Am Sonnabend waren Nimrod und ich wieder einmal auf dem Shoushan, das ist ein kleiner Berg (eigentlich zwei) der zwischen Gaoxiong und dem Meer liegt. Man kann recht gemütlich einfach in Serpentinen die Wege hochlaufen, einige Abkürzungen in Form von Treppen nehmen oder einfach wie wir den fast direkten Weg zur Spitze wählen - da braucht man dann aber wirklich festes Schuhwerk.
Es hatte noch am Tag zuvor geregnet, deshalb haben wir uns diesmal möglichst an Pfade gehalten, die mit Wurzelwerk oder Steinen etwas mehr Halt boten als der übliche lehmige Boden.
Der Berg ist nicht ganz frei zum Bewandern, ein Teil ist für das Militär reserviert. (Zum Wandern?) Allerdings hält sich kaum jemand streng an die Schilder, mich hat auch schon ein Pfad ein ganzes Stück hinter einem Warnschild auf einen festen Weg entlassen.
Da wir in Taiwan sind, gibt es natürlich auch ein wenig Komfort. Sowohl entlang der großen Wege als auch der kleinen Pfade findet man immer mal wieder einen Pavillon, wie hier den der guten Freunde, wo man sich ein Weilchen ausruhen kann.
Oberhalb dieses Pavillons kommt als nächstes nicht ein weiterer Pavillon, sondern die Qiman-Station. Hier findet man eigentlich immer rege Betriebsamkeit vor. Hat man Glück, dann hat jemand eine Flöte oder ein anderes Instrument mitgebracht und kann es auch spielen. Hat man Pech, dann findet man hauptsächlich "Naturfreunde", die mit Steinschleudern auf Affen und wilde Hunde schießen.
Normalerweise sind hier immer diverse Affen, aber diesmal hat sie der Regen wohl irgendwohin vertrieben. Dafür habe ich an dem Tag zum ersten Mal einen Hundertfüßler gesehen.
Normalerweise steigen wir nach einer kurzen Rast an der Station über den "Heldenpfad" zum "Heldenpavillon", aber der Heldenpfad heißt nicht umsonst so, und beim Zustand des Bodens haben wir das lieber gelassen und sind zum Pavillon der ewigen Jugend gewandert.
Hier war es diesmal noch ruhiger als sonst, denn auch hier gab es keine Affen. Auf dem Rückweg schoß ich dann noch ein schönes Foto von Gaoxiong im Smog. Da wollten wir also wieder hin.
Unser Getränkevorrat muß eigentlich immer nur für Aufstieg und Aufenthalt auf dem Berg reichen, denn für den Abstieg nehmen wir die normalen Wege - inklusive Treppenabkürzungen natürlich. Da läuft man dann durch einen immergrünen Tunnel.
Auch diese Woche trafen wir wieder die drei kleinen Hunde, die wir schon vorige Woche gesehen hatten. Da hatte ich ihnen bereits einen Roubao (ein Hefekloß mit Fleischfüllung) gegeben, und diesmal schienen sie noch hungriger zu sein.
Auch die Aluschale, die ich vorige Woche bemerkt hatte, war noch da und auch halbwegs mit Wasser gefüllt, aber sie nahmen trotzdem ein paar Schluck von dem Wasser, das Nimrod nicht mehr brauchte. Mal sehen, ob sie durchhalten werden...
Diesmal hatten sie sich scheinbar auch gleich Nimrod zum Pflegevater auserkoren, wovon der aber gar nicht begeistert war. Ich hätte sie sowieso nicht mitnehmen können... Kurz bevor wir wieder eine asphaltierte Straße erreichten, trafen wir dann doch noch einen Affen, allerdings wirklich nur einen.
Und so war wieder einmal eine Klettertour vorüber und Nimrod ziemlich geschafft - auch wenn er diesmal keine Gelegenheit hatte, Affen hinterherzujagen. Ach ja, alle Fotos sind nur mit dem Handy geschossen, die Qualität ist also nicht überragend...
