NEWS UPDATEI am very frustrated that every time this issue comes up, in the initial announcement, and this now, undoing of the announcement of the deletion, it is NEVER mentioned that the decision to delete these entities was made by the ARRL Awards Committee, and it did so entirely without consultation of the DX Advisory Committee (DXAC). The DXAC (me as Chair of the DXAC) was told it was going to occur about one or two hours before the announcement was published on the ARRL web page. The deliberation to reinstate the two entities was also done with no consultation with the DXAC.

Now, I am personally, as a top of the Honor Roll DXer, happy to see that an obvious mistake has been rectified, but it drives me silently crazy that the group that made the mistake is never mentioned by ARRL (the Awards Committee) and then, widely presumed to be due to a DXAC decision., and that is incorrect. I want to set the records straight.

Now, one may easily ask why such decisions are not referred to the appropriate advisory committees as specified in the Awards Committee rules and operation, but that is a question best directed to others.

73 Gary, W5FI
Delta Division DXAC Representative
Chair, DXAC

MAY 11 — On March 31, 2017, the DXCC desk announced the deletion of Midway Island and Kure Island from the DXCC entities list. The stated reason for this action was because of changes in the administration resulting from changes in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, formerly known as the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, of which the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and the Battle of Midway National Memorial, the Hawaii State Seabird Sanctuary at Kure Atoll, and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands State Marine Refuge, of which they are all included.

After further review it has been found that the deletion of these two entities is not supported by the changes that were made to the relevant administrations. Therefore, the deletions from the DXCC list should not have occurred and the two entities, Midway Island KH4 and Kure Island KH7K, will return to the DXCC list as separate entities.