North Korea - P5 News

North Korea - P5
Ed, P5/4L4FN News
Doing a club newsletter? Feel free to use the information on this page.
Please reference our website for credit, http://www.amsatnet.com
73...Bruce KK5DO

Current Weather Forecast and Local Time for Pyongyang

Ed is leaving North Korea for his next duty assignment on 2003 March 01
Stay tuned for information on his next assignment and his operating schedule.

2002 November 25
From Ed today....

Dear all,

Yes, real unfortunate thing happened but, this is the case where and when - I can do nothing. Believe me, I was trying to keep up the P5 as long as possible and I've managed to run it little bit more than one year but, the end came unexpectedly and now we all have to accept it as final QRT of P5/4L4FN operation. I'm absolutely sure that there is no way back to it due to several reasons, including recent changes in political life of N. Korea. I've been just lucky to have such a chance and happy to make at least small part of HAM community as a owners of P5/4L4FN qsl card. But, lets keep it in mind that life moves further, things are changing, sometimes dramatically and may be some years after, another P5/xxxxx card will see the world. Of course I'm going to keep my rig with me wherever I go and be in touch.

For the "final", many thanks to all HAM's worldwide, you all made my life much easier and better, and my deepest appreciation for all your support. Wish you all - best of luck in our hobby and have a good "hunting" !

My best 73, remain with hope to meet you on a band sometime later, from some other GOOD spot!

de Ed
ex. P5/4L4FN

2002 November 23 Press Release for Immediate Distribution

P5/4L4FN QRT

I just received word from Ed, P5/4L4FN that the unfortunate and worst possible thing has just happened.

Friday evening, 2002 November 22, Ed was called into a meeting with the "Radio Regulation Board" without any explanation, he was politely asked to quit all transmissions and pack all his radio equipment. Saturday, he spent all day on the roof disassemblying his antennas and packing boxes. At 2:30pm on of the government officials came by, sealed all the boxes and when he leaves on December 10 for his two weeks R&R he is to take everything with him out of the country.

This really hits the ham communtity hard. I for one was looking forward to a satellite contact on AO-40. I know that many of you were still awaiting your first QSO.

Ed will keep all the equipment for his next duty station. Any money received from now on will be donated to help ZL1AMO's emergency air ambulance trip from Figi back home.

2002 November 17 Starting Monday, November 18, Ed will be very busy at work. He is going to be installing a new VSAT antenna. This means he will have to go to work earlier and be going home later.

The antenna is a 9m dish and will be 15m off the ground. The installation should take him around 10 days. However, when completed, comes the tuning. There are 4 data (256k) channels and 12 voice channels for PABX.

One great benefit is Ed's internet connection will be 100% high speed. He will have the connection at the office and he will be the only one to have a connection at his apartment.

Then, on December 10, he will leave for China for his one week R&R. After having the flu last month, he is happy for this break and it cannot come to soon.

Because of this, his operating schedule will be very slim if none. He was able to test the WARC bands the other day (12m and 17m) and made three CW QSO's. Possibly when he comes back there could be more CW.

73...Bruce KK5DO

2002 November 16 I have just finished processing all the QSL requests that were waiting for me after my trip to Ft Worth. All cards received as of 2002 November 16 are done and in the mail.

2002 November 11 I am back from the AMSAT Symposium and while I was gone, Ed had an interesting QSO. His very first QSO on 2001 November 9 was with KA6SAR. On 2002 November 9, Ed ran across Mike again on a different band.

2002 November 6 I will be out of pocket from Nov 7-11 while attending the AMSAT-NA Space Symposium in Ft. Worth, TX. You all might not know but I am VP of User Services for AMSAT as well as sitting on the Board of Directors and their Awards Manager. Will be a fun weekend for us satellite hams. For this reason, I will not be processing any QSL requests until I get back.

2002 November 2 Ed was back on 15m today. 21.225 MHz listening up 10-20

2002 October 21 Just takled with Ed. He has had the flu for the past 5 days. Not feeling very good. Too sore and tired to operate.

2002 October 16 Ed is back in North Korea now. It will take him a few days to get settled again before he gets on the air.

2002 October 03 I was just informed by Ed that his propagation on 10m is just about nil. So the scheduled Kids Day with North Korea for October 5 will have to be postponed. Sorry about that, I know a lot of kids were looking forward to it. We will reschedule this event towards the end of October or beginning of November. Ed will be out of the country from October 8 through October 15.

