Ticket to Airwaves - A look back

The Other Side of Me!

It was festival of lights and the cool evening of Bangalore was glittering amid the

quiet ambience of a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown. I had been air-dashed to the silicone city nearly a couple of months ago for a medical treatment following a horrendous accident at New Delhi. Observing the cityscape from my terrace, the evening hours were no different from the other metropolitan cities and towns with shutters down and deserted streets.

There were intermittent Diwali greetings phone calls and WhatsApp messages piled up in my mobile which I decided to check them only once I hit the bed. One of the messages congratulating me set my day. It was from a Gurgaon based senior Ham Radio Operator, VU2CW alias, Rajesh Chandwani. He had procured my licence from the Wireless Planning & Coordination Wing, Ministry of Communication, Government of India, New Delhi and sent it to my WhatsApp. Photo: Diwali at Bangalore

Next day the first thing I did was to get through the drills of being registered in the Echolink platform. Once I was through, opened the App in my mobile, went to the settings and typed “Listening mode” in the name field. The reason behind doing this was to get a fair taste of the various Nets around the world before finally deciding to check-in to the Nets of my choice since some of them conducts in their respective local language which I try best to avoid. Globally, English is considered the universal language of communication in Ham Radio or Amateur Radio and hence, the popular phrase - “One World, One Langauge”. Incidently, Echolink does not provide the listening mode option, though.

Earlier on 30th October 2020, in a unique way monitored the Delhi local VHF Net live on the VU2DLR repeater faraway from my Bangalore QTH (residence of a Ham) that appeared to have spiked up all my good hormones - serotonin, dopamine, endorphins and oxytocin. Was pretty down due to the fatal wound in my right hand which has left me crippled, but a sudden video call that integrated live audio feed of the Delhi VHF Net, chased away that gloomy mindset.

Blending airwaves with the cyber highway was just like a fusion indeed. Unlike the technologically advanced VU2FUN and VU2HUB Delhi repeaters which are privately owned by two enterprising brothers - Karan Bakshi (VU2IB) and Rajesh Bakshi (VU3FUN), VU2DLR repeater is not patched to the Echolink platform. The ingenuity of Pradeep (VU2AK) of pulling me into the Delhi Net was much appreciated. I remember the kind words of encouragement for getting well soon poured in from senior Hams like Kamath (VU3SLJ), Net Controller of that day, Sandeep (VU2MUE) including several other Hams.

For a short while the Net signals went down and so the audio quality too deteriorated resulting in latency. Some of the callsigns which had exceptional audio quality were VU2CW, VU2FR, VU2LO, VU2BQF, and VU2NW. It was even interesting taking me for a virtual tour to VU2AK’s shack which had some homebrew rigs among others.

On 17 December 2020, I took the afternoon flight from Kempgowda International Airport (KIA), Bangalore and had returned to New Delhi for a week. Figured out the frequencies and then programmed my radios to the local repeaters. Honestly, it was like reviving my old hobby but, now legally and no more in a hush, hush manner playing with transceivers and antennas which I used to do during my school and university days. 

On a chilly Christmas eve was my maiden appearance in the Delhi VU2DLR repeater when I had gone live on air in the VHF Net. VU2MUE, handle, Sandeep was the net control station on that day. Pushing a mere four watts of power with my handheld radio and the stock rubber ducky enabled all Hams tuned in to the frequency to copy my signals fairly loud and clear.

Next evening, 25 December 2020 on Christmas day, I flew to the City of Joy. At the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport I got a bit worried about my cabin luggage since I was carrying my two little radios, cameras, power bank, including few other electronic items. Just like any other passengers in the queue, I had also picked up a tray and placed my hand luggage in it for the automated roller rails to take it through the scanner for security check. Photo: Christmas carol singers inside IGIA, New Delhi 

Meanwhile, I was already physically frisked and was waiting for my hand luggage at

the other end. Suddenly, I noticed the scanner’s light change from green to red and my tray was subsequently moved to an adjoining track roller rail for a physical check. There were few other trays before mine and I was watching them slowly approaching one after the other for a thorough check by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel. 

