Myanmar (Burma) Ham Radio

[natedawg1604]

Out of curiosity, does Ham Radio exist within Burma?

 

[KK4ELO]

Ham radio exists all over the world, just different frequencies in different countries.

 

[natedawg1604]

Ham radio exists all over the world, just different frequencies in different countries.

But, are people allowed to use Ham Radio in Burma? Is it known to actually exist? Do they have a formal or informal licensing regime?

 

[teufler]

Seems Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in Burma is afraid of the boogie man. Operating authority has been for a few stations maybe 15 to 20 days. No vhf or mobile ops. Fixed station with watchers standing by. Though not as restrictive as North Korea, they are close behind..

 

[W9BU]

Myanmar is 51st on the Club Log list of Most Wanted DX countries. To be that far down the list tells me that many serious DX chasers already have confirmation for that country. I did find a report that a Japanese ham was on the air from Myanmar as recently as 2013.

 

[W9BU]

Ham radio exists all over the world, just different frequencies in different countries.

Actually, amateur radio allocations are pretty consistent around the world. There are some regional or country-specific differences, but the primary bands are pretty close to the same everywhere you go.

Worldwide amateur radio allocations are determined by the ITU. Individual countries then determine which parts of the ITU regulations they are going to follow.

 

[simon43]

Late reply to this old thread.

I'm a British radio ham, living and working in Myanmar since 2012.

Ham radio is banned since about 1965. The ban was communicated by the then government to the ITU. No ham licences are issued.

But occasionally, temporary 'permits' are issued, to allow 'transmitter testing'. That has happened a couple of times over the past years for the Japanese ham Zorro, who operated for about 7 days on each occasion.

That being said, I am close to getting a permanent ham permit to operate from my home in Naypyidaw. If I get this, I'll post the good news here.

 

[majoco]

I have recently finished mentoring a refugee from Myanmar to take his driving test - we had some interesting conversations - he and a few others fled across the border to Thailand and stayed in a UNHCR camp for about 6 weeks before coming to NZ. I asked him about ham radio and he had no knowledge that any such thing existed and even said that ordinary radio was carefully controlled with no shortwave reception - or perhaps again he had never heard of it. He came from a small village near the Thai border with very limited external contact - his family lived a very hand-to-mouth lifestyle.
He passed the driving test, now he has a good job working in a carpet factory and rents a flat with other refugees with support from the local Red Cross. In one of the last conversations he said that his parents and brother had managed to get out and were expected in NZ soon.

 

[zz0468]

Late reply to this old thread.

I'm a British radio ham, living and working in Myanmar since 2012.

Ham radio is banned since about 1965. The ban was communicated by the then government to the ITU. No ham licences are issued.

But occasionally, temporary 'permits' are issued, to allow 'transmitter testing'. That has happened a couple of times over the past years for the Japanese ham Zorro, who operated for about 7 days on each occasion.

That being said, I am close to getting a permanent ham permit to operate from my home in Naypyidaw. If I get this, I'll post the good news here.

There have been several DXpeditions to Myanmar, including some with U.S. operators. Provided proper procedures are followed, the Myanmar government has been friendly toward foreign amateur operators.

 

[simon43]

There have been several DXpeditions to Myanmar, including some with U.S. operators. Provided proper procedures are followed, the Myanmar government has been friendly toward foreign amateur operators.

True. For all of those Dxpeditions, no ham licence was issued, since ham radio is specifically banned by law. But each DXpedition was issued with a temporary permit to test transmitters, so they were all 'legal' and OK for DXCC.

That's all fine for temporary DXpeditions. But I'm trying to get a long-term, special ham radio permit as a resident of Myanmar, and the last time that such a thing was issued was in 1962 (according to the licencing office). So it's rather a big deal for the authorities to issue me with it!

 

[simon43]

Update 26th March 2018.

I'm happy to announce that after 6 years of effort to obtain permission to use my amateur radio station in Myanmar, last week I was finally granted the call-sign XZ2A (the '2' series indicates a resident 'ham').

I am active on 15/12/10 metre bands with a temporary, inefficient antenna. Next month, I will move to a better QTH in Naypyitaw and will install a better antenna...

 

[Will001]

Update 26th March 2018.

I'm happy to announce that after 6 years of effort to obtain permission to use my amateur radio station in Myanmar, last week I was finally granted the call-sign XZ2A (the '2' series indicates a resident 'ham').

I am active on 15/12/10 metre bands with a temporary, inefficient antenna. Next month, I will move to a better QTH in Naypyitaw and will install a better antenna...

Good job! Look forward to hearing you on the radio.

73's from KN4IMX

 

[majoco]

XZ2A - so the "2" indicates you're a resident, I suppose the "A" represents that you're the first one in the call book! Call Book? What Call Book!

Well, perseverance pays off in the end. Looking forward to a contact.

Best 73.

 

[vagrant]

Congratulations!

I was about to ask if the 15/12/10 was due to antenna or license and then I found the information on your QRZ page. Indeed, some is better than none.

Working phone would be fun on your split, but I'm figuring one of the digital modes will suffice until things improve. Is there a particular time frame UTC that you monitor more often?

 

[simon43]

Hi, for a couple of weeks I am only using a very compromised antenna at a very compromised location (S8 local noise level). From about 20th April, I will be at a new and better location, and with some better equipment and antennas.

I am trying to sit as low in frequency as I can - that generally means 21.074 MHz FT-8, during my local evening on weekdays and all times at weekends. (Myanmar is UTC+6.5)