[1] The ITU has assigned countries in the Middle East the following call sign blocks for all radio communication, broadcasting or transmission:[2] The DXCC deleted entities list notes that for the British Protectorate prefix of ZC6 and the Palestine prefix of 4X1, only contacts made June 30, 1968, and before, count for Palestine as an entity.
The conference held in 1927 assigned call prefixes to Persia (RVA–RVZ), Egypt (SUA–SUZ), Turkey (TAA–TCZ), and Iraq (YIA–YIZ).
The 1947 Atlantic City ITU Conference reallocated call sign blocks to Iraq (HNA–HNZ, YIA–YIZ), Egypt (SSA–SUZ), Turkey (TAA–TCZ, YMA–YMZ), and to British Colonies and Protectorates (ZBA–ZJZ, ZNA–ZOZ, ZQA–ZQZ, and 4PA–4SZ).
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is a self-proclaimed state on the part of the island occupied by Turkey.
The international community, including the United Nations and the European Union, recognises the de jure sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus over the entire island, less the SBAs.
Callsigns until 1945 were split between ZC1 for Transjordan and ZC6 for Palestine, as part of Great Britain's scheme for overseas radio.
Palestine counted as a separate DXCC country for contacts made until June 30, 1968, as the British still granted licences mainly to their own nationals.
King Hussein in the 1950s was an amateur radio operator and popularized the use of the JY1 prefix for foreigners and citizens following the British exodus from the region.
Palestine was added to the DXCC List under paragraph b) effective 1 October 1999, with start date of 1 February 1999.
The only prefix acceptable is E4 since the call-sign group ZC6 is registered for Great Britain and its overseas possessions.
"[12] 4X and 4Z were activated when the state of Israel was proclaimed, however afterwards some individual operators adopted call signs assuming that the territory was still "Arab Palestine".
Israel can issue a National Israeli call sign in the series 4Z8 to foreign amateurs whose countries participate in the CEPT Recommendation T/R 61-02.
[13] Presently call signs are issued within Israel by the Ministry of Communications according to this table: In July 2012 a 4Z5 operator was upgraded to class A without a callsign change.
After Egypt's loss of Gaza to Israel in 1967, amateur radio operation by civilians was generally forbidden.
On 2 December 1994 the Palestine Authority for Gaza and Jericho issued the call-signs to Palestine nationals, ZC6A to Ali Yashruti and ZC6B to Dr. Sama Tarazi (previously KF2GJ) who ran a short operation from the Gaza strip, using the historic call sign ZC6B.
Since that call was already issued by the Palestinian Authority to a Russian DX'er, as of early December 2012 he started using E44M.
North Korea and Yemen remain the only two national jurisdictions which do not issue amateur radio licenses to their citizens.
[16] According to an editorial by Bernie McClenny, W3UR, in "The Daily DX", after the creation of the DXCC entity for unified Yemen, a team from Kuwait consisting of 9K2CS, 9K2DR and 9K2EC operated as 7O1AA in late May and early June 1990.
"[17] The ARRL DXCC desk does also recognize the Yemen operation by Pekka Ahlqvist, OH2YY, in May 2002 as it was conducted with written approval from the Yemeni government.