P5 North Korea

[W7AV]

This question has probably been asked several times, but I'm new to this thread.

In looking over the "Number 1" DXCC award list on the ARRL website, alot of people worked P5/4L4FN in 2002 to get all of them 240.
I see a bogus event occured in 1995 with P5RS7 and several attempts have been made since with no luck.

My question is did a P5 operation occur at any time before 1990 or was P5/4L4FN the only legal one for DXCC?

Rick, W7AV

[K7MH]

I found this;

Two previous authorized amateur stations were reported as P5/OH2AM on May 14, 1995 with 20 QSOs, and one of the few, specifically North Korean call signs of P51BH (OH2BH) on April 21, 1999. The latter did an amateur radio demonstration for North Korean officials with 263 QSOs.

I found nothing other than that and some "bogus" or failed genuine attempts to activate P5.

I won't be holding my breath waiting for the next time!!

[UA6JD]

Nobody have a legal license. Just have a permitt for operation by Martti and Ed. But nobody have any paper documents.

[K7MH]

Korea was a protectorate of Japan from 1905 until the end of WW2 when the division along the 38th parallel was made. So if there was no North Korea before that, there would have been no North Korean ham radio before that. After 1945 things were not going well in the world of diplomacy between the two at all so it is unlikely there would ever have been any ham operation between then and the few more recent operations.

It is my understanding that operating from China was allowed before (not certain of it though) but not after WW2 at all until BY1PK was allowed to operate back in 1983 as a demonstration. As I recall, they were under strict regulations about the demo operation. It was a huge huge event for ham radio when BY1PK came on the air. Since you never knew what was going to happen, the pileups were tremendous!! They could have been shut down at anytime and you may have never heard China on the amateur bands again. Now it isn't much rare at all and newer hams take it for granted that they will be around.
P5 could someday again go for a demo that could pave the way but I sure wouldn't expect them to given the way they shut things down so abruptly in the past.

[K7RQ]

At 1652Z G4UJS spotted P5IL on 10115 Khz. on DX Summit. I'm a bit skeptical...

[G0HIO]

only a bit?

[K7MH]

A busted call probably.

[N2RJ]

At 1652Z G4UJS spotted P5IL on 10115 Khz. on DX Summit. I'm a bit skeptical...

Slim or busted call. There has been someone spotting rare entities on the cluster lately, and of course they aren't there when you go to the frequency.

[NW9R]

I see a host of bogus spots from a WP3 station, frequencies are never correct, of course, DX isnt' there, and even when the DX is on that band, this guy or whomever, spots it way off.
I tune around myself, and rarely trust a spot from a call I don't recognize, let alone from W3LPL. Those are usually duplicated but frequently, inaccurate.

[NW9R]

You forgot Romeo's P5RR (Hi). He was actually in S. Korea at the time, and I think that is where his DXpeditions ended when he got busted on that one...