Permit Application

Regulations regarding permit issue have been revised as of February, 2018.
All foreigners except Japanese will be issued permits for three months and can be extended for another three months.
Korea has a reciprocal agreement only with Japan since 1992.
So, Japanese amateurs are eligible for five-year permits as before.
It takes about 4 weeks to issue a permit because we have to go through our government.
For any inquiry, email to hl0hq@hanmail.net or kops02@hanmail.net (Dr. Lee HL1IWD).
From KARL International Affair Committee

1. New Applicants(for Non-Japanese citizens) : Choose Three Months or One Month Permit

(1) Three months permit: If your radios were purchased in Korea and type approved in Korea, no station inspection will be required.
So you may choose to apply for a three months permit. Korean type approved radios have a sticker on each radios.
If your radios were purchased overseas and not type approved in Korea(no type approval sticker on the back of radio) and planning to bring to Korea,
station inspection is required.

*****Inspection fee is $10USD(11,000KRW) per radio and it will be charged at the time of inspection.
Your call sign will be HL#/(your home call sign). (# will be from 1 to 5 depending on your address in Korea)

(2) One month permit: No station inspection is required regardless of whether your radios are Korean type approved or not.
If you are planning to stay in Korea for a short period of time, one month permit is recommended.
Your call sign will be HL#/(your home call sign). (# will be from 1 to 5 depending on your address in Korea)

*****Permit application fee is the same $45USD in both cases.

※ HL9 Amateur Radio License Application (US Forces in Korea)

Person who want to apply HL9 license, you can get information from facebook HL9 group.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/100851516659158/?ref=share&mibextid=NSMWBT

Point of contact, SSG VERETTE, jason
010 8071 9634 jasonverette@gmail.com

Alfred I Paja, HL2ZIO, HL9AIP
010 4476 1184 wh2z@hotmail.com

2. New Applicants(for Japanese citizens) : Choose Five Year or One Month Permit

***Japan has a reciprocal agreement since 1992, so five year permit can be issued.

(1) Five year permit: If your radios were purchased in Korea and type approved in Korea, no station inspection will be required.
So you may choose to apply for a five year permit. Korean type approved radios have a sticker on each radios.
If your radios were purchased overseas and not type approved in Korea(no type approval sticker on the back of radio) and planning to bring to Korea,
station inspection is required.

*****Inspection fee is $10USD(11,000KRW) per radio and it will be charged at the time of inspection.
You can choose between HL#/(your home call sign) or Korean call sign with prefix HL.

# will be from 1 to 5 depending on your address in Korea.

3. Please submit the following documents by airmail or email(hl0hq@hanmail.net).

(1) Application form in the 'Official Form' of top menu bar.

(2) Copy of applicant's license which shows name, call sign, class and expiration date.
This does not have to be the one from his/her own country of citizenship.

(3) Copy of a passport which includes a photo of applicant (No visa copy is required).
**Note: US miltary persons stationed in Korea can submit a copy of their miltary ID card instead of passport.
If you are residing inside the military base, you should write your Korean address of the base, not the US military address.
For example, rather than ' *** road, Yongsan AB, Seoul, ROK' or APO address, you should write a Korean style address
such as '**** Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Korea'.
For this you should contact someone who knows the Korean address in the base where you live.

(4) A photo of the label with the Serial number of the radio.

(5) A table which shows permissible maximum output power and allowed frequency bands by class in applicant's licensed country.
This is required because we issue a permit to the similar(or equivalent) operating privilege of your license.
United States and Japanese stations are not required to submit this because we already have the tables.

(6) Fee: KRW50,000($45US) will cover all the radios in your application.

***Specific call sign requests were never accepted by our government CRMS(Central Radio Management Service).***

The maximum power output allowed in Korea is 1000W which will require linear amplifier.
To apply with linear amplifier, you need to specify the linear amplifier model and serial number in your application.
The linear amplifier may require station inspection.
Homemade radios, linear amplifiers or some equipments that are not type-approved in Korea may require station inspection which is not
complicated. After permit application, if necessary, KCA will instruct you to call a phone number for inspection appointment.
They will drive to your address for inspection. You do not need to go to KCA for inspection.
You will need help from a Korean speaking person.

***Equipment Restriction***
In Korea only the equipments listed in the station permit (license) can be used for amateur radio activity. This regulation started in 1950's when Korea first opened amateur radio and has been continuing till today due to the fact that spies from North Korea have been communicating using HF CW mode. Nowadays internet, facsimile, email, and cellular phone can be used for spy communications, thus restricting amateur radio equipments does not help stopping spy activities. KARL has been asking our government to abolish the requirement but it has not been realized yet. Almost all amateurs in Korea use any equipment they can get regardless of this law and government has no intension to enforce the law. So many amateurs in Korea call it a dead law. Amateurs from overseas often embarrassed due to this requirement however once they get an operation permit in Korea they are free to choose their own equipments. KARL is trying very hard to abolish this restriction. It is expected that sometime this equipment restriction will be removed permanently.

***Radio Station Inspection***
In Korea, only Korean type approved radios are allowed to be used for amateur radio communication. If you apply with Korean type approved radios purchased in Korea (with a sticker) there will be no inspection. Otherwise radio inspection may be required. After applying for a permit, KARL will notify you whether your radios need be inspected. To get your radios inspected, you call the number in the permit (in Korean) to make an appointment for the inspection. The inspector will drive to you and will inspect your radios. If they ask you to ship the radio or bring to them, you may ask them to drive to your location. You do not need to have antenna set up.

4. Extension(Renewal) and/or Changing Radio and/or Upgrading to Higher Class

Permit extension, changing radios, upgrading to higher class can be done by submitting the following documents.
The permit extension period is three months and only once.(Recently some applicant get 5 year renewal license if they have 5 year license.)
There will be no call sign change even if you upgrade to higher class license.
**Important** JARL Members should apply permit extension at least two month before your permit expires. If you are late you may be charged a new application fee of $45US.
(1) Extension form in the 'Official Form' menu.
(2) Fee: KRW20,000($18US)

5. Fee

(1) New application : KRW50,000 ($45US)
(2) Extension/changing radio : KRW20,000 ($18US)
(3) For wire transfer : KARL, KEB Hana Bank(KEB 하나은행) account number 204-22-03894-0,
Swift code : KOEXKRSE
Bank address : KEB Hana Bank, 66 Euljiro, Jung-gu, Seoul, Korea
(4) If you are already in Korea, you may walk into any bank near you and ask a teller to deposit the amount into the above KARL's bank account.
Bank may charge you KRW1000($1US) for the service.

(5) You can pay through Paypal via hl0hq@hanmail.net .

6. Further Information & Application Submission

(1) Address : Korean Amateur Radio League
KARL Building 2F, 1584 Jungbu-daero, Cheoin-gu, Yongin-city,
Gyeonggi-do, Korea, Zip17144
(2) Phone : 82-2-575-9580 (when dialing from overseas)
02-575-9580 (when dialing in Korea) Only Korean speaking is possible, sorry.
(3) E-mail inquiry(in English) and application submission hl0hq@hanmail.net

** If you have any inquiry, please contact with Dr. Lee HL1IWD via kops02@hanmail.net . Dr. Lee is fluent in English. **