Passengers who were carrying larger than permissible size of liquids and perfumes, chemicals, lighter, matchbox, greasy bottled eateries such as pickles, pen knifes, sharp objects, etc were summarily confiscated, while many were reprimanded too. All this while I had been keenly watching others that gave jitters and remotely made me feel like a miscreant for no reason.        Photo: St Paul's Cathedral, Kolkata

Finally, when my turn came, a CISF officer pointing objects at his computer screen

which reflected images from inside my cabin luggage, asked me what was it and to take it out. I took out my electric beard trimmer, the transceivers and along with it flaunted my Amateur Radio Licence. The CISF personnel after quickly examining the licence which had the prominent insignia of government of India, immediately responded with a courtesy saying, “Sir if this (licence) had been shown earlier then you would not been held so long, apologies…” I told myself COVID rules anyways makes it mandatory for passengers to check in two hours before flight schedule and I had enough time to loiter or relax at the airport lounge. Photo: View from inside the aircraft while midair 

After landing in Kolkata, pulled out the two little handies. One of them was put on scan mode while on the other I punched in frequencies of the local repeaters. It was fun checking in to the regular VHF Nets on the repeater as well as making QSOs (communication bewteen Hams) on Simplex mode that sometimes led to interesting ragchew (discussion between Hams over the air). It was nice to check in to the two Kolkata Nets run by WBRC (West Bengal Radio Club) and BARS (Bengal Amateur Radio Society). Photo: The picturesque Ganges River in Kolkata

Some of the familiar Hams who used to conduct the regular Nets on the WBRC repeater were Saurav (VU3JXF), Sangita (VU3ZIH), Soham (VU3WNJ), Ambarish (VU2JFA) and Kawsar (S21SKV) who operates from Dinajpur in Bangladesh. 

Here something unique which I had noticed was that the BARS repeater which had

turned faulty since long ago, did not dither it’s regular VHF Net as it was being carried on in Simplex mode at 145.200 MHz daily from 10:00 PM to 10:30 PM. I remember coming across Ashish (VU2GMT), one of the Net Control Station and few others whose callsigns I do not remember. 

 

During my short span in this city that was decked up with Christmas and New Year decors, I had done several experiments with regards to range tests which was very enriching. This exercise also helped me in building new Ham friends over the airwaves and I assured to visit them in my future visit to the City of Joy. Photo: Park Street, Kolkata  

After spending a little over a week in Kolkata, next I flew to the Garden City on 3rd

January 2021. While I was racing to the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport (NSCBIA), Kolkata to board steel wheels, back in my mind I was again apprehensive about the security check of my cabin luggage as I was carrying my handies besides, other electronic items. However, it was a breather indeed - security check here at the NSCBI Airport sailed off without any hindrance.

On landing at the Kempgowda International Airport (KIA), Bangalore in the evening, I pulled out my two radios again and set them on scanning mode. Was simply delighted to discover that the radios triggered all the repeaters and were roaring with strong signals. Photo: An aero bridge at IGIA, New Delhi

Two VHF Nets were underway while I was alternatively monitoring both the stations. After listening for a while, I pressed the PTT (press to talk) button and first checked in to the Indian Institute of Ham repeater. Dr. Sathyapal, VU2FI was the Net Control Station who had accorded a warm welcome into the Silicone Net.

This was followed by checking into the QNY Memorial Net. Net Control Station, VU2YVK, who is affectionately addressed as Vijayda, had some real kind words for my maiden appearance in the R-3 repeater. He had also briefed me about the timings of other daily morning Nets and requested to check in for the same as well as the R5 repeater. Photo: Bailey, the eleven years old black English Cocker Spaniel always by my side 

Interestingly, several VHF Nets running in a day as well as QSOs on Simplex mode and the abilities of my cheap little radios to trigger all repeaters including several Simplex signals from my Bangalore QTH made me feel them as precious as just like any owners of the premium Kenwood TH -D74 or Yaseu FT-3DR are to them.

I started regularly checking all the Nets and the best part was that within a short time

my callsign had got pretty familiar with all the Net Control Stations since it had become evident as most Hams immediately recognised it’s handle. Sometimes the quick radio check often led to long QSO roundtable ragchew reinforcing the bond and trust between each Ham operators. At times when several breakers (Hams who join the discussion midway) join into the discussion many jumble up the callsigns too and try to correct it in the subsequent overs. It was fun though yet maintaining the protocols.

On 7th January 2021 at 145.650 MHz, -600, R3 morning Net, it was a pleasure listening to Vijayda (VU2YVK) with his unique intonation and dexterity he conducts the programme. This repeater which is not patched to the Echolink platform still manages to get a whopping 50 - 60 plus check in through direct RF (Radio Frequency). He was able to copy me 5 & 7 direct while 5 & 9 plus through the repeater. All I was using is my tiny handy with the stock rubber duckies which had been doing a fine job for me. The bottom line is I cannot trash these handies and become a rig snob. There is so much of learning from these tiny HTs which has quickly helped me to come on air live while hopping cities.

