An Apology....A Thousand Times Over
When I attended an orientation and training course to learn about the mission, I was told the sovereignty of Western Sahara was in dispute and that the United Nations did not yet recognize either Morocco or the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) as the rightful government of the territory. I therefore concluded that there was no one to issue an amateur radio license and that it would not be possible to operate in Western Sahara. Thus I made no plans to take radio equipment with me or pre-arrange for a license.
However, one of the first people I encountered when I arrived in the mission area was another Amateur who worked for a major international radio corporation and serviced the radios used by the United Nations' mission. I asked him if it was possible to operate in Western Sahara and he replied, "Sure!" I asked him how and he said, "Just get on the air and append 'stroke S-zero' to your national call sign." I asked about getting permission from someone and he said, "Who would you ask?" This fit my initial theory about licensing (no recognized national government to issue a call sign), so once I was settled into my position at Smara, I started coming on the air using our mobile HF radios (Motorola Micor X) and signing KCØPA/SØ.
It is important to note here that I did not chase DX on the HF bands and had no working knowledge of how call sign prefixes are assigned to countries. Also, having not done any advance research into licensing before I arrived in Western Sahara, I did not know that the authority to issue call signs had been awarded by the ITU/IARU to the SADR.
Once on the air, I quickly discovered that Western Sahara (SØ) was a rare DX country, and each time I appeared on one of the bands I generated a large pile-up. It was quite intoxicating to be on the DX end of a large pileup and I quickly worked over two thousand stations. However, I was being challenged on the air by stations wanting to know if I had a license and was I good for DXCC. Feeling that there was more to learn, I called ARRL Headquarters and spoke with Mr Bill Kennamer at the DX desk.
Bill educated me about the DX countries process and told me about the SADR and their authority to issue the SØ license. He also gave me the name and address of the SØ call sign manager, an Amateur in Spain. I immediately terminated my operations as KCØPA/SØ and sent the call sign manager a letter apologizing for my stupidity and asking for an application. I never received a response.
However, in another phone call to Bill a week later, he told me that I could operate under the auspices of the UN if I had permission from the mission communications officer to use the UN prefix 4U. I obtained a letter of permission from the mission communications officer and sent it to Bill at the ARRL. A few weeks later I received acknowledgement from Bill that I was good for DXCC and I was back in the air, this time signing 4U/KCØPA.
So to the two thousand or so Amateurs who worked me as KCØPA/SØ, I offer humble apologies a thousand times over for my ignorance. I sincerely hope I worked most of you again as 4U/KCØPA.
One note of irony -- it appears that even though the United Nations had not recognized a national government for Western Sahara a branch of the UN, the ITU, had in fact recognized the SADR as the national government by giving them the authority to issue the SØ callsign. Go figure.