The coral reef has a diameter of approximately 25 km and is mostly under water during high tide. It is situated some 320 km southeast of Hong Kong, 400 km south west of Taiwan and 840 km to the northwest of Manila in the northern part of the South China Sea at 20°43' North and 116°42' East. Only the horseshoe-shaped Dongsha- or Tung-Sha-Dao (like East Sand) is above the water all the time. It measures 900m (from east to west) and 2.8 km (from north to south) and reaches its maximum altitude at a height of about 300m. The reefs North and South Vereker Bank (Pei Wie Tan and Nan Wie Tan) belong to this island group, too. The climate is subtropical which means that the highest temperatures are 30° Celsius in June and 22° Celsius in December with a high humidity all the time.

The first people settled on the islands during the Ming dynasty founding the very first settlement in the South China Sea at all.

Pratas is under Taiwanese administration, they have stationed military per- sonnel on this strategically important island in the entry of the Taiwanese Strait for 40 years now. Barbed wire and concrete dugouts can be found all over the island between coconut trees. On June 30, 1989, a monument was erected claiming the posession of the island and a year later an airport was built. During March and April the islands are the destination of hundreds of fishermen who then enjoy some service opportunities there. There is practi- cally no tourism on Pratas.

Amateur radio: Prefix BV9P, own DXCC entity since Jan 1, 1994, IOTA AS-110, locator grid OL80. The first activity by Martti Laine, OH2BH, back in Jan 1994 lasted only two hours, other DXpeditions followed in 1994, 95 and 1998.

<DX-NL 1233 - February 26, 2001>