Call signs in Korea

Amateur radio or ham radio call signs are unique identifiers for the over 4,000 licensed operators in South Korea with none known in North Korea. Call signs are regulated internationally by the ITU as well as nationally in South Korea by the Korea Communications Commission in the Ministry of Information and Communication. Not much is known outside of North Korea how amateur radio is regulated, although a foreign amateur was asked to appear before "Radio Regulation Board" in 2002.

Call sign blocks for telecommunication

The International Telecommunication Union has assigned the Koreas the following call sign blocks for all radio communication, broadcasting or transmission:

Call sign block
DSA - DTZ	Korea (Republic of), South Korea
D7A - D9Z	Korea (Republic of), South Korea
HLA - HLZ	Korea (Republic of), South Korea
HMA - HMZ	Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)
P5A - P9Z	Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)
6KA - 6NZ	Korea (Republic of), South Korea

While not directly related to call signs, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) further has divided all countries assigned amateur radio prefixes into three regions; The Koreas are located in ITU Region 3, ITU Zone 44 and CQ Zone 25.

Call sign assignments for amateur radio

The Korea Communications Commission issues call signs for amateur radio operators in the 6K (170 call signs issued), D7 (22), DS (834), and HL (3049) series for amateur use.

The Korea Contest Club special callsign of D9K is non-standard, with no separating numeral. It is on Chuja Island as part of an IOTA DXpedition.

North Korea licensing

Only Yemen and North Korea do not issue amateur radio licenses to their citizens, although in both cases a limited number of foreign visitors have been permitted to obtain amateur licenses in the past decade. HamCall.Net lists 19 amateur stations in North Korea assigned in the P5 series.

In 2001 and 2002, Ed Giorgadze of the Republic of Georgia operated as P5/4L4FN with the "oral permission" of North Korean authorities and was recognized by the ARRL DXCC desk as a valid operation. Giorgadze worked 3,307 U.S., 189 Canadian, 2,902 Japanese stations, and amateurs in 167 DXCC entities.

On Friday, November 22, 2002, Giorgadze was called into a meeting with the "Radio Regulation Board" without any explanation, and he was politely asked to quit all transmissions and pack all his radio equipment..

Foreign nationals operating in South Korea

Amateurs holding licenses in other ITU jurisdictions can apply to the Korea Communications Commission for a one-year license to operate in South Korea. International operators must use the call sign HL#/<home call sign>; for instance an America amateur with call sign KA1AAA in the Pusan area would sign as HL5/KA1AAA.

Geographical prefixes

Call sign areas of Korea

It is unknown if North Korea assigns a separating numeral in a call sign based on geographical regions.

South Korea assigns their prefix separating numeral according to the following geographical location:

• Ø - Science, university stations
• 1 - Seoul metropolitan cities
• 2 - northern third (Incheon, Gyeonggi, and Gangwon)
• 3 - west-central (Daejeon, Chungcheongnam, Chungcheongbuk)
• 4 - south-west (Gwangju, Jeollabuk, Jeolanam, Jeju)
• 5 - south east (Busan, Daeju, Ulsan, Geongsangbuk, Geongsangnam)
• 8 - Antarctica

See also

• Amateur radio international operation
• Call signs
• ITU prefix - amateur and experimental stations
• Amateur radio call signs of Canada
• Amateur radio call signs of Great Britain
• Amateur radio call signs of Antarctica
• Amateur radio callsigns of the Middle East
• Amateur radio call signs of New Zealand
• Amateur radio callsigns of Mexico
• Amateur radio call signs of Australia
• Amateur radio call signs of Ireland
• Amateur radio call signs of Oceania
• Amateur radio call signs of Africa
• Amateur radio call signs of Argentina
• Amateur radio license

External links

• Korea Communications Commission