The ULR Awards Committee has elected to use the IRCA Countries List. The
most-recent version I could find online is
http://www.geocities.com/amlogbook/newmembers/country.htm , stated as
updated in 2008. What's interesting about the List is the inclusion of
Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico as separate countries. (Note, too, that
the Isle of Man, England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales are considered
separate countries, though under the same monarch and using the same
currency, and all called "UK" by people who aren't afraid to tick off
the Irish, Scots or Welsh.)

The ARRL DXCC Countries List, for ham-radio operators, follows similar
criteria, and pre-dates IRCA's list. When I wrote "The DXCC Handbook"
(http://kr1s.kearman.com/html/books.html ) for ARRL a few years ago, I
tried to explain the various criteria; the linked IRCA List also has
explanations. It's a daunting task! The ham-radio list is even more
confusing, because hams can set up a station in an uninhabited place
where you'd never find a broadcast station, and it counts as an
"entity," a term ARRL has adopted in lieu of "country," as so many
counters are not actual countries.

The bottom line is, radio countries lists don't always follow political
realities. But everyone is working from the same list, and from the
U.S., logging Puerto Rico, Alaska or Hawaii is always fun, so why not
count them?

73,

Jim, KR1S
http://qrp.kearman.com/