In an apparent attempt to legitimize his actions, F1SHS created on the 28th April 2009 an association (legal entity typically for non-profit organization as defined by a 1901 law) called “Digital Radio Amateur France” (DRAF, which he likes to spell DR@F) for which he is the President.
A shady operation
Any legitimate amateur-radio association is transparent: they publish the number of members (most of them actually list their members callsigns on their website) , welcome anyone during their scheduled meetings, indicate how they get their funding, respond to inquiries from hams interested to join, and often publish a short blog about their meetings outcomes.
Not with the DRAF however. F1SHS refuses to indicate the number of active members of this association, how it gets its funding, there are no meetings a non-member can attend (it seems there is actually no meeting taking place at all), no response is provided when inquiring how the association operates, and no meeting minutes is available. Typically association law 1901 have at least one yearly assembly meeting that anyone can attend, but not the DRAF.
However, it is this association that is being utilized by F1SHS when he offers to manage or represent amateur radio resources. It is also this association that registered trademarks and send lawsuits threats to amateur radios who for example use the words “DMR” and “France” next to eachother on their web pages. The DRAF social media accounts are also re-twitting/broadcasting messages that often origin from F1SHS.
Refusal to respond to questions about the association organization
The screenshot shows “STEP 1” with a tweet asking “How many active member give the DR@F its credibility ?”
The second part “STEP 2” shows a tweeter notification for the DRAF account to the original poster of the question above, saying “You have been blocked, you can no longer follow @DigitalHam, nor see @DigitalHam’s Tweets. Learn more.”
An non-representing amateur radio association
It seems the DRAF association isn’t in any way representing nor speaking on behalf of a group of amateur radio. Furthermore, its website indicates that its goal is to “promote the digital radio technologies […]” , but nowhere does it mention it is representing amateur radio operators. This would mean that F1SHS is the only person represented by the DRAF and the only one to manage its activities. Most of the people who come to this conclusion publicly see their social media accounts closed (see how F1SHS shuts down criticism), but some manage to keep it open:
Translation: with 5 members, the dr@f @DigitalHam (F1SHS) can say they represent amateur-radio operators ? i didn’t do it so it sucks.
A personal tool for F1SHS to reach his objectives ?
This association is far from just promoting digital amateur radio. It is definitely a cover for F1SHS to take control of as many digital amateur radio ressources as possible, and dictate how it should be utilized and manage it without any community approval. It is also the association under which F1SHS sends legal threats to amateur radio operators.
Translation: The Dr@f only exists to defend personal interests of F1SHS its President.
Translation: digitalham (aka F1SHS/DRAF) is calimero association, champion of legal actions, too far from reality, play radio in its corner
At this stage, the goal and mentality of this association is clearly far from the amateur radio spirit.
Need to hide ?
Below is a screenshot of a message F1SHS sent to seomeone via Twitter messenger, where he explains his association needs to operate secretly:
F1SHS now asks webmasters to remove any mention of him as the president of the DRAF association on their websites. Here is an example on the REF Association (a real and transparent amateur radio association) website:
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Would a real association whos goal is genuinely to act for the good of the french amateur radio community behave like this? We’ll let you decide…