Author: Alan, 5B4AHJ


UF was the prefix for Georgia in the USSR era, up to 1994-07-31. During that period UF6V was the prefix for oblast 013, Abkhazia Oblast.


Today, Abkhazia is a disputed territory which is an integral part of Georgia. Abkhazia considers itself an independent state - The Republic of Abkhazia. The Republic of Abkhazia is recognised by Russia and a small number of other countries. However, the Georgian government, and the majority of the world's governments, consider Abkhazia a part of Georgia's territory. On 28 August 2008, the Parliament of Georgia passed a resolution declaring Abkhazia a "Russian-occupied territory".


Amateur radio licences in Georgia are issued by the Georgian government. The main prefix is 4L. However, since 2008-08-28, there have been an increasing number of operations taking place from Abkhazia using the old UF6V prefix. These are mostly carried out by visiting Russians, eg UF6V/UA5D. There is almost certainly no agreement between Russia and the Government of Georgia for use of the UF6V prefix by visiting Russian amateurs, and hence these callsigns cannot count for DXCC as Georgia. There also at least 3 resident hams, UF6VA, UF6VD & UF6VV. I am advised that QSOs with Abkhazia score zero points in the Russian DX Contest.


Additionally, some UF6V stations were QRV in the 1990s, after 1994-07-31. OPDX Bulletin #319, dated 1997-08-25, reports "PIRATES! Mamuka Kordzakhia, The President of the National Association Radio Amateurs of Georgia (NARG) reports to OPDX that stations UF6VAI, UF6VBS, and UF6VBI are pirates operating from the Republic of Abkhazia which is an integral part of Georgia, and they should be using 4L. The prefix UF6 is a Russian prefix, and they do not understand why they are using UF6V. The Georgian Republic prefix of 4L has been in effect since August 1, 1994."


Abkhazia is not part of Russia, and therefore cannot count as Russia for DXCC.


Club Log therefore maps UF6V calls from 1994-08-01 as INVALID.

Note: The term INVALID in Club Log only means that the QSO is not valid for DXCC.


Credits

Thanks to Wikipedia for the information in the second paragraph above and to the Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin.