Thai Amateur Radio and Citizens Band Sub-Committee visit DARC

Thai radio amateurs are hoping to get a number of license improvements this year, including access to the Amateur Satellite Service band at 435-438 MHz as well as 146.0-146.5 MHz.

100 Watt Magazine Thida Denpruektham HS1ASC

On Sunday, March 30, 2014 a delegation of the Thai National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) Amateur Radio and Citizen Band Development Sub-Committee (ARCB) visited the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club (DARC) amateur radio center in Baunatal.

Martin Köhler DL1DCT, Thilo Kootz DL9KCE, the DARC service team and Thomas Wrede DF2OO received the visitors and provided information on amateur radio topics in Germany and Europe, especially with regard to emergency radio activities and youth work.

The visit was organized by Thida Denpruektham HS1ASC. She is editor of the Thai “100 Watts Magazine” as well as a member of the ARCB.

The DARC expressed their thanks to Benji Klingler DJ5BK/HS6SSE. She acted as interpreter and ensured there were no problems communicating even in the more complex topics. At the end of the nearly three-hour visit, the guests visited the club station DF0AFZ.

In May 2012 Thailand had 246,959 radio amateurs holding the basic entry level VHF license and 717 Intermediate and Reciprocal HF license holders.

Benjamas Klingler DJ5BK / HS6SSE

The reason for the low number of HF license holders seems to be because it’s impossible to sit an exam to upgrade. There appears to have only been one Intermediate exam for just 151 candidates held in almost 10 years, see
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/may2012/
thailand_holds_intermediate_exam.htm

It is hoped that the granting of 28.0 – 29.7 MHz to the basic entry license holders later this year should significantly increase HF activity from the country.

Thailand is also planning to introduce an Advanced license class equivalent to the USA Extra and UK Advanced.

100 Watts Magazine http://tinyurl.com/100WattsMagazine

100 Watts on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/100WattsMagazineOfficial

Radio Amateur Society of Thailand (RAST) http://www.qsl.net/rast/

DARC in Google English http://tinyurl.com/GermanyDARC

FCC 5 GHz Proposal ET Docket No. 13-49

In a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ET Docket 13-49 the FCC proposes making 195 MHz of spectrum at 5 GHz available for Part 15 unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) devices to provide high data rate mobile and fixed communications for individuals, businesses, and institutions.

The Amateur Satellite Service has an uplink allocation at 5650-5670 MHz and a downlink allocation at 5830-5850 MHz.

Read the FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ET Docket No. 13-49
http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=7022123531

Read the ARRL story
http://www.arrl.org/news/more-peanut-butter-and-jelly-fcc-drops-the-first-shoe-in-5-ghz-u-nii-devices-proceeding