In this digital age, traditional radio broadcasting may appear to be a declining technology. Nevertheless, there remains a dedicated community of enthusiasts who continue to keep the “airwaves” alive.

How popular is radio as a hobby in Thailand, both among locals and expatriates? Are there active Amateur Radio (Ham) clubs, associations, or similar organizations?

I would also be interested in learning about the availability and cost of radio equipment, as such equipment can often be quite expensive. How accessible and affordable is radio equipment in Thailand?

You may wish to start here: https://www.qsl.net/rast/

There used to be a number of expats in Thailand with reciprocal licenses. I had one long ago, Not sure about how many there may be now.

It used to be necessary to get an import license and import one's own equipment for HF transceivers. Not sure if this was restricted to Thai citizens as I never pursued it that far.

Contact RAST and ask.

@simon43 knows all about this.

I have played around with Software Defined Radio but only with a cheapo RTL dongle

only hear very local stuff in the 200 and 400 mhz

http://kiwisdr.com/public/

search for Thailand and you can use someone else's Thai based radio for free !!!

only for receive not transmit of course.

59 minutes ago, ravip said:

How accessible and affordable is radio equipment in Thailand?

Don't what ever you do try to source equipment from overseas Amazon,Shopee or Lazada customs clearance will be impossible.

7 minutes ago, johng said:

@simon43 knows all about this.

I have played around with Software Defined Radio but only with a cheapo RTL dongle

only hear very local stuff in the 200 and 400 mhz

http://kiwisdr.com/public/

search for Thailand and you can use someone else's Thai based radio for free !!!

only for receive not transmit of course.

Don't what ever you do try to source equipment from overseas Amazon,Shopee or Lazada customs clearance will be impossible.

I was looking around for a portable SW receiver and currently settled for the Sangean ATS-909x2. The only band missing on this seems the Marine VHF frequencies.

Did a lot of research on the Web, and found this to be the top of the range, albeit some cons - eg Low volume on SSB and the built in antenna not picking up weak stations (not a deal breaker).

The The Retekess TR110 is also not too bad, but most reviews mentioned about the poor build quality.

On the subject of SDR's, I came across the Raddy Malahit DSP2 10kHz - 2GHz Software Defined Radio - which really has ALL the bands - but comes at a hefty price!

So for the moment, I think the Sangean ATS-909x2 will do (trying to get it down from Australia through a friend), and then find a suitable antenna, if an ordinary long wire fails!

Edited August 22Aug 22 by ravip

double post.

Edited August 24Aug 24 by johng
double post

On 8/22/2026 at 12:59 PM, ravip said:

So for the moment, I think the Sangean ATS-909x2

That looks like a nice bit of kit

I had lots of fun with my very expensive at the time AOR AR-3000

hooked up to an Intel 486 computer received weather fax and slowscan TV

could still hear the emergency services but they went digital very quickly

I used to like listening the the banter in the local amateur radio 2 meter repeater.

eventually used as a bedside alarm clock radio and to listen to Clive Bull through the night on LBC 97.3 FM 😂

still works though I bought it in 1993 !

5 minutes ago, johng said:

That looks like a nice bit of kit

I had lots of fun with my very expensive at the time AOR AR-3000

hooked up to an Intel 486 computer received weather fax and slowscan TV

could still hear the emergency services but they went digital very quickly

I used to like listening the the banter in the local amateur radio 2 meter repeater.

eventually used as a bedside alarm clock radio and to listen to Clive Bull through the night on LBC 97.3 FM 😂

still works though I bought it in 1993 !

Yes, I also remember the Yaesu, Icom, and Kenwoods - great stuff indeed! Last had a Sony ICF-SW7600GR which packed up - will try to get it repaired, if I could find a reliable and reasonable person to do it.

3 hours ago, ravip said:

Yes, I also remember the Yaesu, Icom, and Kenwoods - great stuff indeed! Last had a Sony ICF-SW7600GR which packed up - will try to get it repaired, if I could find a reliable and reasonable person to do it.

Takes me back over 60+ years when I used to have a CR100 and then an HR100 ( stand corrected on this but it was an HR something or other) still have my collection of my QSL cards from all over the world HAPPY DAYS!!!!!