我已經比較就沒有抱怨，所以應該可以，對不對？謝謝。我最近有買雙頻手機，因為終於想用中繼器。不過，到現在連一個QSO都沒有。
對一個歐洲人來說，台灣的中繼器真“特別”。多年前，我在台中有機會看人家組裝，安裝，踩下一台“中繼器”。那其實是一台Alinco的雙頻車機，設crossband repeater模式，然後接兩個烏龜：144跟430各一台功率放大器。那中繼器有裝在一個黑色的金屬盒（有風扇，但這還有什麼用？），然後裝在一棟高樓的屋頂上，也就是說在太陽下。需不需要解釋那台中繼器變成怎樣？不用吧。
為什麼台灣現在只有430的中繼器，沒有144的？是不是因為日本也沒有？各位有沒有發現其它國家在144也有中繼器？而1200或甚至2400也可能有。日本不是唯一有業餘無線電的國家。不過，他們也用漢字，所以對台灣人而言也許一些事情比較容易”參考“…
雖然台灣的法律會提到中繼器，但是聽說無法申請。那麼，如果根本沒有辦法申請，NCC考試的時候應該不用煩我們這種沒有意義的事？應該要問他們一下… 我也聽說目前的中繼器是為了緊急通訊而設的。所以，如果有台風或地震，一般的通訊設備都刮掉了，我們的中繼器應該會提供通訊服務，對不對？不過，我用新買的這台手機，連在最高功率設定從高雄市區沒有辦法開負責高雄的C6：從左營不行，從三民不行，從小港不行。看起來，下次台風或地震來，我最好不要依賴這些中繼器…
那我們談一下技術… 一段時間前我在Skype聊天室看到人家提到中繼器的輸入頻率都一樣。我看到差一點婚到了。兩個FM電台在同一個頻率發射，請問發生什麼事？干擾！如果你運氣不好，你什麼都聽不懂。如果運氣好一點，其中一個電台會比較強，所以至少可以聽到他。看起來當時終於有人發現幾台中繼器用同一個輸入頻率不是一個很好的注意。請考慮一下：電台A在台南跟高雄之間，C5跟C6都能夠聽到他，但他比較靠近台南。他呼叫，然後電台B從南高雄回答，所以只有C6聽得到電台B。請問，電台A會不會聽到電台B的回答？
你當然可以說”沒有問題！我們把所有的中繼器連接，還接到echolink，這樣每個中繼器會發出每個中繼器輸入頻率的信號。“而我一樣只會搖頭。這是緊急通訊要用的，對不對？那，你好像不會期待太多人需要用到。因為，這樣看起來，全台灣同時只有一個人可以講。啊，你也可以讓所有中繼器分開運作？不過，我們還是有一個問題：：輸出頻率都一樣。所以，如果南部有意外，而台南的電台要問高雄的情況，他好像不用問，因為C5不讓他聽到C6的信號。為什麼一個非常簡單，非常基本而非常邏輯的解決方法在台灣好像這麼難用：給每個中繼器自己的輸入跟輸出頻率！
這還有另外一個好處：當一個歐洲人我習慣在各頻帶有按照規劃分配頻率的中繼器。在歐洲使用中繼器很方便。在台灣：超麻煩。為什麼？因為輸入頻率跟輸出頻率的區別不一定。你沒有發現你的VHF/UHF收發機可以設定一個shift frequency？那是中繼器用的！我只要設定一次就好，之後只要叫收發機用這個shift就可以。我甚至已經多幾年可以叫它自動地使用這個shift，如果我在中繼器頻率範圍內。但在台灣我為了每一台中繼器需要分開設定輸入跟輸出頻率 - 或者要先計算那兩個頻率差多少，然後分開設定shift。
這很無聊，知道嗎？所以，請問，有沒有辦法做一點規劃，用同一個shift，而讓所有中繼器不會互相干擾 - 不管是輸入或輸出頻率？這會不會太難？希望有人會聽…
Just two weeks after I attended a German wedding, there was another Taiwanese one. And while it was a somehow "typical" Taiwanese, I was still grateful that it was not too "Taiwanese": No "important" people, no bragging, no singing, and actually some fun - even the newlyweds looked like they enjoyed the procedure. (Which is not always the case around here...)