The garden city caused ripples around the world on January 2021. First, an all women crew Air India made its maiden flight from San Francisco to Bangalore. Next, on 14 January 2021 it was the all women Net Control Stations from Bangalore to conduct a special VHF Net on the IIH  repeater (145.800 MHz, -600) which is also patched up with the Echolink to facilitate Hams across the world to check-in. The Net Control Station (NCS) team comprised of Nisha (VU2NIS), Bhoomika (VU3JYP) Sowmya (VU3SIM) and Smriti (VU3FNV) who were excellent that saw more than 180 plus check in. Photo: The all women NCS (Photo, Courtesy: VU2FI)

January also witnessed significant favourable propagation in different regions of South India enabling distant stations to trigger the Bangalore repeaters and check in to the regular VHF Nets. The much blessed Sporadic-E or ‘Es’ in short, saw Hams waking up the Bangalore repeaters as far as from Kanyakumari, Calicut, Salem, Hyderabad including few Dx stations from Southwest India too. One of the many familiar Hams was an ENT physician, Dr T A Thangavelu who used to regularly trigger the Bangalore and other southern states repeaters from his QTH at Erode, Tamil Nadu.

Checking all the Nets on the repeaters, Simplex mode QSOs and range test et al,

suddenly got me an invitation to take part in the VU Bangalore Ham Contest. And yes, I had sportingly taken part although with my dual band handies. Finally, the two-day Bangalore VU mega contest in the VHF, UHF and 6-meters bands concluded on 17 January 2021 at 12:59 hrs with lot of fan fare and learnings, but with a different kind of a ‘pleasant stress'.

What I could guess is there were hundreds of contestants turning the different spectrum bands into a foxhunt to trace Hams over the airwaves. The organisers under the leadership of Vijay (VU2YVK), Exo (VU2EXO) and Prathap (VU2POP) among others, did an excellent job by giving a fillip to this world’s oldest form of social media alias, our amazing hobby - Ham Radio. Photo: Part of my Contest set up in the terrace

Working stations with my handies on the stock rubber ducky frequently forced me to move around to find sweet spots for different stations to be heard and received. Often I had to run to and fro between my call log sheets and sweet spots making it quite tiring at times, though.

The handies were literally being put on heavy duty that resulted in getting them almost fried up. A Ham with a great sense of humour advised to quickly make an omelette on it or else the radio’s circuitry will burnout, while another commented if my grid square location was at a freezing area then my hands could act as a good heat-sink.

With my poor little radios I was able to work around twenty stations until the juice of my rig completely drained off and wouldn’t recharge again. Got to know that’s how lithium batteries behave when the energy knocks down to zero. This was frustrating but, then my four-legged paw came wagging and just melted me down.

The radios gave me a fair understanding about its capabilities when put on a heavy duty such as this mega contest. Another interesting part is that the contest have awakened Ham operators to relook the way we communicate over the bands in Ham radio. The point here is most operators get stuck completely on the repeaters and seldom finds time for Simplex. The contest also drew attention of Dxing on Simplex mode as well as the widely neglected 6 meters and 70 cm bands. 

Photo: Ten years old Layla also  a golden brown English Cocker Spaniel always kept me engrossed with her tricks whenever I could not find any station on the airwaves

Finally, with my not so stable hand completed the formalities of submitting my log sheet to the organisers. This was my unplanned first ever contest to join while city hopping, not just to win a trophy, but to participate in the spirit of a true Ham.

Have made several Ham friends over the airwaves in Bangalore. Most of them are extremely helpful. Many of them went to the extent of lending their antennas and rig too, which was very touching indeed. Some of them who deserves mention are Vijayda (VU2YVK), Karan (VU3HGG) and Vakku Jose (VU3JUA). Karan, Vakku and Renu (VU3CQM), had become my good pals over the airwaves. 

One late night long after the Nets concluded my radio was still switched on.

