Ham Radio

[Richard70au 0]

Any ham radio operators in Pattaya?

 

Cheers

Richard70au

[jastheace 1,361]

wow! what you doing? what is there? 144mhz or 2m band with repeater? short wave voice or morse? dead I think ? not listened to it let alone tx'd. is it still going? last time i had it was 1980's ish. QCQX

[simon43 12,842]

Well, I used to live in Pattaya many years ago, now based in Luang Prabang (Laos).  Many 2 metre band hams in Thailand, but unless you speak Thai, you can't chat with them, and (from my own experience as a Thai-speaking ham), they accused me of being a pirate operator, because 'only Thai people' can be radio hams in Thailand....

 

OTOH, operating on the HF bands and chatting with other hams overseas was much more rewarding .  From Laos (I'm the only ham in Laos), I mainly operate SSTV and FT8 on 20 metres.

 

Simon HS0ZIB / XW0LP / XZ2A / G6JFY

Edited February 11, 2020 by simon43

[jastheace 1,361]

pure radio still alive, good to know, thanks. sorry I lost it long ago.

CQD

Edited February 11, 2020 by jastheace

[Richard70au 0]

8 minutes ago, simon43 said:

Well, I used to live in Pattaya many years ago, now based in Luang Prabang (Laos).  Many 2 metre band hams in Thailand, but unless you speak Thai, you can't chat with them, and (from my own experience as a Thai-speaking ham), they accused me of being a pirate operator, because 'only Thai people' can be radio hams in Thailand....

 

OTOH, operating on the HF bands and chatting with other hams overseas was much more rewarding .  From Laos (I'm the only ham in Laos), I mainly operate SSTV and FT8 on 20 metres.

 

Simon HS0ZIB / XW0LP / XZ2A / G6JFY

Thanks Simon, we are planning to move over to Thailand and was hoping to chat with some guys over there, I am also running FT8 here in Australia. Thailand has no reciprical licence agreement with Australia.  

Cheers

Richard70au

VK2BO

[simon43 12,842]

12 minutes ago, Richard70au said:

Thanks Simon, we are planning to move over to Thailand and was hoping to chat with some guys over there, I am also running FT8 here in Australia. Thailand has no reciprical licence agreement with Australia.  

Cheers

Richard70au

VK2BO

If there is no reciprocal licence agreement, then you are stuffed! You would have to take the Thai written exam (in Thai language)....

 

A Canadian friend in north Thailand operates his remote VE station..

Edited February 11, 2020 by simon43

[gk10002000 6,883]

Ahh.  HF band.  I worked on several Over the Horizon Backscatter Radar programs.  Took ionograms on the old systems with the weather folks at Vandenberg AFB.  Had a shortwave radio as a kid, but never did much as a hobbyist.  I suspect that these days, one may want to consider being careful about having any "fancy" looking equipment.  All the misunderstandings, terrorist fears, ignorance, military or police getting calls from your neighbors about those strange things at hour house.   Licensing requirements in Thailand?  Your proximity to any military or police facilities?  Now if wearing a mask, my goodness, farang must be up to no good!

[simon43 12,842]

53 minutes ago, gk10002000 said:

Ahh.  HF band.  I worked on several Over the Horizon Backscatter Radar programs.  Took ionograms on the old systems with the weather folks at Vandenberg AFB.  Had a shortwave radio as a kid, but never did much as a hobbyist.  I suspect that these days, one may want to consider being careful about having any "fancy" looking equipment.  All the misunderstandings, terrorist fears, ignorance, military or police getting calls from your neighbors about those strange things at hour house.   Licensing requirements in Thailand?  Your proximity to any military or police facilities?  Now if wearing a mask, my goodness, farang must be up to no good!

LoL, it's a bit of a crazy, old-fashioned hobby I suppose.  I enjoy it because I'm a very technical person, and love to experiment and 'tinker'.

 

In 2018, I became the first licensed resident ham in Burma since they banned ham radio in 1963!  Took 6 years of persuasion and for sure, I had some 'problems' with the police and military.

 

Now living in north Laos, although I'm the only resident ham in the country, the government is OK to issue ham licenses against submission of an overseas ham license.  I guess that if anyone wanted to cause problems nowadays, they would use social media, not some little shortwave rig!