Good luck to them...
PS: Sorry, cell phone photo...
Perhaps you have noticed that a few BV stations with a three-digit number in their call sign are on the air now. This is to celebrate the 100th anniversary of an accidental bomb detonation. While we here in the south have got BN100 assigned, our friends from the north let us use BV100 on our new-year fieldday.
So we decided to spend the last hours of 2010 and the first two days of 2011 near a few mud volcanos not far from Gaoxiong city. While we are living in the tropical part of Taiwan, our winter can be somehow chilly sometimes, especially in the mountains, especially when a "cold wave" approaches from China.
The timing was perfect: We, used to temperatures of 3x degrees March through November decided to sleep in tents on a mountain when night temperatures were down to nine or ten degrees. But with the right nutrition and motivation, we are ready to face even such challenges.
"We", that is KDARC, the "Kaohsiung DX Amateur Radio Club". Do not put too much emphasis on the "DX" part. While we do that, we are simply the most active radio amateurs here in Gaoxiong. This time we had visitors from ART, the "Amateur Radio Club Taipei", who were so nice to allow us the use of BV100.
They brought a battered but sturdy groundplane antenna and a very long Yagi for 2m, which they intended to use for EME. EME did not work out, but their GP allowed us a number of QSOs on the lower bands. Their 2m-Yagi was a special DX edition. As every die-hard VHF DXer knows, your location may be important, but for truly long-distance QSOs the electromagnetic waves should follow the earth's curvature - which can only be achieved with suitable antennas.
BV7RC, Ito san brought his magnetic loop (unfortunately his antenna tuner died, so he had to give up his longwire antenna) and his portable shack ladder.
You never really saw him doing much, compared to all the shouting (SSB) or shaking (CW) everyone else exhibited, but with JT65 he got more QSOs than anyone else in the end.
He is also the only one so far employing a JA-style antenna foundation, securing the antenna base with a car wheel.
BV7GA is using a different approach. He places a tripod, ties a mast to it, using rubber strips, and then hangs a water ballast onto the tripod. Such masts still need to be tied, but may very well stand without extra support as long as there is no wind.
He also prepared a few antennas for testing, for example a 6m quad made with an aluminum boom and fishing rods. Here is the assembly, together with BX7AAI.
The completed antenna may still require some "alignment". AFAIK, nobody did any QSO on 50MHz this time, so I am not sure how this antenna performs.
As mentioned before, BV7RC was the only one pursuing a somehow comfortable mode, everyone else had to work a bit harder for a QSO. Most were done in CW, for the simple fact that most people did CW.
The keyer BV7FC (right) uses in the photo above is indeed an old and weathered Kenpro keyer, belonging to BV7GC (left). It may be old and big, but it still works. BV7CW (he loves his suffix) prefers a smaller device based on a PIC controller.
Oh, btw, the (night) temperatures were not the only nemesis we encountered up on that mountain. There were more than hundred "alarm cocks", roosters bred by the people running the rest area in which we had settled.
They would start their carking business at about 0300 and continuously go on until nightfall, so it was never too silent. While sleeping was not on the top of our agenda, each of us will be glad to be able to sleep in a real bed tonight until an electronic alarm sounds at a somehow more civilized time in the morning.
We are a bit tired now, but it was fun, we had the chance to show some of the visitors passing by what amateur radio is and next time maybe our antennas will even work as they should.
Taiwan is a place with a very high population density, so you may perhaps imagine that large antennas are something not everyone can afford. If there is a chance to put a beam up, it will usually cover 20, 15 and 10m. On those bands, most hams here in Gaoxiong had already worked ZL8X, so this weekend we ventured to our monthly meeting ground, an abandoned factory area near the airport.