On another topic , is anybody else passed of with this bloody "Rent it" banner that keeps on blocking the typing area. How the he'll do you get rid of it?

Have 10m/vhf/uhf rigs laying dormant and unused for the past 15 years or so back in the US. An 11m ssb might be fun to tinker with here, though not sure what legal requirements are here to be broadcasting, @simon43 probably has a good idea. Never bothered dxing over am here, though in the pnw US used to get japan and Korea in right at about daybreak when propagation was peaking for those frequencies.

15 minutes ago, cheshiremusicman said:

How the he'll do you get rid of it?

Try uBlock Origin browser add on

3 minutes ago, novacova said:

not sure what legal requirements are here to be broadcasting,

Broadcasting is a whole big cattle of fish definitely need licensing etc not an easy task.

24 minutes ago, cheshiremusicman said:

Takes me back over 60+ years when I used to have a CR100 and then an HR100 ( stand corrected on this but it was an HR something or other) still have my collection of my QSL cards from all over the world HAPPY DAYS!!!!!

On another topic , is anybody else passed of with this bloody "Rent it" banner that keeps on blocking the typing area. How the he'll do you get rid of it?

Is this the Marconi CR100? Could not find a pic for the HR100. I remember training on this type of Transceivers, but never really worked on them.

Times have changed, indeed!

17 minutes ago, johng said:

Broadcasting is a whole big cattle of fish definitely need licensing etc not an easy task.

Maybe a Radio Amateurs license might ease things up?

I think there maybe a reciprocal license agreement with amateur license holders from other countries but you would have to check with https://www.qsl.net/rast/

as mentioned earlier by @Etaoin Shrdlu

10 hours ago, johng said:

I think there maybe a reciprocal license agreement with amateur license holders from other countries but you would have to check with https://www.qsl.net/rast/

as mentioned earlier by @Etaoin Shrdlu

RAST has the info on getting a reciprocal license. It depends upon whether your home country has an agreement with Thailand. The list isn't particularly long, however.

The more difficult bit is importing and registering a transceiver in Thailand, which is also described on this website: https://www.qsl.net/rast/text/licensing2016.html

On 8/24/2026 at 12:54 PM, ravip said:

Last had a Sony ICF-SW7600GR which packed up - will try to get it repaired, if I could find a reliable and reasonable person to do it.

Perhaps you could send it to 'Mend it Mark'

1 hour ago, johng said:

Perhaps you could send it to 'Mend it Mark'

Wow! What an exceptionally brilliant and gifted man. Truly remarkable.

11 minutes ago, ravip said:

Wow! What an exceptionally brilliant and gifted man. Truly remarkable.

He must have the patience of a saint as well as being named after one 😋

I don't have any real interest in getting into the broadcast end of it all, but one of the things on my list is to buy a portable short wave radio. It might come in handy someday.

My grandfather used to work for Stromberg Carlson in Rochester, NY. He was too old for WWII. Instead, he worked on radar equipment during the war. Anyway, he had one of these sitting around:

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ca/82/2a/ca822a1b0b678865bfdf27878b18e1a2.jpg

One time, when I was a kid back in the early 60s, we were on vacation, visiting him. I remember playing with the shortwave when I heard the news of the Great Alaska Earthquake before most people even knew it had happened.

Anyway, I guess it would be fun to have a portable shortwave and a solar power source, just for backup.

When I was a lad, I won a raffle at a minor league baseball game. I used the proceeds to but a big old vintage National shortwave radio, the same model as shown below. I moved my sleeping quarters down to the basement so that I could stay up all night during the weekends and turn the dials. It brought immense joy to hear such distant countries in all of the continents (except Antarctica). I'd send reception reports to hundreds of stations and receive QSL cards (sometimes quite plain but others were colorful glossy picture post cards). The more radical Communist countries would send packages of material (books, records, newspapers, magazines). It helped me resolve that Red Chinese Army operas were never going to be my thing.

I always wondered how many FBI, NSA and CIA watch lists I was on because of the mail correspondence. I guess not as a couple of decades later, I was able to gain security clearances.