 

 

 

 

[gk10002000 6,883]

1 hour ago, simon43 said:

LoL, it's a bit of a crazy, old-fashioned hobby I suppose.  I enjoy it because I'm a very technical person, and love to experiment and 'tinker'.

 

In 2018, I became the first licensed resident ham in Burma since they banned ham radio in 1963!  Took 6 years of persuasion and for sure, I had some 'problems' with the police and military.

 

Now living in north Laos, although I'm the only resident ham in the country, the government is OK to issue ham licenses against submission of an overseas ham license.  I guess that if anyone wanted to cause problems nowadays, they would use social media, not some little shortwave rig!

 

 

 

 

Haha, yeah.  the WWW does stand for world wide web, and definitely is more likely to reach more people, and be received by more people than one Ham operator.  Thanks for the post about getting up and running and with a license. 

[johng 17,123]

I've been doing a bit of scanning with a RTL2832U   DVB-FM-DAB  "dongle"  and SDR console software

 

but seem to be in a radio black spot, very little activity  except for  the concierge at Ambassador hotel  @ 245.5 and 245.3125

even made an antenna which helped a bit.

 

 

 

[simon43 12,842]

Here's a photo just now of my laptop computer that's sending slow scan TV pictures via my shortwave transceiver, based in north Laos.  I've just received a TV picture from JH1UBK in Japan, and I'm about to reply to him with one of my pictures in the panels below.  I'm transmitting about 70 watts on 14.230 MHz.

 

Edited February 12, 2020 by simon43

[jacko45k 17,225]

This thread must have been a Godsend to a few, who have now untied the rocks from their necks.

[balo 12,644]

How many ham operators are still active in the world since the 1990's?  I mean, after the Internet took over it must have been a drop in activity. 
I can understand the DX'ing and contests still going on, but how many of them are from the younger generation?  

I got my LA license back in the early 90's, and was active when sunspot numbers were at maximum so I communicated with most countries in the world on HF bands (14-21-28m ) . It was also fun to operate from Svalbard Islands (JW) to experience a pileup. 

 

 

[TheX 2]

On 2/12/2020 at 6:27 AM, Richard70au said:

Thanks Simon, we are planning to move over to Thailand and was hoping to chat with some guys over there, I am also running FT8 here in Australia. Thailand has no reciprical licence agreement with Australia.  

Cheers

Richard70au

VK2BO

 

On 2/12/2020 at 6:12 AM, simon43 said:

Well, I used to live in Pattaya many years ago, now based in Luang Prabang (Laos).  Many 2 metre band hams in Thailand, but unless you speak Thai, you can't chat with them, and (from my own experience as a Thai-speaking ham), they accused me of being a pirate operator, because 'only Thai people' can be radio hams in Thailand....

 

OTOH, operating on the HF bands and chatting with other hams overseas was much more rewarding .  From Laos (I'm the only ham in Laos), I mainly operate SSTV and FT8 on 20 metres.

 

Simon HS0ZIB / XW0LP / XZ2A / G6JFY

Simon,

You should check carefully before posting to people that you are the only HAM in Laos. I live in Vientiane and both my father and myself are hams for a very long time.

XW6OU, XWIX, HS0ZKZ, AG6OU these are all my call signs, and of course my father well know for many years and one of the first to ever be issued a Ham license is XW1A we have been here for over 28 years in Vientiane.

[RichCor 2,695]

For former or would-be Hams that are just interested in the "live chat" and DX aspect of making contacts they might be interested in checking out Network Radio implemented over Internet. 

 

Network Radio has been popularized by Internet communications companies like Zello that focus on supporting push-to-talk voice messaging over the Internet. Many android phone manufacturers now have versions that closely emulate a hand-held radio (but use WiFi or Mobile Data network to interact with other users).

 

A couple of UK Ham operators have set up a group of 'channels' on Zello for folks who can't do the shack and long/tall antennas anymore. Take a look at this 'monitor' page to see how it's being used:

 

https://networkradios.weebly.com/nrpanel.html 

^-- just unmute the active talk channel to listen to a digital stream
     The same page has links on how to get involved.