The plan was to put up dipoles for 80m and 17m, bands for which you rarely find antennas here in Taiwan. Our playground houses several shipping containers, some of which are used for storage. We put the centre of our dipoles on top of our "HQ container", which is actually two containers welded together.
Thanks to our enthusiasm we failed to notice that the second dipole we hung up was for 12m, not 17. Fortunately, this was not a problem for the tuner. I am not sure what the ZL8X crew is thinking when they are consecutively contacted by a bunch of people with similar call signs: BV7CW/BU/FO/GA/GC, BX7AAH/AAI etc, but it was fun. I guess one of the SP OMs was working 17m then, because he also spoke pretty good Russian.
These dipoles were only temporary installations, but as soon as BV7BU, our chief here in the south, got the HQ raised to three container heights we will install permanent dipoles there. I did some measurements today and found that even a 160m dipole is possible. Nice...
Nein, nicht die von Heckler&Koch, sondern der von irgendeinem Billighersteller.
"MP3"-Player waren ja ganz nett, konnten aber halt "nur" Musik abspielen. "MP4" war da schon ein Fortschritt, jetzt gab es auch was zu sehen. All das ist aber Schnee von gestern, denn wir haben bereits "MP5".
Der Unterschied? Nun, die Zahl ist höher, es muß also besser sein. Wer die höhere Versionsnummer hat. beherrscht den Markt, das hat doch schon Microsoft mehrmals vorexerziert...
Foto wurde in der Jianguolu hier in Gaoxiong geschossen, das ist unser hiesiges Elektronikviertel.
This is not just the title of the above Depeche Mode song, it is also the situation of amateur radio in Taiwan - officially, so to say. The only official amateur radio organization in Taiwan is the CTARL . They are the only ones who can talk to the "relevant authorities", so they are also the only ones who could initiate any changes - and they don't.
From previous posts you can probably see (if you can read Chinese) that I tried to explain concepts, analyze legal problems etc related to amateur radio. I did so because I hoped it could be useful. Well, it turns out I was wrong. While the CTARL may be aware to some degree that the local amateur radio law is flawed, they do not attempt any change because some of these problems were apparently caused by the CTARL. The crazy situation that a call sign is assigned to a transmitter instead of a radio amateur is one such problem.
So I was told directly that there will not be any change, for a number of reasons:
- Taiwan is special (Never forget this one!)
- Civil servants do not like to change anything because they may make mistakes and that would make them look bad.
- Some of the problems were caused by CTARL, so they do not like to stand up and say "Hey, we made a mistake last time, can we change that?"
- There are too few radio amateurs, so we have no power to change anything.
Especially the last argument is funny. It is anything but new. About ten years ago I had been CTARL member - more or less. I had asked for the situation of foreign hams in Taiwan and they told me that foreign radio amateurs could only get short-term licenses and they could not do much about it, and that I should join them to strengthen their voice if I wanted any change. Interestingly, I could only join as a second or third-class member, because I was considered an unlicensed citizen - even though I had a license since 1987. This means that I was allowed to pay, but not allowed to open my mouth.
So the arguments are still the same, the situation (snafu) is still the same, only the people have apparently been replaced over the years. So, what exactly is so "useless" here? A few days back I read that there are about 60,000 people with an amateur radio license here in Taiwan, but only 20,000 who set up a station. If you wonder about this discrepancy, the other 40,000 are drivers (coach, lorry) and other people using amateur radio equipment and frequencies illegally. To avoid fines, their bosses ask them to take the most basic test so they can show a valid license if the police checks. If you now think the system is flawed, you may be on to something...
