INDIAN OFFICIALS ACT AGAINST UNAUTHORIZED HANDHELDS

In India, officials are taking aim against the sale and marketing of hand-held radios that they say violate consumer and telecommunications regulations. Jim Meachen ZL2BHF explains.

JIM M: Authorities in India have announced a crackdown on the listing and sale of hand-held transceivers from China that they say break laws governing consumer protection and the unauthorised use of radio frequencies.

Stories in various Indian media outlets identify some of the 13 e-commerce sellers in question as Facebook, Amazon, Flipkart and IndiaMART, among others.

The nation’s consumer affairs commissioner Pralhad Joshi said that the violations of the Indian Telegraph Act, the Wireless Telegraphy Act and rules governing the use of low and very low power short-range RF devices were being broken. Acting as an advocate for radio users, the West Bengal Radio Club’s secretary, Ambarish Nag Biswas VU2JFA, told the Statesman website that users of these radio sets could interfere with police and other agencies’ communications and gather sensitive information relating to national security.