The Spratly Islands consist of more than 100 small islands or reefs. They are surrounded by rich fishing grounds and potentially by gas and oil deposits. They are claimed in their entirety by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam, while portions are claimed by Malaysia and the Philippines. About 45 islands are occupied by relatively small numbers of military forces from China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Brunei has established a fishing zone that overlaps a southern reef but has not made any formal claim.
All of the Spratly Islands are claimed by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam; parts of them are claimed by Malaysia and the Philippines; in 1984, Brunei established an exclusive fishing zone that encompasses Louisa Reef in the southern Spratly Islands but has not publicly claimed the reef; claimants in November 2002 signed the “Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea,” which has eased tensions but falls short of a legally binding “code of conduct”; in March 2005, the national oil companies of China, the Philippines, and Vietnam signed a joint accord to conduct marine seismic activities in the Spratly Islands. Source
Nautical Chart
Conflicting claims
Spratly Islands
AMATEUR RADIO FROM SPRATLY
Don Miller, W9WNV, operated as 1S9WNV for three days in October 1965.
In 1979 a group of DXpeditioners sailed into the Spratly group but, on approaching Amboyna Cay, which they believed to be uninhabited, were fired upon and had to take refuge in Brunei. Later, K4SMX, K1MM and VK2BJL returned to operate for a short time as 1S1DX from Barque Canada Reef (to the north-west of Pulau Layang Layang), whilst the remainder of the group stayed behind in Brunei. Today both Amboyna Cay and Barque Canada Reef are occupied by Vietnam.
Chito Kintanar, DU1CK, operated as 1S1CK from one of the Philippine-occupied islands in the Spratly chain in May 1983.
The same year, a group of German amateur sailed to the Spratlys and were also fired on, this time with disastrous consequencies. Their yacht was sunk and tragically two amateurs were killed, one immediately and the second after several days of drifting in a lifeboat without food or water.
In April 1990 Romeo Stepanenko, UB5JRR / 3W3RR, and three other Soviet amateurs - Alex Lebedev, UL7PCZ; Yuri Loparev, RL8PY and Anatoly Lazarev, RL8PZ - appeared on the bands as 1S0XV, with Romeo also using his own ‘personal’ callsign of 1S1RR. They were active for a month and made around 40,000 contacts on all bands. The QSL card states that the operation was from Spratly Island, 8° 38’N, 111° 55’E, i.e. from the main island after which the whole archipelago is named and which is occupied by Vietnam. In September 1991, Romeo was active once again as 1S0XV.
Later, the resort on Pulau Layang Layang was opened to the public. There have been many DXpeditions from this island, the first of which was 9M0S in May 1993. Since then expeditions have used 9M0, 9M6 and 9M4 calls (and there has even been one with a 9M2 prefix).
There has also been a number of Spratly DXpeditions using Philippine callsigns and these have been from Pag-Asa, also known as Thitu Island. The Philippines created the Municipality of Kalayaan which consists of several islands of the Spratly group, the largest of which is Pag-Asa. Kalyaan is administered as part of the Province of Palawan by the Philippines. The February 2007 DX0JP operation was from Pag-Asa.
PULAU LAYANG LAYANG
ca. 1989
ca. 1993
ca. 1998
2007
The island is surrounded by a coral reef some 7km long called Swallow Reef. Layang Layang is simply the name for “swallow” (the bird) in Malay, while Pulau means “island”. Layang Layang is often referred to as an artificial island, but this is quite incorrect, as the series of photographs from the late 1980s to the present day show. Layang Layang was originally two small coral cays, joined by a narrow sand spit. It was occupied by Malaysia in 1983 and a Royal Malayian Navy base was built at the eastern end. Work started to reclaim land from the shallow lagoon between the two islets. A sea wall was completed in 1991 and the land drained. By 1993 a short runway had been constructed and the Layang Layang Island Resort was opened for business. The runway has twice been expanded and is now over 1000 metres long, while the area of the island has been increased by further reclamation work. The island is administered from Sabah in East Malaysia.
*all maps courtesy of Wikipedia and the Malaysian government.
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