2002 September 22 On 2002 October 05 starting at 2200z on 28.530 MHz Ed would like to work only kids 16 and younger (that have the proper license). Please pass the word in your ham clubs so that all the kids of the world will have a chance to work Ed.

2002 September 21 Ed tested the Hex Beam on 10m Friday. Had very good results. Today, he should be on 21.225 MHz listening up.

2002 September 18 Just posted a few more pictures of Ed's apartment building and the antennas as weel as several antenna shots from the other day. You can see them by clicking the hyperlink on the P5 main page that has the 'new' animation.

2002 September 14 Ed got the Hex Beam mounted atop the new mast with the rotor today. He reports a 3-4db difference comparying to the vertical.

2002 September 01 There have been reports that Ed is operating CW. Sorry, not Ed. He still has to repair his antennas. Ed's co-worker that had been helping him has left the country permanently for another assignment. So this has increased Ed's work duties and limited his radio activity to only weekends.

2002 August 27 Ed is back in North Korea and has all the stuff I sent him several weeks ago. He will be repairing his Hex beam in the next few weeks and then raise the new mast. The Dacron rope sent for use as guys should help reduce any stray rf. Testing of the satellite equipment should also take place in the next few weeks. Ed will get back on the air towards the middle of September.

2002 August 8 Ed will be out of the country (North Korea) from 2002 August 13 until 2002 August 27. I am sending him some masts, some elements to repair the hex beam and some other odds and ends. When he gets back it will take him several weeks to repair the hex beam and erect the new mast.

2002 July 30 Well, now that I have cooled off, I have decided that I will only post information here. I still will not answer personal emails. Those answers can be found almost 100% in the FAQ's.

2002 July 28 Someone took a private email (Maurice, F5NQL) asking me "can we expect some CW activity from Ed before he leaves North Korea ? your answer has a big interest for me and for my vy OT friend Ivan F3AT" and he took my reply and sent it to the OPDX to post as a message. Of course, I will no longer respond to any email that is sent to me, not even if you ask me about a QSO that does not appear in the log. If you are not in the log, then you have to work him again. If you read the email that was posted, it does not say what type of limitiation Ed might impose in order to allow everyone a chance at a P5 QSO. I am getting a lot of email that it is not fair that I had an SSB QSO and now I can't have a CW QSO, or I made a RTTY QSO and now I can't have a CW QSO. I have even received email that they want to send back their SSB and RTTY cards so they can make a CW QSO. Ed will not be on CW for at least 4 more months and possibly longer. He might only be able to operate CW the last few months he is there. When the time comes, he will decide how he wants to do it or if he wants to work CW at all especially after this. If you want to know when he is on the air, watch the DX clusters.

2002 July 17 Update on linear... Ed found a blown bridge rectifier. He is temporairly using another 12v supply for the linear and will replace the rectifier with a more robust one in the next few days. He had to take down the Hex Beam, the mast was not holding it up and he is going to look for a better mast when he goes to Beijing on his next trip.

2002 July 15 Ed has not been on the air much in the past few weeks. He has been very busy. He does have the Hex Beam with the rotor and it has improved his signal about 3db. However, the linear has stopped working. He is going to try and fix it in the next few days. If parts are needed, that will take 6 weeks to get them to him. For now, he can only operate with 100 watts.

2002 July 03 Ed has returned and is North Korea again. He now has with him, a 15m/20m Hex Beam, a small rotor, an upgrade for his Butternut for 6m/12m/17m and complete satellite equipment to work AO-40. He will be assembling these items on his spare time and installing them. The small Hex Beam should help improve his signal as well as allow him to point in a specific direction to get the best reception signal for him. Stay tuned for more details.

2002 June 21 Ed will be in Beijing from June 24 to July 01.

2002 June 08 Just talked with Ed. He has to remove his antenna from the roof so that workers can renew the roof, change water drains and repaint. It will be down for 3-4 days, possibly a week. I will post when he puts it back up.

2002 June 07 Talked with Ed today. When he operates RTTY, he is using 50 baud TX/RX with 170 Hz shift. For JA only he is using 75 baud.

2002 May 27 Ed was tuning around on 6m (50MHz) today and he heard a Japanese station calling CQ on 50.203 so he tried a contact. Well, what do you know. That Butternut antenna worked. The first ever 6M QSO was with JJ2GAZ at 0604Z on May 26. Ed made some 100 QSO's on 50MHz, a world's first.

