Fol­low­ing Thai­land’s worst flood­ing in 2011 that killed 800 peo­ple, affect­ed near­ly 14 mil­lion and dis­rupt­ed the econ­o­my, the famed HS0AC Ama­teur Radio sta­tion is now com­plete with a meet­ing facil­i­ty at the Asian Insti­tute of Technology. 

The dev­as­tat­ing flood­ing in 65 of 77 provinces also destroyed the Ama­teur Radio facil­i­ty in cen­tral Thai­land, which received many dona­tions and offers of help to re-estab­lish the station. 

Dur­ing the flood Thai radio ama­teurs stepped in to help with emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions and hand out sup­plies.  Work­ing with the Min­istry of Pub­lic Health they saved almost 1,000 lives.

Nation­al Broad­cast­ing and Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mis­sion (NBTC) used HS0AB for the Government’s Flood Relief Oper­a­tions Command.

The NBTC praised the role that radio ama­teurs played to help peo­ple cope with the dis­as­ter by pro­vid­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tions sup­port, espe­cial­ly help­ful in flood­ed areas where sev­er­al mobile phone cell sites had failed. 

Gov­ern­ment agen­cies used the Ama­teur Radio com­mu­ni­ca­tions infra­struc­ture when their own net­works failed. Using their skills and expe­ri­ence radio ama­teurs kept com­mu­ni­cat­ing with one anoth­er under adverse conditions.

RAST Pres­i­dent Jack Han­tongkom HS1FVL, who recent­ly led a restora­tion team, will hold an “HS0AC Open House” event on August 3, invit­ing Thai radio club rep­re­sen­ta­tives to attend.

Delays in the rebuild­ing were due to con­sid­er­a­tion of mov­ing the sta­tion, but even­tu­al­ly it was decid­ed to stay put. With help of pro­fes­sion­als the repair and refur­bish­ment work began under the guid­ance of Jack HS1FVL.

A new inte­ri­or with tables and chairs, air-con­di­tion­er, light­ing, elec­tri­cal and plumb­ing work done, and new anten­nas and coax­i­al cabling installed. 

Sev­er­al RAST mem­bers donat­ed equip­ment, includ­ing a microwave oven and 25 down­lights to replace flu­o­res­cent light­ing to avoid bal­lasts that may cause interference.

Among oth­er donors are Yae­su giv­ing FT2000 trans­ceivers and the IARU Region 3. New anten­nas, most­ly monoban­ders, are stacked on the three towers.

Look out for a big HS0AC sig­nal dur­ing spe­cial event activ­i­ties and con­tests. RAST, a mem­ber soci­ety of the IARU Region 3, is expect­ed to be par­tic­u­lar­ly active dur­ing its 50th anniver­sary year.

- Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.