Pre-Planning for JS6/Okinawa. Info request

[K0DUB]

Hello SOTA folks, I am from Minnesota and am planning a trip to Okinawa to visit my daughter stationed there in the USAF.We will be there end of Feb 2018 I have applied for a recipical licence and paid for assurance. I if am granted my licence I am hoping to bring KX3 to use for operating. I would appreciate any tips on accessible summits, popular bands of the region, possible VHF,FM? Are there any summits within a WWFF park? Any info would be great.Thanks, Scott.

[KH2TJ]

Scott, did you get any replies to your request for Okinawa info? Look up Brad,W6BJB/JS6TQS as he is/was stationed out on Okinawa. Not sure iffen he’s still out there.

Could you send me info on the steps you took to get your recipical license for Okinawa. And you mentioned you paid for assurance ?? When I was stationed out there in the early 80’s, you had to have a mailing address to get the license. Lots of guys used the JARL for that. Think you could also get a “mobile” license which was a lot easier back then…

Good luck and hopefully I’ll hear you while you’re out there…

73, Todd KH2TJ

[OE5JFE]

Hello Scott,

I have been visiting Japan this September 2017 and some information about SOTA operation in Japan is shared in this thread:
Mela @JI1KBF was sharing infos about correct portable callsign usage in JA:

Trip to JA, Fujisan JA/SO-001 report

Hello Joe JJ1FJK May you have good weather on your climb and activation! As I look out my office window I see the sun! The approach to the meteoroligical station varies from steep to very steep depending on which side you climb it. http://www.fujisan-climb.jp/trails/others/m8bimq0000000umi-img/m8bimq0000000v4m.jpg At the summit, if you hike counter clockwise you will use the steep approach. If you hike a clockwise route, you will use the very steep approach. This approach is the left side (w…

For the guest license if you are not using a radio with a Japanese ‘technical standard number’ (that’s somehow like a CE mark in Europe or FCC approval I guess) then you have to pay and extra assurance fee and send over that radios technical documentation for verification. You will then receive with you license documents stickers to put on the radio to show they are approved by authorities.

Regarding bands JA SOTA Manager Toru @JH0CJH was a great support and shared upfront by email a lot of facts:
2m FM not recommended during the week because of illegal operation by non hams (at least near big cities)
2m SSB is possible

Instead go for 70 cm:
SSB 430.190 to 430.250
FM 433.0 is the call channel and widely used from 432.5 to 433.5MHz
MHz in step 20kHz

On 50 MHz the following freq is widely used in Japan an popular for SOTA
SSB 50.160 to 50.250
AM 50.550 or 50.600
MHz in step 20kHz

In addition I was working 20m band and used the QRP typical 14.285 MHz.
20m and 30 m cannot be used by JA beginner class 17m can be used for beginner class in JA. Might be worth trying too (CW).

If you are using APRS for spotting/tracking:
144.640 MHz with 9600 baud is more common than 144.660MHz with 1200 baud

Be mindful setting alerts on sotawatch because of timezone rollover. It happened to me that I was alerting the wrong day

73’s de Joe

[JI1KBF]

@KH2TJ

Could you send me info on the steps you took to get your recipical license for Okinawa. And you mentioned you paid for assurance ?? When I was stationed out there in the early 80’s, you had to have a mailing address to get the license. Lots of guys used the JARL for that. Think you could also get a “mobile” license which was a lot easier back then…

Application Procedures
http://www.jarl.org/English/3_Application/A-3.htm

everything you need to submit to get a reciprocal license is on that page. All visitors get a “mobile” license which is limited to 50W. A fixed licensed can be issued if you have the correct visas but you MUST have a real address in Japan.

Reciprocal License Equivalence Table

Annex 1

Japan’s reciprocal licensing only applies to the countries listed in that page.

@K0DUB

I have applied for a recipical licence and paid for assurance. I if am granted my licence I am hoping to bring KX3 to use for operating.

@OE5JFE

For the guest license if you are not using a radio with a Japanese ‘technical standard number’ (that’s somehow like a CE mark in Europe or FCC approval I guess) then you have to pay and extra assurance fee and send over that radios technical documentation for verification. You will then receive with you license documents stickers to put on the radio to show they are approved by authorities.