2002 May 06
Greetings from Edisher Giorgadze, P5/4L4FN, Pyongyang, North Korea.

I have now returned to North Korea after my short recreation trip to other parts of Asia. During my stop-over in Beijing, PRC I was delighted to collect another item to my radio station which may help me to bring my signals to those parts of the world that are more difficult to reach from North Korea.

This is an Ameritron AL80A amplifier that was donated to me by Martti Laine, OH2BH, Bernie McClenny, W3UR and Al Baker, W5IZ whom I thank very kindly.

I am also very thankful for Jari, OH2BVE and his staff at the Nokia office in Beijing who made a special effort to clear the unit through complicated custom procedures in China.

I'd put the amp on last night for the first time with Dave, K4SSU and while my 100W signal was S5 to 6, turning the amp on made Dave to copy me 10dbs over S9. So the unit works well and generates lot more RF power from the skylines of Pyongyang.

Following the fact that I am now fully accredited by the ARRL, a full-color QSLs were released as of last week by my hard working QSL manager, Bruce,KK5DO.

Furthermore, I have extended my contract in North Korea until June, 2003 thus these are the best news can produce to the DX community.

Now I am ready for more P5 QSOs, Are you? And the motto here remains - DX Is!

Edisher, P5/4L4FN

Only the current news item is listed here.

P5/4L4FN FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Ed is operating RTTY a lot, why does he do that when not everyone has made an SSB QSO?
Well, Ed is a ham. Like most hams, we have a favorite mode. Ed enjoys RTTY for relaxation and to get away from the pileups on SSB. Just think if you were operating and all you could do is a pileup day after day and never really be able to talk with anyone. It would get very boring. So, please be patient if you know he is operating RTTY and consider it quality time between Ed and his radio.

I just had to add this one for the 7 people out there that keep requesting another QSL card...
I received my QSL card but my only QSO appears on it and then it says "Void", I know I made the QSO
Yes, each label is capable of holding 3 confirmed QSO's. If you only had one, then the other two lines will have "Void" across them multiple times. If you had two QSO's, only the 3rd line will say "Void" across it. If you had three QSO's, you will never see the word "Void"

I have a General License. Will Ed work 15m above 21.300 or in the General portion of 10m or 20m?
Right now, the pileup with Advanced/Extra class licensees is very large. Moving above 21.300 will increase this pileup by 30-40-50 percent and benefit no one. Unfortunately this is one means to try and reduce the number of people calling him in his limited amount of operating time.

I sent for a QSL card months ago, When are the QSL cards going out?
Now that Ed's operation has been approved by the ARRL for DXCC credit, we are going to print the cards. Cards should be ready for mail back to those that have sent in their cards (some 2,000) near the middle of May, 2002. After this initial mailing, all QSL cards received will be mailed back that weekend so the turn-around should be no more than 1 week from when I get your card.

I can hear him but with my 100 watts, I cannot get through the pile up, can Ed work by the numbers so I have a chance?
Ed tries to work stateside by the numbers however, if he gave 10 minutes to each call area, that would be 100 minutes of operating and he only has about an hour to operate. He tries to block several call areas together which is about the best he can do with limited time.

Since Ed has limited operating time, can he work odd call areas one day and even call areas another (or can he work stateside one day, Europe another and Asia another)?
This is a good idea but very difficult to manage. What happens if your day is the only day you have to work? What happens if Sunday, Ed can operate for 3 hours instead of 1 hour, then everyone is upset that stateside, Europe or Asia got an additional 2 hours. Or even...I heard him 20 over but that day was for another area and I wasn't allowed to work him. Or, worst case, what if there is no propagation at all to your area, does he skip your area that day and do another area two days in a row?

I worked Ed on 3 bands and need 2 more for my 5 Band DXCC, can I set up a sked?
Sorry, the purpose of Ed's operation is to try and give everyone ONE QSO with the rarest DXCC entity. If in his couple of years operating (before he leaves in June, 2003), he works 30,000 hams, wouldn't it be nice if it was not 10,000 hams times 3 bands? Many are happy with just one QSO.

I worked Ed, my XYL worked Ed and my son worked Ed, can we send our QSL cards in one envelope?
Yes, you can send as many qsl cards in one envelope and I will return all of Ed's QSL cards to you in one envelope.