international amateur radio union
region 3
fourteenth regional conference
12 – 16 october 2009 christchurch, new zealand
document no. 09/xiv/019
agenda item: 10.1.11
the status report of
amateur radio in china
by chinese radio sports association
1, general information
the total number of individual amateur radio stations in the mainland of china is about 19,000, while the number of active club stations is 124, as counted in march 2009.
in fact there are over 10,000 new comers get amateur radio station licenses each year, the total number of certified amateur operators during the past 10 years is accumulated as over 70,000. however, as the license is valid for 2 years and about the same number of previous licensees did not renew their license in time in each year, the net population of valid transmitting amateur radio station appears almost flat.
the majority of radio amateurs in the country is relatively young, peaked at age around 30. most of the newcomers begin with mobile uhf/vhf voice communication, while about 5 % of them have joined the new main troops in classic activities like dxing, contesting or cw.
the equipment affordability was one of the barriers some 10 years ago. now as the living standard of people has been somewhat improved since then, as well as the domestic radio industry can offer low-end uhf/fm amateur band handheld transceivers, some are as low as 300 yuan rmb (equivalent to less than 50 usd), the modern commercialized radio transceivers are now widely acceptable for new amateurs. in another view from business, the amateur radio market in china is still too small to be attractive. partly for this reason, also partly for the fun to some diy enthusiasts, the personal exchange of home-made products among radio amateurs becomes the main source for some items such as hf linear amplifiers, hf antennas, radio-computer interfaces for digital modes, low cost cw/ssb hf qrp transceivers, kit for qrp or dds module, and the hardware for experimental software defined radio receiver, etc..
the publications for amateur radio become richer during the past few years. the number of magazines dedicated or strongly involving in amateur radio technique is expanded from one to three, and over dozen of amateur radio technical books were written or translated. the first ever commercialized chinese ham-expo was successfully experienced this year in shanghai. the preparation for the first amateur satellite is on its way.
2, the amateur radio organizations
the first club station, by1pk, was owned by sport organization at 1958, so the amateur radio activities in china were supervised by sports department since then.
but recently this structure is in a smooth change. after a long preparation, a new national radio society, radio association of china (rac), directed by the national radio administration, was born in early 2009. now rac is establishing its devoted amateur radio division. it is expected to offer more services and coordination for radio amateurs and more presenting amateur radio in china, while crsa will be more concentrated in the development of “radio sports” in china, such as ardf and hst, and youngster’s activities.
3, the standing
amateur radio in china was paused for almost half century until 1990s, this made it not well known among few generations, thus there was considerable misunderstanding about amateur radio among people. however, this situation is being greatly changed in the past years.
many educational articles, web-pages, photos, videos and demonstrations made by radio amateurs were publicized during the past decades. now more and more reports and stories about amateur radio made by media circle have been appeared on national and local newspapers, tv and radio programs. a number of prizes from local government agencies were given to radio amateurs for their spirit and contributive actions in the amateur radio emergency communication services in some main disasters. so far amateur radio has earned considerable standing in the community.
4, the future
comparing with the huge overall population in the country, the number of radio amateur is still low. by the lesson from the devastating earthquake in 2009, high ham density would be essential for any effective amateur radio emergency communication system to survive. from this point, more or more knowledgeable people are calling for the boost of amateur radio in china.
in another hand, china becomes one of the largest radio business market, and radio technology is strongly effecting people’s daily life. this leads that the education in radio knowledge is widely demanded. from this point, amateur radio is encouraged by radio administration.
what the radio administration and amateur radio organizations will be focused in the near future is to optimize the licensing service system so that newcomers in all locations can find easier way to access the facilities for application submission, licensing training and examine etc.
however, it is a hard job for us to find out a way to better merge the classic amateur radio with the main trends of modern radio world to sustain the charm of our hobby to the young generations to come.
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