Petition for Reciprocal Operating Agreement between the U.S. and Korea

Well, you're addressing the wrong person regarding your quoted text there.

I don't think it has anything to do with who's in the White House at any given moment, though. Maybe, but that's just really unwieldy speculation. We are thinking here about dealing with bureaucrats, not executives.

There is no "treaty." These things are handled at lower, policy-implementation levels. The U.S. government handles these agreements fairly routinely, as part of "diplomatic notes." Maybe the Koreans don't see it as routine, though, and that could be a barrier to overcome, yes.

The change in practice happened in February this year, or at least that's when hams first heard about it. I'll check for an exact date on the first report from a ham seeking a permit, but it was around that time.

As for the ham's trip (did he actually go to the U.S.?) and his complaint, I'll see if I can find that out. We don't want to put too much pressure on that particular ham. He's well respected in the community, and he has said he didn't think the SK government would respond in this way. I'm sure there are details to the story we don't know about, and we're probably filling in some gaps with a few assumptions.

I don't get too upset about people using threads like this to interject their own opinions about other things. I'm like, "Whatever." Not cogent.

 

I'm sorry that you don't like the petition since I'm the writer. Nobody here knows what kind of a goat rope it's been just to get to where we are. And, irresponsible is what it was. The governing individual didn't follow Korean law when it came to "changing the rules" with discussion with affected parties, etc. They just did it. Koreans are suggesting that the foreigners make complaints with the "commission" assigned to this type of change and if that's done, there will be much more weeping and gnashing of teeth.

As I read the articles and the quotes, I can see that it's hard to please everyone. It wont happen. One thing that does surprise me however is the "old man" coming out where they are just angry at the world and anything that moves. And the idea that "I'm not going to change my mind no matter what" mentality. It's funny. In my 40 years of being a ham I've seen these guys in any ham radio club that I've joined/attended. I've made my mind up that I'm not going to be one of "those" guys". We'll keep marching here and eventually we'll get things worked out, and everyone will be happy. Well....almost everyone. There will still be the old guys that liked it the way it was, without the HL DX coming in and hogging the frequencies!

 

K3XR, I see that my story is being questioned. So the one particular ham was Guss Chae. He's not on QRZ and we don't speak on amateur radio since we are not in range of the foreign language repeater in Seoul. He is however on the HL9 Facebook page that I maintain. the timeframe that you are asking about was late last winter (2017) because on his return to Korea, he made the complaint to the KARL and then it went up the chain. I hope that satisfies your curiosity on the incident. Oh, and your question about the reciprocal licensing method end of change? It was mid January 2018.

 

@AC7NP In reading your last two comments above, it's difficult to ascertain your message. You rambled on about the "old man" in a message to me, who I can only presume you mean to be me. Well, I'm not angry at the world. I am someone who prefers positive action over complaints. I even suggested in a later message in this thread that we should focus on getting our own government on board for a reciprocal agreement. You go on about weeping and gnashing of teeth, your attitude about "those guys", and so forth with so many grammatical errors, it takes multiple readings to try to get your point. Why not just clarify your point without pointing fingers at anyone and without rambling on about your complaints? A simple, clear message gets more results than ramblings and grudges.

 

Instead of asking for an agreement specially with the US, maybe it would be better to suggest that South Korea participate in CEPT. That would benefit visitors from many other countries.

I don't really understand the details but it seems like despite "E" meaning Europe, CEPT has become a bit of a standard. The US, Australia, New Zealand and several other countries outside Europe participate.

 

I don't know that your story was being "questioned" so much as there were requests for more details. I would say that you have now provided them. I think the important aspect of the issue is that South Korea had a friendlier policy than the US did. A Korean was inconvenienced by that disparity and complained about it. I don't blame him.

But now that US hams are being inconvenienced this is supposed to suddenly be a priority for the Koreans? They were dealing with big issues when this thread started, even before the current US administration threw them under the bus. If I was in their position I would tell you to go pound sand (at least for now). Perhaps many of those DOD personnel will be coming home soon. That is what I took from the reporting after the big summit. So problem solved.

 

Good morning. And, I'll send my apologies for any irritation that I've caused. I addressed a lot of issues in the last post and I shouldn't have. Bottom line however is that we're working our butt off over here and we are getting signatures. The problem as I see it, and only my viewpoint, are the many negative comments. In other posts it might be something like "just work the issues". Well....we have and it got nowhere fast. We've already worked the issues. We work them, with the Korean nationals. I'm not sure how we can work and rework any issues that are out there. What would be great for the negative posters is to maybe do something positive about the issue. If they don't want to sign a petition, then don't. However maybe they can do something positive about it. In a positive direction? This makes me think about the early days of ham radio. Somebody (Marconi maybe) starts to build something and there's a lot of spectators, and all the guy hears is "well that's not going to work". Well, in our case we're going to keep working towards our goal for the agreement. I just hope others can be more positive and or see if there's a way they can actually help the ham community. Have a great day.

 

It's important in addressing any such issue as it arises in a community to take both an aggressive approach, which the petition has done, and a more moderate approach, such as asking to meet with the official(s) responsible for the policy decision. The result has been that we have been heard, not only the non-Korean ham community, but also the Korean ham community that will be affected.

As we may have mentioned in an earlier post, Mr. Shin's reason for putting off our requests was that his office was busy negotiating the auctioning and assignment of a portion of commercial spectrum for allocation to new 5G cellular services.

Good news has emerged in this case, which AC7NP (HL1ZCQ) can confirm: The ministry has completed the auction for 5G space, and Mr. Shin has agreed to meet with KARL's Coordinator of International Relations, Prof. Lee Young-surk, HL1FB. This meeting will take place this coming Monday. Prof. Lee will be acting in his role as an officer at KARL to get this reciprocal agreement signed. The paperwork has been completed, and all that remains is for KARL to check over details with Mr. Shin. Mr. Shin, meanwhile, has said that he has received the necessary permission from his supervisors to carry forward.

South Korea has a large government with a highly-functioning bureaucracy. They are able to multi-task, so we've never felt like we were "asking for too much."

73,
HL1ZII / W4JSG

 

As an update, I spoke today with Prof. Lee Young-Surk, HL1FB. He confirmed that he had a meeting with Mr. Shin at the Ministry of Technology, and that the reciprocal agreement is going ahead.

The next thing we will wait for is an official at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul to initiate the proceeding. This is a procedural step, the embassy's State Department office giving the green light to proceeding. At that point, we expect the signatures to be applied, and all will be good from the perspective of the ham radio operators.

We hope that the next update will say, "There is now a reciprocal operating agreement between South Korea and the USA. Y'all come on over, enjoy the scenery and nightlife, and bring your radios!" But not quite yet...