But these numbers show more. Taiwan has a population of about 23m. If about 20,000 have set up an amateur radio station, then one in thousand Taiwanese is a radio amateur. I am German, so let us compare this to Germany: Population is about 81m, and the largest (the official one, so to say) amateur radio club has 45.000 members. No matter how many radio amateurs joined other clubs or none at all, the total number of radio amateurs will not reach 80,000. So, per capita, Taiwan has a lot more radio amateurs than Germany - but still, the German amateur radio club can achieve changes. How is that possible?
Maybe it is not just about the weather and whatever else gets blamed in Taiwan. When I was a CTARL member, I only noticed this fact because I had paid membership, received two CTARL stickers and sometimes (though very irregularly and usually one to four months late) a small brochure. That was it. There was no info about the local chapter (which did not really exist), no info before an event. (I read about those a few months later in that brochure.) Compared to the German DARC , the CTARL has no visible organizational structure. Btw, want to have fun? Go to Google, search for "darc site:.de" and you will see the official DARC website on position one. Now search for "ctarl site:.tw"...
There is a famous saying in Taiwan: "沒辦法". It is extremely popular, partly because it is so convenient. 沒辦法 itself can be translated as "there is no way (to do this)" or "it can not be done", and it is a very convenient excuse. It should however be noted that "我沒辦法" also means "I do not have the capability to get this done." I admit that sometimes I forget this and try to achieve some changes. Fortunately, there are always people reminding me that they are unable to do what should in theory be one of their objectives. I shall not disturb their peace again.
I already ranted about the exam, the law etc. Here are some pics from the NCC facility in Gaoxiong. Let us start with how/where the exam is conducted.
You will sit at such a computer. The computer is in the office, vehicles will drive by sometimes (though the area is rather silent), people will walk in, out and by, talk etc. When I went there, the house across the street underwent some kind of construction. There are no headphones to shield ambient noise. Questions appear written on the screen and are not read out aloud. On the left you see another "exam station", on the right is the "conversation room" - a small table and four seats. Right of that is the entrance.
Here are all kinds of fees. Missing on this list is the exam fee of NT$200, the same for all exams. That means you pay NT$200 for class 3, NT$400 (written and morse) for class 2 and NT$200 for class 1. The "amateur radio phone station license" is not correct (not even in Chinese), this should be a "movable amateur radio station license". (I do not want to use "mobile", because that usually means operation on a vehicle. The term used here, 行動式, just means that your station is not fixed.) The inspection fee for this is only NT$100 in comparison to the NT$500 for the fixed station because you bring the transceiver (or transmitter) in, while they have to go your place for the fixed station inspection.The NT$500 are for the card you can see further down.
A nice touch: You can check your blood pressure at all times, in case you remembered the garbage written in the law, the extremely intelligent and useful exam questions, or that the call sign is not actually given to you. As you can see in the upper right corner, this is right next to the fee table. What I did not photograph was the spectrum analyzer they use to verify your transceiver's power and harmonic emissions. I wonder though how far up that toy goes. Would they be able to test 10GHz equipment? How about 24GHz? Hmm, this may be worth another try...
Here you can see the class 2 license I was issued. Not much here, just my name and photo, no address, no ID number. So anyone with the same name and somehow looking the same (You may have noticed that rather large numbers of Asians have black hair and wear glasses...) could use this one, there is no unique identification item.
The back is insofar interesting as it is not quite correct. Considering how meticulous these people can be when they want to restrict you, it is funny that they issue a license with incorrect data. I tested in Gaoxiong, not in Taibei. And I was sitting there when this license was printed, so I know for sure that this did not happen in Taibei. Do they care? No, because this is their mistake, not yours. Their mistakes are not important, not even mistakes, only yours are.
