Explanation why Thailand bans hf transceivers with 6 m capability: military use of 6 m

[Chris Wagner-8]

Can you please provide us, esp. Elecraft, with more details about WHY
the K3 has been banned?  Maybe they can do something about fixing the
reason for it being banned.  And I'm sure our members would like to
know as well. *** Hi All: An American professor, Charlie HS0.. tried
to import the K3. This involves approval by a ministry. Elecraft disabled the
K3's 6 m band by writing some code. Regrettably, no such solution is
acceptable to the ministry. Brave OPs risk 5 years jail, but not me.

HS has the world's toughest lese majeste laws. The Economist ran some
articles which
have been censored... Anyhow, this is just a sad reality. Elecraft have been
incredibly supportive - no surprise,  mni tnx, guys! 73, Chris KF6VCI / HS0ZFE
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[Jack Smith-6]

Total guess, but western military FM communications use the frequency
bands 30-88 MHz, so any transceiver capable of operating on 6 meters
could listen and transmit on a portion of the military FM band.

Jack K8ZOA


Chris Wagner wrote:

> Can you please provide us, esp. Elecraft, with more details about WHY
> the K3 has been banned?  Maybe they can do something about fixing the
> reason for it being banned.  And I'm sure our members would like to
> know as well. *** Hi All: An American professor, Charlie HS0.. tried
> to import the K3. This involves approval by a ministry. Elecraft disabled the
> K3's 6 m band by writing some code. Regrettably, no such solution is
> acceptable to the ministry. Brave OPs risk 5 years jail, but not me.
>
> HS has the world's toughest lese majeste laws. The Economist ran some
> articles which
> have been censored... Anyhow, this is just a sad reality. Elecraft have been
> incredibly supportive - no surprise,  mni tnx, guys! 73, Chris KF6VCI / HS0ZFE
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
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>
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> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
>  

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[N5GE]

On Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:01:23 -0400, Jack Smith
<[hidden email]> wrote:

>Total guess, but western military FM communications use the frequency
>bands 30-88 MHz, so any transceiver capable of operating on 6 meters
>could listen and transmit on a portion of the military FM band.
>
>Jack K8ZOA
>
[snip]

I guess Thailand is backward and doesn't have the technology to use
spread spectrum and encryption on 6m (or any) band.

With the rig mfr's targeting 6m as an additional band to catch the VHF
crowd, it will soon be impossible to be a ham in that country unless
you are using an older rig.  Maybe that is their intent.

Additional comment:  I thought Thailand was in the Eastern Hemisphere
;o)

Tom, N5GE
K3 #806, K3 #1055
XV144, XV432
W1 and other small kits.
http://www.n5ge.com

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[Ken Alexander-2]

> Can you please provide us, esp. Elecraft, with more details
> about WHY the K3 has been banned?  Maybe they can do something about
> fixing the reason for it being banned.  And I'm sure our members
> would like to know as well. *** Hi All: An American professor, Charlie
> HS0.. tried to import the K3. This involves approval by a ministry.
> Elecraft disabled the K3's 6 m band by writing some code. Regrettably,
> no such solution is acceptable to the ministry. Brave OPs risk 5 years
> jail, but not me.

RAST should be able to answer this?  I suspect an easily overcome software fix isn't sufficient to satisfy the authorities.  The Professor could install the latest firmware and be on 6m in minutes if he decided to risk it.

73 - Ken
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[Ken Alexander-2]

> crowd, it will soon be impossible to be a ham in that country unless
> you are using an older rig.  Maybe that is their intent.

I hope His Majesty HS1A doesn't find out about this!

73 - Ken


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[Jack Smith-6]

By "western" I mean NATO or US standards, compared with standards
developed by the former USSR and Warsaw Pact, commonly called "east
bloc." The geographical location of Thailand is not material in this
context.


Jack


Radio Amateur N5GE wrote:

> On Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:01:23 -0400, Jack Smith
> <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
>  
>> Total guess, but western military FM communications use the frequency
>> bands 30-88 MHz, so any transceiver capable of operating on 6 meters
>> could listen and transmit on a portion of the military FM band.
>>
>> Jack K8ZOA
>>
>>    
> [snip]
>
> I guess Thailand is backward and doesn't have the technology to use
> spread spectrum and encryption on 6m (or any) band.
>
> With the rig mfr's targeting 6m as an additional band to catch the VHF
> crowd, it will soon be impossible to be a ham in that country unless
> you are using an older rig.  Maybe that is their intent.
>
> Additional comment:  I thought Thailand was in the Eastern Hemisphere
> ;o)
>
> Tom, N5GE
> K3 #806, K3 #1055
> XV144, XV432
> W1 and other small kits.
> http://www.n5ge.com
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
>  

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[w0mu]

This ban seems pretty silly when the enemy (whoever they are) can simply buy
most any modern ham rig and have 6m's.  Crooks don't care about the
penalties.  Maybe this is where the HS0 Government is getting their
"Military" radios?

