Singaporean detained in Phuket Thailand over walkie-talkie

[Zenithpool]

During one of my trip to Kulai, I come back with 4 (all of them return me at GP stopover). And its was discovered at the checkpoint. I end up sitting inside custom officer for hour + (no, no kopi served), gotten a letter from them and told to contact IDA within 7 days. called IDA 5 days later, and gotten a warning from them for 1st offence.

[Shor]

Actually in a convoy, not necessary to carry walkie talkie......get the local SIM card, as simple as that, avoid all those harassment! IMHO

 

 

 

During one of my trip to Kulai, I come back with 4 (all of them return me at GP stopover). And its was discovered at the checkpoint. I end up sitting inside custom officer for hour + (no, no kopi served), gotten a letter from them and told to contact IDA within 7 days. called IDA 5 days later, and gotten a warning from them for 1st offence.

 

[Hoppie24]

dun need any walkie talkies..nowadays mobile phones got conferencing call mode

 

Paying overseas phone charges? Can don go thru the mobile providers meh?

[Andrefoo]

Just came across this while searching online. Seems like the incident happened December 2010. Wonder if driver is from this forum. Anyway, he was charged and fined 18600thb in court and given back passport after a month. Just to share.

 

http://rastforum.com/index.php?topic=642.0

 

Hello Everyone,

 

I am new in here. Just a brief introduction of myself and why am i in here.

 

I am from Singapore and currently i am being detained in Phuket Thailand, Please allow me to share with you, what actually happened. With a group of friends,that are keen 4x4 drivers, we drove from Singapore, via Malaysia to Phuket Thailand. With the need to communicate in the convoy, we were all using walkie talkies in our cars, as it was expensive to communicate via mobile phones.

 

All went well when we crossed the international border into Thailand, but my nightmare started when we were driving in Phuket Island on the 1st of December and we were stopped at a routine roadblock at Kamala checkpoint in Phuket. I was detained as i was using a handheld Yaesu FT60 Walkie talkie and i found out at the moment that it was illegal to use this in thailand. Despite my explainations that i was using it for car to car communications and i was unaware that a license was required to bring or use it in thailand, it fell on deaf ears. The Officer asked me for a bribe of 20,000bt to let me go, but i politely explained to him that i didnt have that much cash on me and it was in the hotel room. We couldnt' communicate well and therefore i made a call to the Singapore embassy in Thailand and asked the officer to translate for me.

 

After passing the phone to the officer and after my embassy has spoken to the thai police officer, i was detained and driven to the police station where i was thrown into the prison lock up for a night. I was susbquently released on bail the next day, when my Singaporean friends bailed me out for a whopping 100,000 bt, the thai cell mate that shared the cell with me, was locked up for possesion of drugs and his bail was only 40,000 bt. I was told to report back on the police station on the 9th of december when my understanding was that i would be sent to the court to face the sentence. but it wasn't the case, i was instead taken to the thai immigration department to extend my passport where i paid 1900bt to extend my passport and had to give 500bt to the policeman as "service charge".

 

Up to today, i do not know my charge and i was told that i had to remain in thailand and unable to return to thailand for like 1-2months while they investigate and send the walkie talkie for investigations and testing. I have since engaged a lawyer and he is doing all his best to get me home. right now, i am stranded in phuket thailand and unable to return home because of a possession of a walkie talkie. I do not know how soon i can return home but i really do miss home and just want to get home asap. I might risk losing my job back in Singapore and my finances are drying up even as i stay in Phuket.

 

This is my 3rd time visiting Phuket, and it is indeed a beautiful country with lovely people,throughout my ordeal. I have met and made new friendships with the thai people.

 

i am appealing to all in this forum for any form of assistance, advice. It was suppose to be a holiday but it turned into a nightmare. As a tourist, there was no way that i would ever be aware of such "strict" laws governing the use of walkie talkies in thailand.

 

Best Regards

 

i know the fella... friend of mine.... he's back safe in SG and still doing convoys, although you can be sure he's really careful nowadays as far as laws are concerned...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tigershark1976]

thats why i always feel that Singaporean is too pampered.... there are countries thats worst than Mal n Thai... go to African county... the custom officers can simply detain you and ask for kopi lui without even giving you any excuse..

[Jasonjst]

this serve as a warning for those convoy to Thailand or MY..

 

ALWAYS switch off/hide walkie talkie on a road block...

 

Malaysia also cannot meh ?

I alway use it in Malaysia , luckily never got caught so far ..

[5936]

This is very clear cut illegal.

This are not those we can get off the shelves from departmental or electrical stores, workng on amateur band width.

These are programmable high power dual band UHF and VHF walkie talkie and output of up to 5W.

5W is the legal output limit for any handheld walkie talkie.

Even law enforcement use only max 5w for their hand set.

Sure get into trougble with their local police.

 

 

[Shull]

Just FYI, also illegal to bring walkie talkie back to sg, even if bought here. You must show the proper usage license

 

I thought as long as got sticker "approved by IDA", it's legal to use in SG?

 

Malaysia of course can forget about it lah..

[Aimnfire]

different country have different frequency that allow walkie talkie to be use

 

for singapore and most europes using pmr 446mhz frequency while that frequency is illegal in america and canada

 

in america and canada they are using frs and gmrs frequency (google for it)

 

while australia, new zealand and malaysia using 477mhz

 

there are no standard free channel around the world

 

yes please hide your walkies while in other country

it is a major offence using wrong frequency

[Acieed]

The morale of the story is don't be a self-centered Singaporean thinking the world is only 700 sqm. Be a good global citizen, respect and abide by other country's laws.

 

 

[Thaiyotakamli]

i got walkie talkie and its motorola brand, dun know illegal to use or not? its this model

 

[Whatisthis04]

I'm curious y he was the only one detained? How abt the others in the convoy also using WT?

 

 

[Ysc3]

FRS walkie talkie for use in small area / workplace is ok - as long as within your own country / compound.

 

if you go other country, first there is the radio frequency licensing thingy, then there is also their "law".

 

even if you go CIQ and for no apparent reason use walkie, the security will be suspicious lah ! and some qalkie got auto search mode and you might even accidentally tap into those unsecured networks.

 

btw, most transport companies in SG uses trunk repeater services - but its a paid licensed service - so that our walkie talkie has a private bandwidth and we can communicate unlimited all over the island.