I'll explain more the issue. I came to travel in Thailand in difficult wild terrain. I know that in Thailand restricted the importation of radio and telecommunication equipment. A very recent case, Russian tourists almost got jailed for using radios walkie-talkie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYQwV2F7Juk (sorry, video in russian) I couldn't find the rules explicitly deny or explicitly allow the use in Thailand of satellite phones or trackers. I'm afraid of problems arise at customs upon entry to the Kingdom, because radio and telecommunication equipment is a very broad sense. On Thai forums write that you can be planted by importing of 1m of coaxial cable. http://forum.rast.or.th/index.php?topic=305.msg2143#msg2143
OTOH, it could get worse. In some places authorities will confiscate items that are legal to have in hopes of getting paid a tip right there for returning them.
Bserg2, I travel to various parts of the globe and have a bit of experience with several countries. The basic answer is to do a bit of research via the embassy of the country you are going to. Don't rely on news media or hearsay.
If you are a hamradio operator (as I am - NA5P), contact ARRL. They can tell you a lot, and in some cases arrange for a "visitor" temporary license. Australia, for example assigns you a temporary call sign. Since I am on the board of the American Climber Science Program (we do environmental research in high mountains around the planet), I can comment on a few countries. We have taken inReaches to Peru and Nepal with no problems. But we had Peru confiscate some electronic gear (not communications) on one expedition. Customs held the gear until one of our group was headed back to the US. Customs let him take the gear with him back to the US. Since we work with the Peruvian national parks and their Environmental program, we were able to bring the gear back down after a bit of negotiation.
The bottom line is contact the embassies, and Customs ahead of time, and do a lot of research into what the country says about foreigners. In countries with dictatorial governments, tread verrryyy lightly. And that includes countries with strong religious rules.
