ON 28 July 2006, amateur radio enthusiasts received the news they had been waiting for. Swains Island, a minuscule atoll in the Pacific Ocean more than 300 kilometres north of Samoa, was officially on the air. It thus became the 337th and last place on Earth to make radio contact with the rest of the world.
Swains Island, population 37, was on air for only six days, but in that time it made a lot of people very happy. For many radio hams there is nothing better than to collect a 鈥淨SL card鈥� 鈥� confirmation of two-way radio contact 鈥� from an obscure location on the other side of the world. Swains Island was (and still is) one of the most sought-after locations.
In amateur radio parlance, these locations are called entities. There are 337 in total, on a list administered by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) based in Newington, Connecticut. Entities range from nation states recognised by the UN to tiny specks of land that barely register a dot on the map. Radio hams strive to collect QSL cards from as many entities as possible, and anyone who collects 100 or more is eligible for the prestigious DX Century Certificate.
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To qualify as an entity, a location has to fulfil a simple condition: it either has to be a discrete political entity or a discrete geographical entity. France, for example, qualifies, but so do its overseas territories such as Guadeloupe. Swains Island is on the list because although it is administered by American Samoa 鈥� itself a US territory, administered from Washington DC 鈥� it is far enough from the main group of islands to count as a discrete geographical entity.
What took radio hams so long to conquer Swains Island? Actually, nothing. The ARRL only declared the island a separate entity on 24 July 2006. Four days later it was on the air, thanks to a team of Japanese, French and American hams who were poised in Hawaii awaiting confirmation that Swains Island was on the list. This is a familiar tale with new entities. When Ducie Island, an uninhabited atoll 540 kilometres east of Pitcairn Island, became the 335th entity on 16 November 2001, a team of hams set sail the next day. Then appalling weather forced them back, but they eventually made it and started transmitting in March 2002.
This irrepressible desire to send and receive radio signals from far-flung places means that radio hams have visited some of the most remote and inhospitable places on Earth, including Bouvet Island (see 鈥淭he last place on earth鈥�) and Scarborough Reef, a guano-covered shoal in the South China Sea. Besides having barely enough dry land to support a radio transmitter, ownership of the reef is contested by China, Taiwan and the Philippines. An amateur radio expedition there in 1997 almost sparked an international diplomatic incident.
The ARRL updates its list of entities every year, so at some point Swains Island will be joined by a 338th. No doubt it will then quickly cede its title as the last place on Earth to make radio contact with the rest of the world.
