HS3DR 1968 Thailand

Don Riebhoff K7ZZ (K7CBZ) was also an op at XU1DX, 1S1A Spratly, TI9CF Cocos, XW8CS, CT4AT, and 3W8D Vietnam.

At the time of the issuance of the HS3DR call sign to Don Riebhoff Thailand was indeed on the USA/ITU banned list. But the call sign was issued by Thai Police Lieutenant Chankij Boonyaratvej, HS1CB, President of STAR (Society of Thai Amateur Radio), as was my HS3AL call sign. We got a membership card in STAR indicating our call sign, which served as our "license". At that time the call signs were determined as follows: HS (Thailand); 3 (Thai Third Army District); DR (Don's Initials). With a number of US hams stationed on military bases all around Thailand in connection with the war in Viet Nam, some of them figured out how the calls were determined and went on the air with "self assigned" calls without going through STAR. Therefore effective January 1, 1970, STAR changed to a new system of determining call signs. While Thai nationals continued to have two-letter suffixes, non-Thais from that point on were issued three-letter suffixes by STAR in strict alphabetical order. Because HS1AA was a prominent Thai ham in the government's Ministry of Education, the call signs for non-Thais began with HS1AB_ in order that there wouldn't be any confusion between the new calls and him. At the December 1969 monthly meeting of STAR at the Monthien Hotel in Bangkok, existing non-Thai members of RAST drew suffixes out of a hat as it was passed around, and I came up with "ABD". Don got "ABM'". At the same time, the way the call areas was determined changed from Army Districts to Police Districts. This was very amenable to Chankij who after all was with the Thai police. It also expanded the number of prefixes available since the Thai police had nine districts. Don was operating from the fourth police district so he ended up with HS4ABM. I was operating from the fifth police district so I ended up as HS5ABD. The police districts also correspond with Thailand's postal districts, so when the Thai Posts and Telegraphs Department formally legalized Amateur Radio in 1987, the call areas stayed the same as STAR had determined in 1970. The zero prefix, which was reserved for club stations under STAR, became an overflow prefix for the first call area -- the area which includes Bangkok -- when Amateur Radio was legalized. It is little realized but Thailand has had tremendous growth of the Amateur Radio Service since 1987 but almost all Thai hams are limited to channelized operation on two meter FM only. After almost nine years without upgrade exams being available to Thai hams which would allow them to move up to HF operations, an exam was recently held in Bangkok and 42 Thai nationals upgraded to HF status. More such exams will be held now that the ice has broken. According to Champ, E21EIC, on May 4, 2012, the NBTC (Thailand's FCC) reported that there were 246,959 Thai hams licensed for VHF operations, while only 717 Thai hams were licensed for HF operations. The growth in the Thai amateur ranks meant that, even after Thailand got the E2 prefix from ITU to add to the HS prefix they already had, there was quickly an overflow in the Bangkok region once again. So now it is no longer possible to tell from the call sign of a Thai ham alone, where he is operating from. But by noting the first number of the five-character zip code in his address you can tell which of the traditional call areas he is in. Non-Thai hams are issued HS0Z__ calls with two additional letters. The system is based on the Brazilian custom of issuing three-letter suffixes beginning with "Z" to foreigners, because John Vajo, W2ZWW, who worked out the system of reciprocal agreements with the Thai authorities, had lived in Brazil before he moved to Thailand. Logically enough John is HS0ZAA. The HS0Z calls are approximately up to HS0ZLA at this time (August 2012). FWIW, according to Champ, as of July 2, 2012 the most recent call signs issued by NBTC in each traditional call area were as follows:
call area 1 E23PIJ
call area 2 E27HXQ
call area 3 HS3YVE
call area 4 HS4YRT
call area 5 E22ZXC
call area 6 E23IEG
call area 7 E29FIX
call area 8 E24AGF
call area 9 E23BVQ
In about October or November 1969, thanks to our close coordination with Dick Baldwin, W1RU of ARRL, the FCC lifted the ban on communication with Thai hams. (It should be noted that Dick went on to become the President of IARU and recently passed away (June 21, 2012) at the age of 92. The Amateur Radio Service owes a debt of gratitude to Dick, who was a very popular IARU President because he visited every single IARU member society in the world during his term in office -- except Cuba because the USG wouldn't permit him to go there. Few people if any have done more to improve the world-wide status of ham radio than Dick. He is one of my all-time heroes.

QSL G4UZN Collection
Info courtesy of K3ZO