km from its parent. Specifically, the Entity must be listed on either (a) the U.S. Department of State's list of "Dependencies and Areas of Special Sovereignty" as having a local "Administrative Center," or (b) the United Nationslist of "Non-Self-Governing Territories."
Note: Entities qualifying under this section will be referred to as the "Parent" when considering separation under the section "Geographical Separation." Only Entities in this group will be acceptable as a Parent for separation purposes.
2. Geographic Separation Entity - A Geographic Separation Entity may result when a Political Entity is physically separated into two or more parts. The part of such a Political Entity that contains the capital city is considered the Parent. Other remaining parts may qualify for DXCC Entity status if they satisfy a) or b) below:
a) Land Areas (separation by land): A part of a DXCC Entity is separated from its Parent by 100 kilometers or more of land (including inland waters) of another DXCC Entity. A line drawn along a great circle in any direction from any part of the proposed Entity must not touch the Parent before crossing 100 kilometers of the intervening DXCC Entity.
b) Island Areas (separation by Water): new Entities may results in the case of any of the following conditions:i. A single island is separated from its Parent (and any other islands that make up the DXCC Entity Parent island group) by 350 kilometers or more, as measured from the island containing the capital city. Only one Entity of this type may be attached to any Parent (Figures 1,2).
ii. Two or more islands are separated from the Parent by 350 kilometers or more, and by 800 kilometers or more from each other and any other island attached to the Parent in the same or a different island group, then each is a DXCC Entity (Figure 3).
iii. An island is separated from its Parent by intervening land or islands that are part of another DXCC Entity, such that a line drawn along a great circle in any direction, from any part of the island, does not touch the Parent before touching the intervening DXCC Entity. There is no minimum separation distance for the first island Entity created under this rule. (Figure 4). Additional island Entities may be created under this rule, provided that they are similarly separated from the Parent by a different DXCC Entity and separated from any other islands associated with the Parent by at least 800 km.
3. Special Areas - These may not be divided into additional Entities
under the DXCC Rules; none of these constitute a Parent Entity, and none creates
a precedent for the addition of similar or additional Entities:
a) The International Telecommunications Union in Geneva (4U1ITU) shall be considered as a Special Entity. No additional UN locations will be considered under this ruling.
b) The Antarctic Treaty of 1959 (effective 23 June 1961) establishes the legal framework for the management of all land and ice shelves below 60 degrees South and declares that parties to the treaty will not recognize, dispute, or establish territorial claims and that they will assert no new claims while the treaty is in force. In view of these Treaty provisions, no new Entities below 60 degrees South will be added to the DXCC List as long as the Treaty remains in force.
c) The Spratly Islands, due to the nature of conflicting claims, and without recognizing or refuting any claim, is recognized as a Special Entity. Operations from this area will be accepted with the necessary permissions issued by an occupying Entity. Operations without such permissions, such as with a self-assigned (e.g., 1S) callsign, will not be recognized for DXCC credit.d) Control of Western Sahara (S0) is currently at issue between Morocco and the indigenous population. The UN has stationed a peacekeeping force there. Until the sovereignty issue is settled, only operations licensed by the RASD (República Árabe Saharaui Democrática) shall count for DXCC purposes.
e) Entities on the 1998 DXCC List that do not qualify under the current criteria remain as long as they retain the status under which they were originally added. A change in that status will result in a review in accordance with Criteria #5 (Removal Criteria).
4. Ineligible Areas - Areas having the following characteristics are not eligible for inclusion on the DXCC List:
a) Areas to be considered as part of the host Entity for DXCC purposes:
i. Any extraterritorial legal Entity of any nature including, but not limited to, embassies, consulates, monuments, offices of the United Nations agencies or related organizations, other inter-governmental organizations or diplomatic missions;
ii. Any area with limited sovereignty or ceremonial status, such as monuments, indigenous areas, reservations, and homelands.
iii. Any area classified as a Demilitarized Zone, Neutral Zone or Buffer Zone.
b) Any area which is unclaimed or not owned by a recognized government.
5. Removal Criteria - An Entity may be removed from the List if:
a) it no longer satisfies the criteria under which it was added. However, if it continues to meet one or more currently existing rules, it will remain on the List.
b) it was added to the List because:i. Information was based on a factual error (e.g., inaccurate measurements; observations from incomplete, inaccurate or outdated charts or maps); and
ii. the error was made less than five years earlier than its proposed removal date.
c) However, changes in the DXCC Criteria shall not affect the status of any Current Entity so that criteria changes will not be applied retroactively.
The current DXCC List is available here and on the ARRL web site link below.
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