Their 100w power limitation is not very ham friendly either.

I would assume that Elecraft would have to remove the 6m portion of the
radio to be approved.

A friend of mine goes over every year and stays for the legal time allowed
but has never tried to get a radio in.  It is far too much trouble.    

Maybe things will change down the road in Thailand.  

CC Packet Cluster W0MU-1
W0MU.NET or  67.40.148.194

"A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may
never get over." Ben Franklin



-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Ken Alexander
Sent: Sunday, April 05, 2009 12:07 PM
To: [hidden email]; Chris Wagner
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Explanation why Thailand bans hf transceivers with
6m capability: military use of 6 m


> Can you please provide us, esp. Elecraft, with more details about WHY
> the K3 has been banned?  Maybe they can do something about fixing the
> reason for it being banned.  And I'm sure our members would like to
> know as well. *** Hi All: An American professor, Charlie HS0.. tried
> to import the K3. This involves approval by a ministry.
> Elecraft disabled the K3's 6 m band by writing some code. Regrettably,
> no such solution is acceptable to the ministry. Brave OPs risk 5 years
> jail, but not me.

RAST should be able to answer this?  I suspect an easily overcome software
fix isn't sufficient to satisfy the authorities.  The Professor could
install the latest firmware and be on 6m in minutes if he decided to risk
it.

73 - Ken
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[VR2BrettGraham]

The discussion in this thread completely misses the point: there are
administrations who do not allow people to be in possession of radio
equipment capable of operating on frequencies those people aren't
allowed to use.

This is probably more common in Asia now than anywhere else.

Singapore is one place that comes to mind that until recently was
quite strict & it is far from being a "backwards" place.

Likewise here in Hongkong, our existing law & regulations were
almost applied in the strictest sense, the result would have been that
no radio could be used by any amateur as there has been, nor is
there currently any product on the market that would not operate
one cycle outside of the frequencies we are allowed to use.  Even
more so on 50 Mc.

Pity those in the province of Taiwan, where if you have something
less than the highest class of amateur licence, the local telecom
authority insists that your equipment not be capable of operating
beyond the restrictions of that licence.  On the bright side, it does
help these guys from doing things they aren't allowed to do - from
my own experience being called by Ws well outside the frequencies
allowed for phone operation in USA, perhaps this is something the
FCC should do, too.

If a company wants to sell its products into other markets, the
product needs to be suitable for that market.  Other manufacturers
have adapted to these requirements, perhaps it will not be possible
for Elecraft to do the same.  Ultimately, the looser will be Elecraft.
A good example of this is the motor market, which used to be
dominated by Detroit.  But then they stopped making RHD vehicles
& although that is no longer the case, we don't buy your cars
anymore.

73, ex-VR2BG/p.

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[Julius Fazekas n2wn]

Hi Brett,

I would think for Elecraft, it's the economy of scale. How many sales are they losing versus the effectiveness of providing a modified radio? I suspect not enough to make it worth the effort. Consider the RoHS issues they had to resolve to go into the EU market...

Government/Military restrictions have always been a part of the Amateur Radio story, realistic or not.

The US auto manufacturers are, IMHO, not a good comparison to Elecraft. Elecraft is much more responsive to customer demands and lacks the decades of arrogance exhibited by Detroit.

Hope you're doing well over there, miss ya on the bands :o)

73,
Julius

VR2BrettGraham wrote

The discussion in this thread completely misses the point: there are
administrations who do not allow people to be in possession of radio
equipment capable of operating on frequencies those people aren't
allowed to use.

This is probably more common in Asia now than anywhere else.

Singapore is one place that comes to mind that until recently was
quite strict & it is far from being a "backwards" place.

Likewise here in Hongkong, our existing law & regulations were
almost applied in the strictest sense, the result would have been that
no radio could be used by any amateur as there has been, nor is
there currently any product on the market that would not operate
one cycle outside of the frequencies we are allowed to use.  Even
more so on 50 Mc.

Pity those in the province of Taiwan, where if you have something
less than the highest class of amateur licence, the local telecom
authority insists that your equipment not be capable of operating
beyond the restrictions of that licence.  On the bright side, it does
help these guys from doing things they aren't allowed to do - from
my own experience being called by Ws well outside the frequencies
allowed for phone operation in USA, perhaps this is something the
FCC should do, too.

If a company wants to sell its products into other markets, the
product needs to be suitable for that market.  Other manufacturers
have adapted to these requirements, perhaps it will not be possible
for Elecraft to do the same.  Ultimately, the looser will be Elecraft.
A good example of this is the motor market, which used to be
dominated by Detroit.  But then they stopped making RHD vehicles
& although that is no longer the case, we don't buy your cars
anymore.

73, ex-VR2BG/p.

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