Bangalore City has an active community of Ham (amateur radio) across the city ready to communicate with their friends in any part of the world and even ready to serve in times of emergencies and calamities.
"Ham (Amateur Radio) is a scientific hobby, used to communicate with other Hams located in any part of any of the 300+ countries", says S Sathyapal, Director, Indian Institute of Hams (IIH). There are a number of hammers from different walks of life like students, educationists, scientists, engineers, doctors, lawyers, technicians, housewives, film stars, officials, ministers, the list is endless. Among the famous Hams are Sonia Gandhi, Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Hassan, late King Hussain of Jordan and late astronaut Kalpana Chawla.
Isn’t it surprising, that in this world of internet and mobile technology, amateur radio operating which involves a two-way communication system using radio waves continues to arrest the attention of so many people? There are almost 18,000 hams in India and over a million across the globe with Japan topping the list with more than 13,50,000 hams. India has Ham sat; a satellite put into orbit by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the benefit of amateur radio operators. The origin of the term Ham is unknown but it has been into existence since early 1900s. The name — amateur has nothing to do with skill or knowledge; it implies that ham radio cannot be used for commercial or revenue generating purposes.
Old concept
Radio communication is not a novel concept; it has been in use by police, defence personnel, and sailors in their routine work. However, it also has an immense potential to transmit messages by the common man, especially so at times of disaster. Late Rajiv Gandhi was an enthusiastic ham operator. He once picked up a distress call from the Red Cross in Bangladesh which was hit by a storm. He requested the National Institute of Amateur Radio Operators for use of their network for relief operations.
When commercial communications services are disrupted Amateur Radio operators are often first at the scene. Time and again they have helped the Government in relief operations like in Gujarat earthquake, Bhopal gas tragedy, Orissa cyclone, during Tsunami etc. Radio-amateurs also conduct Fox Hunts (Radio Direction Finding) sports and are a backbone to provide communication during major sports events like National or Asian games, motor rallies etc. Any Indian citizen with minimum age of 12 years can join the ham community. You have to graduate a examination conducted by Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Government of India to obtain the ham license. You will be allotted a unique call sign — an identification code of prefix and suffix, which is used for communication. “My code is VU2FI, where FI stands for Father of India”, said Sathyapal.
A registered body
Indian Institute of Hams (IIH) is a registered body founded in the year 1992 by S Sathyapal and RJ Marcus in the interest of promoting Ham Radio as a scientific hobby and a Radio Sport in the country.
Members meet on the last Sunday of every month at Ham Radio Station Room No 98, 2nd Floor, Shree Kanteerava Outdoor Stadium to discuss on various topics and activities. It also conducts programmes to train Ham operators. Workshops, mock drills, demonstration, lectures, slide and video presentations are also.
They also conduct live awareness programs on ham radio and help in setting up Ham Radio Clubs.
The IIH has been instrumental in setting up a full-fledged Ham club in the Bangalore Military School.
So what are you waiting for? For details contact S Sathyapal: 9448302677.