Above is my station license. Above the table it says "movable (or non-fixed) amateur radio station license", then comes another faux pas: The first line is the "station name" (電台名稱). It is not "station type" or "station category", but still, as you can see, they wrote the same again: Movable amateur radio station... I already mentioned that the civil servants and the people who wrote the amateur radio law here in Taiwan do not understand amateur radio. They just see it as another kind of commercial radio, and here it shows again. The second line is the "owner" of this station - me. Please observe that there is no call sign on the front, only a note saying that this license has to be used in combination with the amateur radio license - which states not call sign either. So I have a license class 2, and I own an amateur radio station, but that is about it. To the back:
Here it gets interesting: The column on the outmost left says "radio device", so here you will find informations regarding the transmitter. (They do not care for receivers, only transmitters.) The first line is brand and type. I bought a cheap 2m HT for this, but I wonder what they would write for a homebrew transceiver. The transmitter's serial number must of course be registered in line two. Line three lists the output power (Does this thing really emit exactly 4.3000W?) and then (drum roll) the call sign. See? The transmitter has a call sign, not me! Now this is really stupid and is not even done in commercial radio.
Btw, the frequency range in the last line is the range where the device actually transmits. If your transceiver can transmit outside amateur radio bands - fail. What they either fail to notice or do not care about is that not only this cheap HT is only restricted through software. Press the right keys and it is "open"... You also get a sticker put onto your transmitter. It contains the device serial number, type etc, and funnily my ID - but not my name, and also not the transmitter's call sign.
One last reason to laugh (or cry, decide yourself): Fines. This flyer (A4 size, available in the NCC office for free) tries to convince you to "go legal", because otherwise you may be fined NT$100k to NT$500k. Ha, now this is a joke. The only people who could be fined are radio amateurs (and this fine also applies if you use frequencies or output powers that were not "approved"). If they would indeed go for illegals, they would swim in money, but also be in lots of trouble, because many of the illegal operators inside amateur bands or with amateur equipment do this commercially - and are sometimes linked to some legislator or other "powerful" person. So, the only people who could be fined, are those who try to be as legal as possible, everyone else is just fine.
Btw, the stupidity of the laws and regulations also shows in this rule: You need to show proof of where your transmitter comes from. You do this by either providing a receipt (which is why I bought a HT) or getting the ownership transferred from another station. Or you can "try" to import a device. (import permit...) It is not possible however to buy a second hand transceiver that someone used illegally, because then you can not provide the necessary "proof of origin". Why this "proof of origin" (來源證明) is necessary - no, you better not ask. But this rule effectively prevents the number of illegal transmitters from being reduced - good job!
Lovely...
我反對所謂的“機車兩段式左轉”。幾年前聽說是一位教授去德國學回來的。錯了。他沒有學。他只有看到一個東西，然後模仿，但是沒有了解。他沒有了解為什麼在什麼地方德國會有兩段式左轉。（答案：只為了腳踏車，因為它要靠人力，而且只有在多條車線的大馬路）原則上這樣兩段式做左轉根本已經不是左轉。而裝那些路標的人好像也不會特別考慮為什麼需要玩這個遊戲，所以他們會裝在完全沒有意義的地方，像這裡。
這不是“完整”的交叉口，後面綠燈之後就是愛河，而這附近也沒有橋。所以，從那邊不可能會有車來。我猜，高雄市政府有太多“兩段式左轉”路標，所以為了以防萬一多裝一些。反正“摩托車必須兩段式左轉”。（這一句要一直重復說，但是千萬不要東頭考慮為什麼要這樣做…）
PS：我知道那台自排車做什麼。是不是該說“台灣…”？
One of the crazy things one can do in Taiwan is taking an amateur radio exam. I did recently. They do (surprise!) not recognize foreign amateur radio licenses here, at least not long-time, so I had to. But I only did after I was encouraged by a number of local hams, like BV7BU, BV7CW, BV7GA, BV7GC, BV7RC and BM7GFO, plus many hams on the Taiwan Ham Radio Skynet, whom I would like to thank for their pushing and support. Without them, I would have thrown that book I bought to "learn" for the exam into the garbage and slammed my head against a wall.
First thing: You do not learn for the exam, you only memorize. You can pass the exam without having any clue about amateur radio. Next: Lots of questions deal with commercial radio issues instead of amateur radio matters. But somehow that is fine, because it is also how the government deals with amateur radio. And the best: Everything is in Chinese, most of it a pretty archaic Chinese not taught outside Taiwan usually, and even many numerals and units are in Chinese characters.
