03/30/2016

The ARRL DXCC Department has approved for DXCC credit the unexpected P5/3Z9DX "demonstration" operation from North Korea last December. Well-traveled Polish DXer Dom Grzyb, 3Z9DX, has said he expects to be back in North Korea - officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) - for his "official" activation by late summer. P5/3Z9DX showed up on the air from the most-wanted DXCC entity on December 20 and 21 to demonstrate Amateur Radio for North Korean officials. During that activation - the first in more than a decade - P5/3Z9DX made nearly 785 SSB contacts, most of them on 15 meters. Nearly 600 of the contacts were with stations in Asia; P5/3Z9DX worked just 26 stations in North America. He posted[1] his log on ClubLog.

Some unsubstantiated claims were floated following the pre-Christmas P5/3Z9DX operation that Grzyb was not really operating from North Korea.

In January Grzyb contacted The Daily DX[2] Editor Bernie McClenny, W3UR. During his visit to North Korea, Grzyb told McClenny, authorities were friendly and polite, and that he was surprised that they allowed him to operate. P5/3Z9DX reported being severely hampered by extremely high noise levels on all HF bands, not to mention a geomagnetic storm. Noise, he said, made it "almost impossible" to copy weaker signals in Pyongyang. When he goes back to the DPRK this summer, he expects to operate from a far quieter location in a rural area, Grzyb told The Daily DX.

His equipment was left behind in Pyongyang, as agreed to before his December visit. The P5/3Z9DX preview was the first from North Korea since the 2001-2002 operation by Ed Giorgadze, 4L4FN. - Thanks to ARRL DXCC Department and The Daily DX


[1] https://secure.clublog.org/charts/?c=P5/3Z9DX
[2] http://www.dailydx.com/

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