Regarding the KX3, it is a radio that does not have a “giteki bangou”. Joe OE5JFE, your assertion is correct. All electronic devices in JA have this number. Scott K0DUB, mentioned “paid for assurance” which means he also should have submitted the documentation (specs, schematic diagrams) for this radio together with his application. The assurance is paper only, they check the specs. My KX3 was approved in this manner.

73 Mela JI1KBF

[K0DUB]

Thank You Todd, I for your response.
That would be great to get a hold of Brad,W6BJB/JS6TQS. Thanks for the tip.
That’s great to hear that you were stationed there,very cool. Thank you for your service.
The JARL is a great tip on where to mail your license to. I am having mine mailed to my daughters address in Okinawa.
Although interesting,not sure about the mobile license. Didn’t see anything on that.

I would be happy to share the steps I took applying for my recipical license.
1st I found this site: Application Procedure for Foreign Amateur
I wasn’t sure about the assurance which Joe OE5JEF explains very well below.[quote=“OE5JFE, post:3, topic:16368”]
For the guest license if you are not using a radio with a Japanese ‘technical standard number’ (that’s somehow like a CE mark in Europe or FCC approval I guess) then you have to pay and extra assurance fee and send over that radios technical documentation for verification. You will then receive with you license documents stickers to put on the radio to show they are approved by authorities.
[/quote]

So I emailed Elecraft and asked them about the technical standard number they said it did not have one. They not sure about the ins and outs of applying for the licence in Japan, but we great in that they sent me the " KX3 Product Architecture".They suggested sending it,which I did,along with all of my other required documents.
I paid with paypal and copied the receipts and sent those as well.
Now I sit with my fingers crossed.
Thanks for your interest Todd. Hope this help you and others.
Hope to get you in the log.
Thanks again Scott.

[K0DUB]

Thank you Joe. This is a wealth of information I am grateful for!
I sure enjoyed reading about your activations in Japan. Congrats on some great work!
The band info is such a help,thanks. Also the great explanation on assurance.
I don’t usually use /p but thanks for link. Very good to know. Thank you Mela JI1KBF for that explanation.
I do not have APRS so tracking is out. And I’ll watch for the timezone rollover when alerting. Good thinking
Thanks again for all the info and tips Joe.
Scott 73

[K0DUB]

Thank you Mela for your response tips and helpful links.
These have helped clear up some of my questions about having my KX3 approved.
Thanks again Mela. Hope to get you in the log.
Scott 73

[KH2TJ]

Thanks Mela for the info. Jogs some of the memory from years past. I was also thinking of the old TIARA club too. Looks a lot easier now to get JA license than when I was on Okinawa. Scott, here’s a link to the WWFF map for Japan. Looks like two entities there on Okinawa, but not sure if there is a SOTA peak in/near them.
http://wwff.co/directory/map/
Look for the drop down menu to bring up the JA map.

Here’s the Okinawa list of summits. You can see that Brad has down a few out there:
http://www.sota.org.uk/Association/JA6/ON

This one: Main - list and display SOTA summits on map - sotamaps.org looks like it might be in or near the WWFF: Okinawa Kaigan Quasi-National Park - Wikipedia

Good luck on your trip. I spent most of my USMC career trying to get back to Okinawa. Most Marines hated the “rock” . Closest I could do was a couple of tours on Guam

I’m sure others will have more info too…73, Todd KH2TJ

[K0DUB]

Thank you for the links Todd. Very helpful. This will make the planning easier and the anticipation even more exiting.
My daughter also loves it there in Okinawa. She bought a car right away. This will be very helpful.
I feel pretty luck to go and am super excited to experience the “rock”!
Much thanks Todd. Great help. Hope to catch you on the air.
73&44 Scott K0DUB

[K0DUB]

Update. I received e-mail form JARL about 6 weeks after mailing my application. Then I choose to have it sent to my address here in the states and it arrived about a week later. My Japanese callsign JS6TXC

I want to thank everyone at the JARL they have been very helpful!!