Society of Thai Amateur Radio.
This page is written by k0ip   ex  HS6ADE  at Takhli RTAFB in 1970.

I have very little info about all the inside deals that allowed US persons to operate from Thailand,
mostly military supporting the Viet Nam war from numerous bases in Thailand .

  
HEY guys, if you were there and have any comments, or pictures, documents, etc..   please contact me at
k0ip(at)k0ip.com

Below are the documents from STAR when I joined.  I operated for about 6 weeks, and then I was transferred to Viet Nam,
ending my HS6ADE operation,   I worked about 800 stations in that 6 weeks.
in fact I was not a DX'er back in Kansas,  and little did I know  Thailand was RARE'er than RARE   HI,  
all I had to do was call CQ and there were hundreds of stations all calling at the same time.

It was mass bedlam   HI HI ..  
many years later I found out that less than a year earlier,  Thailand was removed from the  USA/ITU banned list.  (see picture at bottom of this page)
I didn't operate everyday, but got on and operated often,   sometimes  ragchewing with US stations, 
while the rest of the world was ready to kill me for not working the pileup..  again little did I know how RARE I was.
I also figured I had may more months to operate,   but that transfer to RVN stopped all that.

 

below is a picture of me with my little KWM-1 radio,       (all happening in a galazy far far away, and a long time ago,,,  what fun we had)
we had a Tri-Bander at the PMEL building where I worked ,  Hey a good antenna FREE..  your can't beat free ..
my friend KØBHM (WØTM)    SK,  was my QSL manager,  he went crazy for months as the QSL's poured  ,   I've got some great DX cards from the time..


My Personal WEB page is  https://www.k0ip.com

this page was updated April 2023

Society of Thai amateur radio	click the photo's to make them big enough to read
Note: the date typed on this letter, should have been  1970 not 72...

HS6ADE, Takhli Royal Thai AFB, Thailand 1970,

After several  MARS phone patch  from Takhli with my friend WØTM (Gary)(sk), he got me a KWM-1 at Associated Radio (Overland Park, KS). My dad built two custom wooden boxes,  one for the radio , one for the PS.  He APO mailed them to me..   For whatever reason there was a tri-band beam at the PMEL building where I worked, who knows why it was there?  It was pointed at the USA, no rotor. My boss let me setup my station on a shelf in the store room, This was actually a perfect place.  I could run in there for lunch and "work a bunch", or after my shift.  I was on the air for 6 weeks, working over 800 stations on SSB & CW.   WOW, what pile-ups,,  If  I had been more industrious I could have worked 8000. But there was other things to do, including many two legged distractions downtown.. If you've been there you know what I'm saying.  $5 short time GI..   Then the unexpected,  I was transferred to Viet Nam.. Cutting my operation off Seven month earlier than I would have expected for normal rotation out of SEA.  Note: the KWM-1 had No RIT or anyway to Split. I worked some  CW  (note: I'm terrible at cw) because I could actually hear more that the ROAR of thousands of SSB signals at once. I used the same J-38 Key that I used as a Novice, it's the same key I use today.

https://www.qsl.net/rast/History.html     
This link is quite lengthy and really doesn't cover the history of STAR very well,  


http://hamgallery.com/qsl/country/Thailand/hs3dr.htm
This fellow signed my membership card ,, above , sorry to say he's SK now.

 

Below is a list , which I pulled from the web, listing STAR members Thai calls
I have no idea where this information came from or to its accuracy. or when it was last updated.

This list contains 256 call signs.     when I moved to Takhli,  and was trying to find out how to get a license, there was a QUAD over in the officers housing area,
I went over and talked to the guy,  I don't remember anything about that discussion , his name or call.  strange how some things 'don't' stau  in one's brain.
anyway he got me on the right track.     BUT on the list below there are only three hs6 calls...  I guess he was one of them   without a name, a QRZ search turns up NOTHING.  
            https://www.qsl.net/rast/oldrast/pub/former.html

WOW if you got all the way down here , here's an article I stumbled upon looking through a pile of old Popular Electronics magazines.   MARCH 1968