In addition to the Radio Society of Great Britain’s island referencing system which attributes identification numbers to continental letter prefixes such as SA, NA, OC, EU, AN and AS, the Des Iles de La France Metropolitaine (D.I.F.M.) provides valuable information about French islands, and other islands around the world, to facilitate the efforts of both Island Hunters and DXpeditioners.
For Island Hunters, one of the imperfections with the RSGB IOTA referencing system is that one reference number is often attributed to a group of islands often numbering above 10 in total.
The problem here is that when an island in that group is worked, the information does not tell the Hunter which island he has attained.
The same can be said for the team which activates it and then moves to another island within the same group to continue their IOTA DX adventure.
Whereas the RSGB attributes one reference to a group of islands on many occasions, the D.I.F.M. Team has broken up a number of the world’s RSGB IOTA groups and allocated references to individual islands within that group.
In addition to allocating an individual reference for an island, the D.I.F.M. website also lists which RSGB IOTA reference the island belongs to, its coordinates, it’s location on Google Earth, and photos of that particular island.
This provides a very personal service for IOTA enthusiasts indeed!
Not only does help the Island Hunters recognize which island they have worked, but it also allows the DXpedition team to provide more accurate information in their callsign or QRZ.
Regions or groups covered by the D.I.F.M. and listed on the organisation’s website include:
Manche (MA)- Atlantique Islands (AT)
- Mediterranean Islands (ME)
- Corsica Islands (TK)
- Guadeloupe Islands (FG)
- Martinique Islands (FM)
- Saint Martin Islands (FS)
- Saint Barthelemy Islands (FJ)
- Saint Pierre & Miquelon Islands (FP)
- French Guyana Islands (FY)
- Mayotte Islands (FH)
- Reunion Island Islands (FR)
- French Antarctic Islands (FT)
- French Polynesia Islands (FO)
- New Caledonia Islands (FK)
- Wallis & Futuna Islands (FW)
For more information on the D.I.F.M. and D.I.F.O. referencing please visit the organisation’s website at http://www.difm.org/ .
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