I am visiting South Korea sometime in May, and would like to do some SOTA whilst there.
I very rarely see anything to do with South Korea on this website, including Alerts or Spots. So am I missing something, and I was wondering if anyone has any tips and pointers that would be helpful to me.
I have already received my South Korean licence and call sign (HL1ZCT).
I have identified some summits to activate and I was wondering how much CW there is out there, and if RBNHole works out there?
The lack of spots is for two reasons: most activations are 2m and use the local calling frequency, and English is not the easiest language for Koreans, so using the form can be hard.
HF in Korea is difficult as most summits are filled with people on the weekend, but you can find out of the way areas in the activation zones. Also, a lot of summits have military installations, so radios are a good idea.
In Seoul, Ansan, Guryongsan and Yongmasan are easy and there are spots for an end fed or carefully placed dipole. All are busy on the weekend.
Contact Jason HL4ZFA who is always quick to respond and help fellow activators.
I should add that there a lot less CW skimmers in Asia that RBNHole could hear you on, although there’s one or two in Japan and one in China. 20m and 40m should yield regular JA CW chasers. 17m and 15m might get you VK chasers, but with propagation as it is, it’s very hit-and-miss. I could work VK6 from HL a few weeks back, but nothing on the east coast. They could hear JA activators but not me.
There’s also copious quantities of high grade cellular data available on most HL summits.
I should imagine you’ll be a big target for the SOTA chasers. As far as I’m aware, South Korea don’t turn up too often in the European SOTA activators log books. The last time I worked HL was way back in 20ll from GW/NW-070 Great Orme. I’d be surprised if there’s ever been a s2s with HL from Europe.
I have just returned from South Korea and did a little SOTA while there. The highlight was activating the highest mountain in South Korea, Mt. Halla on Jeju Island (19.2km hike with 1200m elevation gain). Local contacts were few, most were from VK and ZL on 15 metres.
As Andrew has stated earlier, if you are in Seoul, the easiest summits are Ansan and Yongmasan. These are easily reached by Subway and a walk.
Challenges operating in South Korea are difficulty with local contacts and amount of people on the summits making it hard to put up a large antenna.
Don’t bother with Inwangsan, as there is a military presence there, we were asked not to operate our radio gear.
There is activity on 2 metres (call on 145MHz FM and QSY), although language will be a problem.
I qualified Ansan purely on VK contacts using 15 metres.
Here are some links to previous blogs, I will write up the latest visit soon.
Just activated HL/SL-008 Ansan today and many thanks to my Japanese chasers who helped me activate the summit. The self spots should have been for HL1ZCT but I put G4ZAO in error. Must have been the jetlag, so apologies for that.
Hi Glenn, great report! Just wanted to gently mention a small detail regarding SOTA for Hallasan—I believe the Eastern Peak is slightly outside the Activation Zone (AZ) limit. It might make the activation invalid under official rules, but it’s still an awesome achievement and a great read. 73!
I see this is an old thread, but I think I’ve mentioned in the past that there is a pretty active youtuber with the Korean QRP club that does SOTA and posts his videos of the activations. Choi, HL1KKC, HL1KKC Channel Promotional Video,HL1KKC소개
Though there is a language barrier, I find his videos to be very informative and entertaining. I especially like the scenes in the restaurants and pubs. Great food, good friends, good grog! Throw in some radio and antennae experimentation, and what else does one need!
I did some time myself in South Korea whilst a young Marine stationed on Okinawa. Did Team Sprit 83 and a follow-on deployment later that year - for some reason Bear Hunt came to mind, but it’s been many moons and lots of lost brain cells ago
Hi Glenn,
Thank you for your quick response and for understanding the situation regarding the Hallasan East Ridge (HL/JJ-001). I truly appreciate your sportsmanship in voluntarily deleting the log to keep the SOTA records accurate. Best 73, and hope to catch you on the air again soon!
I will be in South Korea in October. I have applied for the temporary authorization with KARL. I will only carry nothing my dual-band Yaesu FT-60 just in case. I’ll be in Seoul, Daejeon, Daegu, Gyeongju and Busan, and I have taken notes of the summits mentioned in the thread, and also checked new ones like HL/BS-013 in Busan. Looking at the activators, I fail to see any HL/ foreign prefixed calls; I was expecting to get HL(n)/EA5IYL…
I activated 백운산 (Baegunsan)HL/IN-018 as HL2/EI3JMB back in February. It was close to the airport and an easy walk up summit via taxi from my hotel. Would have explored further afield but I didn’t have an International drivers licence at the time. I brought my Xiegu X6100. Enjoy your trip there.
Subject: Re: Questions about SOTA operation and Call sign format in South Korea
Hello,
Thank you for sharing your SOTA plans. To clarify your questions based on the latest Korean radio regulations and local operating conditions, please note the following:
1. Call Sign Format for Foreign Visitors
You are correct in your initial expectation. In South Korea, permanent foreign-resident call signs (like HL1ZFY) are strictly reserved for those who hold a Korean Alien Registration Card and have passed the Korean amateur radio license exam.
For short-term visitors from countries without a bilateral treaty (except Japan), KARL issues a 3-month temporary permit using the HL(n)/[Home Call] format. Therefore, you will be operating as HL5/EA5IYL while you are in the Busan area (Zone 5). The reason you didn’t see many foreign prefixes in recent SOTA logs is simply that very few temporary permit holders have attempted VHF SOTA activations here recently.
2. Operating Reality: Weekday Daytime on VHF
You mentioned that you will only carry a Yaesu FT-60 VHF/UHF handheld. Please be aware that activating Hwangnyeongsan (HL/BS-013) in Busan during the daytime on weekdays will be a massive challenge.
Local activity on VHF is almost non-existent during weekday working hours. Securing the 4 required QSOs for a successful SOTA activation using just a handheld radio might take a very long time, or even fail. We strongly recommend reaching out to local Korean hams or the KARL Busan Chapter in advance to arrange a skeleton schedule (Sked) so that local stations know when to listen for your call.
Wish you the best of luck and a wonderful trip to Korea!
thanks a million for the clarifications and for your advice.
I will surely try to schedule in some way if I ever attempt an activation. That might involve some negotiations with my wife, who’s also travelling with me