You have to start with the exam for class 3, and can proceed to the class-2 exam if you pass. If you pass that too, you have to wait one year after setting up a class-2 station, before you can test for class 1. Tests for class 3 are on Monday, for classes 2 and 1 on Friday. So I went there on Monday, passed the exam, and at once they issued me a license and charged me NT$500. When I went there on Friday, they told me that I did not need to get the class-3 license, I could have waited until I passed the class-2 exam. Nice... And even better: After I passed the class-2 exam, they asked me whether I wanted them to issue the class-2 license. Helloooo? Without a class-2 license I can not set up a station, and without having a class-2 station for one year I can not test for class 1!
The second exam itself was rather "entertaining". A few moments after I entered the office, all the civil servants suddenly streamed back into the office from a neighbouring room and rushed to their stations. Hmm, did I disturb a party? The lady who took my application was then unable to start the exam software on the exam computer (which is in the same office, so you have all the office traffic around you), because she did not have the control software installed on her computer. The software was installed on the computer next to her, but... Unfortunately, that lady had not yet received training for this "new" control software. After a while they found someone who had the software and knew how to use it and I took my exam.
Class 2 also requires a telegraphy (vulgo: morse) test. At this point, that test could actually be skipped. You only need to hear, not to send something yourself. What you need to copy are 18 groups of each five letters (no numbers or other characters!) at a speed of 5wpm. At that speed, you could basically copy every dot and every slash and sort it out later. This should be simple, but even this can get messed up. I suppose there have not been many people taking the class-2 exam for a while. There was only one person in the office who could start that exam, but... "Can you hear anything?" "No." In the end, he re-installed the software on another computer.
After you copied the groups, you have to use the mouse(!) to enter all letters into the computer. For this, you have 18 minutes, but the computer I used got bored after about two and closed the exam, so they had to check from my notes. An exam costs NT$200 (so NT$400 for class 2 due to two parts), the license fee is NT$500. On the license there is my photo, it is issued to me, but the license only mentions the class, no call sign at all.
For a call sign, you need a transceiver. Not just any transceiver of course, you need to provide proof of its origin - meaning you need a receipt. If you planned to buy a used one second hand from someone without license to get an illegal device off the air and make it legal - forget it. You can buy new, get the ownership transferred from someone who has a "legal" transceiver, import one after you applied for an import permit or (I heard only one person ever did this in Taiwan) build one.
But whatever you do, you need to get your transceiver "certified". You, as a licensed and (at least theoretically) qualified radio amateur have to use a device that only transmits within the amateur bands, while all the people who use them illegally just go to a shop and buy one that runs as far as its circuitry allows. So I bought a simple VHF handy transceiver and asked the people in the shop to "lock it up for inspection", because otherwise... It tested OK. They have a spectrum analyzer with power display there at their office, and the man behind the counter did indeed hook my HT up and checked its power and whether it would send outside 144-146MHz. One day I really want to take a homebrew transceiver for inspection...
Anyway, I got the call sign: BX7AAH. Interestingly, the card for this does not have my photo on it, because the call sign is issued to the transceiver. Commercial radio, anyone? The small (and of course not worth to mention) contradiction here is that if I "transfer" the transceiver to someone else, then his call sign will be written on the card. So, the call sign is issued to the transceiver, but is not really issued to the transceiver. They have probably not come to a decision yet, so they play these games. "Inspection" is NT$100 for an inspection in their office ("mobile station") and the transceiver ID card or whatever that thing should be called costs another NT$500.
I will probably write these things down in a slightly more systematic order one day, including tips for the exam (You do not need to memorize that much, actually. There are tricks...), but I set up a folder especially for amateur radio articles already and put there a slightly more extensive rant about the exam. After reading it, you will understand why it had to be a rant...
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