Tribute to Hans Hollstein - HS1BG / HS0/KA3TDZ

HS1BG 1981 Hans Hollstein, Eyeball QSO with HS1ALF

I am sad to report to those of you who haven't already heard about it from other sources that a dear friend of mine, Hans Hollstein, KA3TDZ, age 62, died Wednesday evening August 7, 2002, in Bangkok, Thailand, while having dinner with a good friend of his in a Bangkok restaurant. He had a massive heart attack and died instantly.

Hans was a long-time resident of Thailand who ran a very successful accounting business, Trade Partners, Ltd, there with about a dozen employees. He was born in Germany, had emigrated from Germany to Australia, and from Australia made his way to Thailand, where he had been a resident ever since the 1970's. His Australian marriage ended in divorce and Hans had lived alone for the past 40 years or so. Our good mutual friend John Gagen, W2YR [HS0ZDJ], has done all of us a wonderful favor by writing an article about Hans and the QSL Bureau he managed for the IARU-member-society Radio Amateur Society of Thailand (RAST) which appeared in the June 2002 issue of Worldradio Magazine, beginning on page 6. A couple of good pictures of Hans engaged in his favorite avocation accompany the article, including one with Champ, E21EIC, who represents the upcoming young generation of Thai citizen hams that Hans did so much during his life to nurture and promote.

I first met Hans when I was assigned to the United States Information Service office in Thailand in 1978-1980 as Deputy Press Attache for the American Embassy. Along with Tony Waltham, G4UAV; Eddy Campos, EA4BKA; Darragh McCluer, WA6IKS; and Sam Nordenstroem, SM3DYU, we formed the Golden Kilowatt Council, an informal group of happy ex-pat then-bachelors in Bangkok. Weekly meetings would begin every Saturday at noon with a spicy lunch at a typical open-air Thai restaurant, followed by a liquid tour through countless Thai watering holes where empty bottles of ice-cold Singha Beer would gradually pile up beside our table as we discussed the important ham radio issues of the day. Then a delectable dinner would be consumed in an appropriate Chinese or German restaurant washed down by yet more ice-cold Thai beer, followed by a tour of Bangkok's infamous Patpong Road area. About 2 AM or so the weekly meeting would break up and the participants would unsteadily weave their way home, some of us then blundering our way onto the ham bands if a major contest happened to be underway that weekend. Hams visiting Bangkok were often invited to the meeting as honored guests, and over the years the Golden Kilowatt Council picked up a few more members.

Hans had been involved with the Bangkok Flying Club and got into ham radio through meeting a fellow flying club member who was a ham. Ham radio in Thailand in the 1970's was formally illegal, but the Radio Amateur Society of Thailand (RAST) existed and was a member of the IARU, and its President was Thailand's "Mr. Ham Radio", the late Special Col. Kamchai Chotikul, HS1WR, who issued a beautiful membership certificate to each RAST member which looked very much like a ham radio license. "Kam" assigned the calls to each member and "protected" the member's on-the-air activities which he had the power to do as a senior officer in the Royal Thai Army.

Kam assigned Hans the call HS1BG and Hans used that call for many years, earning DXCC among other awards. Hans was one of the principal movers in RAST through the years. Each time the Southeast Asia Net (SEANET) held its annual convention in Thailand Hans was a key member of the organizing committee and the several convention diaries handed out to convention-goers over the years contain many candid shots of Hans in all of his ham radio glory. Hans held several offices in RAST over the years, but his first love was QSLing, and in recent years he had again assumed the role of Manager of the RAST QSL Bureau, a job he had also held years ago. Hans was also the instigator and Chief Custodian of the Siam Award.

