K6QQQ - On The Air Again After Decades

Is North Korea really going on the air? The most wanted ham radio entity.

Persistent optimism continues to prop up the hopes of several individual radio amateurs and groups to mount a DXpedition to the most-wanted and elusive DXCC entity on the globe — the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea (P5). To date, no recent efforts have succeeded. The latest to announce that plans for a P5 operation are on the verge of success are Antonio Gonzalez, EA5RM, and Manuel German, EA7AJR, both DXpedition veterans. On their fourth trip to North Korea since 2013, Gonzalez and German met on August 17 with what they described as “high-level officials” in North Korea’s telecommunications ministry. In an August 17 news release, Gonzalez and German said that the officials in Pyongyang — North Korea’s capital — “were very kind, receptive, and cooperative. They knew everything about ham radio, so it was really easy to talk with them about our ham radio operation project.” The pair began efforts to secure permission for a North Korea operation more than 2 years ago.

“If everything goes as it is going up [until] today, I can tell that we are very close to get[ting] permission,” the news release concluded.

Gonzalez and German are not alone in attempting to be the next to activate North Korea since Ed Giorgadze of the Republic of Georgia operated as P5/4L4FN in 2001 and 2002, making more than 16,000 contacts before being asked abruptly to cease transmitting and pack up his gear. The ARRL subsequently accredited his SSB and RTTY operation for DXCC. Giorgadze, who was working for the UN World Food Program in Pyongyang at the time, had tried for more than 2 years before obtaining oral permission from North Korean authorities to operate......

North Korea DX