8S, 9S, 8T, 9T, 8W, 9W

Some Russian callsigns containing the single digit 9 (and since January, 2010 also the single digit 8) are located in Europe, CQ zone 16.

The relevant administrative districts are 9S, 9T (Orenburgskaya oblast) and 9W (Bashkortostan). Note: eastern parts of Orenburgskaya may historically have been in CQ zone 17 - these would have been 9T callsigns - confirmation of this, and date of change required. These districts are, in turn, part of the Territory of the Volga federal region.


Although stations with these calls are located in Europe, they count for Asiatic Russia for DXCC purposes. Look at the references below to understand why.


Note: Following the changes to 8F, 9F, 8G, 9G, 8X, 9X in December, 2011 (see below), ARRL (NN1N) confirms that 8S, 9S, 8T, 9T, 8W, 9W still count as Asiatic Russia.


8F, 9F, 8G, 9G, 8X, 9X

On the ARRL Awards Blog, in December, 2011, ARRL announced some changes to which calls count for European Russia. Here is an extract from the announcement (the full text can be found in the reference below):

"This entry is mainly to note the clarification that some call signs that were originally considered to be Asiatic Russia, (8 and 9 F, G, and X) are now to be considered European Russia.


The following list of prefix information clarifies what calls are in DXCC entities European Russia, and Asiatic Russia, under the new Russian call sign system and do not apply to calls from before the change." <snip>


"For the purposes of the DXCC and WAC awards, the following Russian prefixes count as European Russia:"


<snip>


"From 1 December, 2011 forward, any QSO (with any date) with stations using the following prefixes, count for European Russia:


Any call with the prefixes UA through UI, or the prefix U, and the numbers 8, and 9, followed by a suffix beginning with the letters F, G, or X (Perm and Komi).


Any call with the prefixes RA through RZ, or the prefix R, and the numbers 8, and 9, followed by a suffix beginning with the letters F, G, or X (Perm and Komi)."


Clarification

The statement "From 1 December, 2011 forward, any QSO (with any date)" is a little confusing - "any date" seems to conflict with "From 1 December , 2011 forward".

ARRL (NN1N) has clarified the meaning as follows:
    • QSOs with 8F, 9F, 8G, 9G, 8X, 9X submitted for DXCC credit after 2011-12-01, will be credited as European Russia, irrespective of the QSO date.
    • QSOs with 8F, 9F, 8G, 9G, 8X, 9X that have already been credited as Asiatic Russia will remain as Asiatic Russia.

Thus QSOs with 8F, 9F, 8G, 9G, 8X, 9X can count for either European or Asiatic Russia, depending on the date of submission for DXCC credit.


8F, 9F, 8G, 9G, 8X, 9X implementation in Club Log

Club Log implements the mapping of qualifying QSOs  as follows:

  • all QSOs dated 2011-12-01, or later, are mapped to European Russia.
  • all QSOs dated before 2011-12-01 are mapped to European Russia unless DXCC credit has been given for Asiatic Russia.
  • Club Log determines whether DXCC credit has been given for a QSO by checking the value of the LOTW_QSL_RCVD and QSL_RCVD fields. If the value of either of these fields is "V", AND the claimed DXCC is Asiatic Russia, then Club Log will map the QSO to Asiatic Russia.
  • Club Log will not report any mapping errors for qualifying QSOs.
  • Currently, the Club Log implementation does not cover special event and other callsigns listed in the table here.

References

CQ Magazine Worked All Zones Award Rules
This page shows the allocation of the 40 CQ zones. See Zone 16: Eastern Zone of Europe for UA9S, UA9W.


ARRL DXCC List
This page shows the allocation of Russian callsigns to European and Asiatic Russia by digit in the callsign.
See UA-UI1,3,4,6 European Russia and UA-UI8,9,0 Asiatic Russia - there is no mention of UA9 against European Russia. This page does not currently show the December 2011 changes to the 8,9 F,G,X callsigns, no doubt that will happen in due course.
Under the Asiatic Russia entry, CQ zone is shown as [G] - see below.


ARRL Prefix Cross Reference
This page contains the zone notes for the ARRL DXCC list. Refer to note [G] which specifically includes zone 16 for the Asiatic Russian zones.


ARRL Awards Blog
This page contains the full text of the December, 2011 announcement on 8,9 F,G,X callsigns.
Look for the section entitled "DXCC and Russian Prefix Information (rev.)"


Credits

Thanks to Dave Patton, NN1N, of ARRL.

See also The special case of UA9