As a part of his accounting business, Hans would often take over debt-ridden businesses of his clients and manage them himself until profitability returned, all debts were paid off, and Hans-initiated efficiencies were in place to assure that the business would be successful from there on out. Hans would be repaid for his good work by receiving a percentage of the profits for some years following. One such business which fell into Hans' hands was the Beefeater Restaurant, a local steak house, and it quickly became the restaurant of choice for local expat hams and visiting hams alike. A corner of the wall above the restaurant bar was given over to an exhibit of the QSLs of ham customers and quite a collection accumulated. One of Hans' favorite pastimes was eating, of which his avoirdupois through many years was ample evidence. Running the Beefeater turned out to be an unexpectedly satisfying experience for Hans, and as an experienced consumer of restaurant meals, Hans turned the Beefeater into a very fine restaurant. With reluctance he eventually turned the now very-successful restaurant back to its owners as he had fulfilled his part of the contract. Anyway his accounting business was growing and he had to give it more of his attention.

The formal legalization of Amateur Radio in Thailand in 1987, an eventuality in which Hans had been one of the prime movers, turned out to be in some ways a pyrrhic victory for Hans personally, because he was sort of a "man-without-a-country". Born in Germany, a citizen of Australia, a resident of Thailand for many years, he could not take the Amateur Radio license examination in Thailand because it is available only to citizens. He could not become a Thai citizen due to facets of Thailand's immigration law. Australia did not offer the Australian Amateur Radio examination at overseas locations such as the Australian Embassy in Thailand. John Gagen, W2YR, gave Hans a possible way out by administering the U. S. Novice Exam to Hans in Bangkok, an action which in those days a single American ham holding the requisite U. S. license could carry out. Hans passed with flying colors and was issued KA3TDZ by the FCC, licensed to my QTH here in Temple Hills, MD.

Nevertheless Hans was bitter that his acquaintances in the Thai PTD did not bend the rules a bit so that he could hold on to his beloved HS1BG. He was especially miffed that they did not skip over the call when they began assigning calls to Thai hams. Hans resigned from the RAST board and spent a few years away from ham radio. Meanwhile Col. Kamchai died and after a few brief interim presidents, Kam's much-respected and beloved widow, Mayuree, HS1YL, became the President of RAST, a job she continues to hold today. Mayuree came to feel that there was a real vacuum on the RAST Executive Committee, a vacuum which could only be filled by Hans' strong and supportive presence.

So she began to work behind the scenes with the authorities to get permission for Hans to get back on the air from Thailand. A reciprocal operating agreement had already been signed between the USA and Thailand, but Hans could not take advantage of that agreement because its terms applied only to citizens of the two countries. So he was not eligible for a five-year Thai reciprocal permit like mine carrying with it the associated HS0Z +2 call sign. Mine, for example, is HS0ZAR.

However the Thai PTD has permitted long-time Thai-resident non-citizens who have made significant contibutions to Amateur Radio during their residence in Thailand to operate using "HS0/home call" even though their countries have not signed reciprocal agreements with Thailand. HS1YL convinced the authorities to issue Hans operating permission under this provision, and soon Hans was presented with his HS0/KA3TDZ permit allowing full utilization of the HF bands assigned to Thai amateurs. Hans set up his station, got back on the air, and soon rejoined the RAST Executive Committee in his old position as QSL-Bureau manager.

One might get the impression from the foregoing account that foreign hams in Thailand frolicked about in their activities on and off the air without ever involving Thai citizen hams in the process. Nothing could be further from the truth. Thailand is now a full-fledged democracy, but in the 1960's, 1970's and some of the 1980's it was ruled by a series of military dictators who considered Amateur Radio to be a dangerous and even subversive institution. Why indeed, they asked, would anyone need a private radio to communicate when the telephone was there for all to use freely? It made no sense to them.

In this atmosphere only a few well-placed Thais and a few Thai college students and businessmen had the courage to publicly exhibit their interest in Amateur Radio. It was foreign hams like Hans, who had a certain immunity from this type of suspicion on the part of the authorities, who carried a lot of the load in the effort to make Amateur Radio a strong, lasting presence in Thailand, an effort which has succeeded. There are now 175,000 licensed hams in Thailand. Hans regularly contributed large sums anonymously to the RAST treasury over the years, and just as late as the most recent RAST club meeting this past Sunday, Hans had pledged over $200 to RAST in the club's efforts to fund new administrative requirements which have been placed by the PTD on RAST, which is gradually assuming more of the duties of administering the Amateur Radio Service in Thailand just as the ARRL has been doing here in the USA.

