The authoritarian government of Belarus is purging the country’s ham operators, charging them with treason and seizing their radio equipment.

newsguyusa@flipboard.social

The authoritarian government of Belarus is purging the country’s ham operators, charging them with treason and seizing their radio equipment. https://steanlab.medium.com/mayday-389f5713fee4

chybnej@twiukraine.com

@newsguyusa with blessing from US nation, godspeed!

holdenweb@freeradical.zone

@newsguyusa Amy corroborating sources? An amateur friend of mine says he's still working them on HF - or is it only Baofeng owners?

vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de

@holdenweb @newsguyusa

there's a claim on the Reddit thread (by someone who lives in BY) that military/security forces and even civillian police are using cheap unencrypted equipment (similar to Western nations until the early 2000s) and using VHF and UHF frequencies including those within the ham bands, and these hams may have openly discussed monitoring such frequencies in places where the KGB found out..

(there's more info here, turn on autotranslate to read in English or your preferred language if you can't read Belarussian)

https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D1%8D%D0%BF%D1%80%D1%8D%D1%81%D1%96%D1%96_%D1%81%D1%83%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%86%D1%8C_%D0%B1%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%83%D1%81%D0%BA%D1%96%D1%85_%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B4%D1%8B%D1%91%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%9E