Some years ago, a bit of nostalgia hit me and I tried listening to SW again (on a portable receiver), but there was nothing to listen to anymore. All that was left were religious broadcasters and a few "number" spy broadcasts but that was it. Has anyone found anything differently of late?

I was fascinated by Mark in the video. Very patient and knowledgeable.

Edited August 26Aug 26 by tjintx

5 hours ago, tjintx said:

Some years ago, a bit of nostalgia hit me and I tried listening to SW again (on a portable receiver), but there was nothing to listen to anymore. All that was left were religious broadcasters and a few "number" spy broadcasts but that was it. Has anyone found anything differently of late?

There is still stuff to listen to but reception can depend a lot on the atmospheric conditions and having a long antenna helps.

Back in the late 1980's I was thrilled to receive French and Dutch TV in north London

during a huge 'tropospheric lift', up to then I had only read about it in magazines and the excellent book by Roger Bunney.

I moved onto Satellite TV DXing as it is much easier and more reliable,

hunting for outside location news feeds revealed some interesting not for broadcast moments.

Thanks for mentioning me in this thread. I got into shortwave DXing when I bought an old 1958 valve domestic radio arounf 1972. It had shortwave bands on it and I strung up a longwire antenns in the garden in Leicester. I got hooked listening to music from far-away stations, such as Peru on the tropical bands.

My parents encouraged my hobby and they bought me a Trio 9R59 receiver, then a Drake SPR4, and in later years I bought Racal RA17 receivers. I got into landbased pirate radio, building the 30 watt valve rigs using 807 valves. Visits to my house after hours by the post-office radio guys encouraged me to get my UK ham licence, but I hardly ever used it until I moved to south-east Asia about 25 years ago. I spent time onboard the Radio Delmare pirate radio ship as engineer/DJ.....

After moving to Thailand, I joined RAST. Yes, you can get a reciprocal radio amateur licence in Thailand, but only for a few countries! UK, USA, France, Germany, Switzerland and perhaps a few others.

I also obtained my Lao radio ham licence (XW0LP - 'LP' stands for Luang Prabang). It's quite legal to do ham radio in Laos, but the Luang Prabang police boss doesn't think so and has arrested and fined me twice over the past years for engaging in this hobby on his turf - he had me deported on New Year's Eve last year!

I'm the only person in Myanmar to actually have a permanent ham radio licence - XZ2A - it took 7 years of polite lobbying to get that permit, but the military have asked me not to do my hobby in the current troubles.

Nowadays I use an old Kenwood TS-440S 100 watt HF transceiver. It's true you need an import permit (rigs with 50 MHz are not allowed), but in practice I have never been challenged on this at airports when transporting my rig. I just show my Thai licence and RAST membership card and that's fine.

For short and medium wave listening from my 'base 'on Phangan Island I use an RTL v4 SDR 'dongle' and SDR++ free software. My receiving antenna ia an amplified and rotable loop - here it is:

I use a 20 meter horizontal dipole wire - just about visible in this photo:

I mostly do SSTV - sending and receiving images. At the rear of my house (no photo) is a VHF/UHF yagi antenna for receiving images from the ISS and various Russian satellites - here is the latest image that I got yesterday from the Russian Vizard-Meteo satellite (I think they are students at the technical college that built this small Cubesat):

One warning! If you buy any item from overseas that has the word 'transmitter' or 'antenna' in the customs description, then Thai Customs 'see complete red' and will confiscate it, either demanding a high 'ransom' to be paid, or demanding an import licence (which is impossible to get). I bought a 'Cobweb' wire antenna from DX Engineering in the USA. Thai Customs grabbed it and demanded an import licence. Without one, I told them to return it to the USA company. "We cannot" they said. You need an export licence!! So I advised them to take the antenna and shove it where the sun doesn't shine. (Hence the reason why I make all my antennas....)

Update: Another warning: Don't bring in CB equipment (27 MHz) or any kind of walkie talkie if it's not a 'red' walkie-talkie that can be used legally in Thailand. Again, the Thai authorities will ..er .. see red and prosecute you - some Malaysian motorbikers fell foul of this a few years ago.

Edited August 27Aug 27 by simon43