Hans often expressed to me his love for his adopted country, Thailand, which had given him the opportunity as a foreigner to grow his business and prosper there. His "family" as such, besides those of us in the Golden Kilowatt Council who have truly lost a brother, was his staff at Trade Partners Ltd, all Thais. It is my understanding that he is bequeathing Trade Partners Ltd to them, lock, stock and barrel. They will not lack for talent in keeping the place running, for over the years Hans has carefully imparted to them all of his considerable knowledge and expertise.

Hans also had amassed one of the most complete collections of Thai postage stamps in existence.

Yesterday we had our regular weekly Golden Kilowatt Council schedule on 14155 at 1100 UTC. I arrived on the frequency at 1055 and at 1057 heard a big carrier tune up. Given the strength of the carrier and the peculiar type of QSB on the signal, it could only have been Hans, so I called him and he answered right away. After moving up to 14160 to get away from some local QRM on his end, we had a nice chat, later joined by Philip Weaver, 9M6CT [HS0/G4JMB]. Phil was actually the last person to QSO Hans on the air, as they remained in QSO for a few minutes after I signed with Hans. Little did I realize as I said "73" to Hans yesterday that it would be "73" forever!

I apologize to the reader for the length of this message. I felt it was the least I could do to honor my good and faithful friend and let the world know that ham radio has truly lost a decent and honorable member of our great world-wide fraternity. I will go to Thailand next month on a previously-planned trip. It is a matter of great personal sorrow to know that I will not see the smiling face of Hans while there. But I have the solace at least that my good friend Karl Renz, K4YT [HS0ZDG] has just returned from a business trip to Hanoi and Bangkok during which he had the opportunity to dine with Hans on several occasions at which they happily discussed the good old times. Karl and I along with my Thai XYL Somporn will meet at Karl's QTH Saturday during which we will down a few tall cool ones in memory of our dear departed colleague while Karl shares those stories with me. Then I will pick up the QSLs Hans sent back with Karl to be delivered to the ARRL Incoming QSL Bureau, and Somporn and I will sadly make our way home.

Among the things Hans and Karl talked about were Hans' plans to make a first-ever visit to the Dayton HamVention next year, accompanied by other Thai-resident members of the Golden Kilowatt Council. John, W2YR, had already made hotel reservations for them and arrangements for them to travel to and from Dayton with the gang on the "Jersey bus". After that Karl and I were planning to have them all down here for a round of good cheer before packing them back on the plane to Bangkok.

Having run a successful steak house himself, Hans was always keen to sample kindred establishments when he came over here. On Hans' last visit to Washington in 1997, Jirasak Visalsawat N6CZG [ex-HS1BS] and I had taken Hans on a tour of a few such establishments. Just this past Tuesday for some strange reason, Somporn and I were driving around the neighboring high-profile commercial area of Waldorf scouting out any new places that might have cropped up since his last visit.

At this writing funeral arrangements for Hans are pending but it appears that there will be a Buddhist ceremony in a Bangkok temple followed by his cremation. I would appreciate it if those of you who read this and know of some of Hans' possible world-wide circle of friends would make an effort to get this news to them. Messages of condolence or accounts of your memories of experiences with Hans, including photos if you can scan them, can be sent to RAST at <dx@thai.com> or <tonyw@mozart.inet.co.th>. A publication is being prepared in Hans' honor. I suggest that you monitor http://www.rast.or.th for any further details.

Goodbye Hans, old friend! Bangkok will never be the same without you...
Fred Laun, K3ZO [HS0ZAR]

Tribute courtesy of K3ZO
QSL from the estate of HS1ALF