A short discussion on Taiwan's amateur radio Skype chat today reminded me (Thanks, Rob! Btw, I was serious with that suggestion...) that I need to embarrass people from time to time. Not just any people of course, but those who deserve it, because unfortunately this is often the only way to achieve change here in Taiwan. You have to "hurt the feelings" of people in charge, or they will just go on as it pleases them. Feelings can be more important than laws on this island. An example:

About 16 years ago a lot of youngsters were racing through Taizhong on their scooters. To be honest, that had happened before, and is is still happening these days, and not just in Taizhong. The police usually sits back and lets them race, hurt people etc. Why should the police get involved? They might get hurt in the process...

Besides, it is much more pleasant to sit inside, drink some tea and chat with friends. 16 years ago however, the gangs in Taizhong overdid it. IIRC they even killed people, and especially they raced every night on predictable tracks, one of them being the Double-Ten Road. They were so predictable that local media started to wait for them and shoot photos for a few exciting stories.

Then national media came down from Taibei, including TV. You could just stand on the bridge across Double-Ten Road near the station and wait a while - your "prey" would surely come. That caused a bit of "concern" among legislators, because a few more people started asking a bit louder why media can photograph and even film those gangs, but the police seems unable to catch them. However, that was "concern" only.

Embarrassment set in when international media started publishing this. Now the world was shaking their heads in disbelief. (Believe it though, it's true...) That was when suddenly the police was able to set up a trap and catch the whole gang. After they did, the police threw all the scooters together and even smashed them. After all, they had to show that they were upholding the law - by breaking it. Even in Taiwan the police is not allowed to destroy people's property at their convenience. But what is a law...

OK, that was an old story, here is a new one: Amateur radio is in pretty bad shape in Taiwan. There are not many radio amateurs left now I have to admit, but an important reason for this is to find in the laws and regulations governing amateur radio. The number of radio amateurs can also hardly be the main reason for the current situation, because it had also been like this when there were more of us. So what is wrong?

One thing that is rotten in the state of Taiwan is frequency use. Oh, there are rules and regulations, of course, and one thing you learn in/for the exam is that lots of those are "according to and based on international rules and regulations". That is even true - in theory.

Amateur radio is regulated globally by the IARU. They however can only use frequency contingents allocated by the ITU . Electromagnetic waves do not care for political borders, so things need to be coordinated internationally. So the IARU creates band plans for the three ITU regions on this planet. Sorry, the band plan for region 3 (where Taiwan is located) is a rather poorly written and formatted Word document, but if we have a look at region 1, you can see that the 2m band (144-146MHz) is "used throughout the world".

The 2m band is also exclusively for amateur radio, unlike 70cm (430MHz), where amateur radio not only has to share, but is often secondary. Even the NCC, Taiwan's national regulation body, acknowledges this . (Word file, better look here ) You can also have a look at this PDF (page 25). Nice theory, right?

In practice however, things are very different. Down here in Gaoxiong you will hardly ever hear a radio amateur on that band. What you will hear are coach and lorry drivers, taxis, hospitals etc. Does the NCC do anything about it? No, too inconvenient.

There is even an official emergency frequency on 145.00MHz. This itself would not be bad, if it was done properly. Japan has an emergency and call frequency there. That means people will often call on that frequency and then move to another one after they established contact to another station. It also means that many people are listening, so in case of an emergency there will be people hearing you on that frequency. It is however an amateur radio emergency frequency, used by radio amateurs.

Not so in Taiwan. Here you will find hospitals on that frequency. No joke. They even do regular equipment tests. So, Taiwan is officially violating its own laws, and nobody cares about it. But it gets better: I was climbing again today on a hill near my place. And again I was listening into 2m when I was up there. Right on 145.00MHz I heard a taxi company issuing orders to their fleet. (Taxi has btw an official slot allocated at 139MHz .) 

So, not only do official institutions (Department of Health ) violate national laws and the national regulation body (NCC) does not care, they do not even care when those violations get violated. The only people with bad cards here are radio amateurs, because they can be fined about US$3000 if they do anything not allowed by the pretty restrictive (and often ridiculous or meaningless) rules. Just read BX2ABT's adventures , the entry for 2011-02-16 for example. (Sorry, he is using a rather simple CMS, no direct link to that entry possible.) Legal radio amateurs are the only ones who have to obey those rules, everyone else is happily doing whatever illegal activity they are pursuing.

Now, if you would like to support us, read this, have a laugh or shake your head and tell others how third-worldish some things are in Taiwan. What we here in Taiwan say does not mean much to them, but when the world laughs about them, the people in charge may get uncomfortable enough to finally do something.