Suddenly, I heard a voice calling for a radio check over the 145.800 MHz. It was Renu to whom I promptly responded with my handy and subsequently Karan, who is known to keep his transceivers in scan mode joined in too. Since then we had met several times over the airwaves. Both Renu and Karan were building a high beam yagi antenna and were also offering to build one for me with the excess raw materials. Karan also used to be the Net Control Station for the Sunday evening Silicone Net. Vakku too offered to lend one of his ground plane antennas so that I could trigger more stations during the contest. Photo: QSL card from IIH

Another one fine January morning was a pleasant surprise checking up the Pune VHF Net (VU2ETD). Karnataka's Shimoga based senior Ham, VU2ARG, alias Rajesh, a diehard scouts leader also checked in at the same time. It was great meeting him over the airwaves while old man VU2UEL, Dilip Bapat was the Net Control Station with his distinctive style of conducting the Net.  

What I have noticed is that there are amazing Hams from different age groups and backgrounds whom I had come across. Some are physicians, teachers, college/university students, marketing professionals, businessman, retired government employees, bankers, ex-servicemen as well as corporate personnel, etc among others, which only makes the Ham fraternity so vibrant. Some of the familiar NCS and Hams were Varadhan (VU2ITI), Prakash (VU3PNN), Exo Tom (VU2EXO), Karunakaran (VU2KNE), Venkat (VU3OIM), Rajen (VU3JYT), Bopanna (VU3BOP), Prathap (VU2POP), Madhukar (VU2MUD) and Manorita (VU2MGS). Photo: VU2AMU, Arvind's radio shack

One fine January morning a senior Ham, handle, Nayak (VU2NYK) pinged me to come over at 145.500 MHz. Owner of premium rigs such as the ICom 7300, ICom 2300 H and Diamond antennas, etc in his shack, Nayak was enticed to procure the UV5R to his transceiver arsenal as most Net Control Stations used to give me good signal reports.

Nayak wanted to test his new UV5R handy from his QTH using the stock rubber ducky while the signals turned out to be neat and clean breaking the squelch in my tiny radio. Then came another Ham, VU2SW, handle, Sankar. After few overs, Sankar’s radio went dead as his battery drained off completely. 

On 03 February I flew back to New Delhi. The security check at KIA, Bangalore just sailed off once again smoothly. Soon I realised that my amateur radio licence superseded all my other identification documents such as PAN card, Adhar card, passport, and driving licence. As the Aero India Show which was underway, my Indigo flight got rescheduled on reaching the airport. There were dozens of inbound flight landings while our aircraft was taxing for takeoff only to be intermittently delayed. Turned around and saw a beeline of aircrafts, all waiting for clearance from the air traffic controller (ATC) for take off. Photo: The almost deserted lounge inside KIA, Bangalore due to cancellation and reshedulling of flights due to Aero India Show 

All through February north India too in general was witnessing favourable propagation leading to several Dx stations to wake up the  Delhi VU2DLR repeater. VU3KIJ, Shiv Kumar Sharma from Ludhiana in Punjab and VU3JAT, Rakesh Chaudhary, an ex-servicemen from Agra city used to trigger the repeaters almost daily and have QSOs with Delhi-NCR Hams. On 25 February at around 10:00 PM, there was a marathon QSO roundtable with Maninder (VU2GNA) from Jallandar, Shiv Kumar (VU2KIJ) in Ludiana both in Punjab while Rajani (VU2HW) and me (VU3TQT) in Delhi-NCR. The audio quality of both the Dx stations were mind-blowing as good as local stations. Earlier in the morning south Delhi Ham Lokesh (VU2LO) too joined in to a lovely QSO when Rakesh Chaudhary (VU3JAT) from Agra and Shiv Kumar from Ludiana triggered the VU2DLR Delhi repeater. During his long QSO with VU2LO, what I could figure out from his friendly voice is that VU3JAT loved to go out in the wild for hunting and had a penchant for guns and fire arms.  

Photo: Long queue of aircrafts waiting clearance from the ATC for take off at KIA, Bangalore

Barring this Sporadic ‘E’ tropospheric ducting phenomenon, the overall Ham activity in Delhi-NCR is extremely limited. Only a handful of check-in are made in this repeater on the daily VHF Net that commences in the evening from 9:00 to 9:30 PM. The other weekly Saturday VHF Net on the VU2FUN repeater too does not fair any better, but has a face-saver since it is patched up to the Echolink that garners lot of check-in from pan India including few countries around the world.

Unlike in Bangalore, my radios here in Delhi by and large remained completely silent, except for the solo daily VHF Net and weekly Saturday VHF Net. Even making a CQ call over Simplex both in the VHF or UHF bands never got any Hams responding. Photo: Captured this image from the aircraft while it was flying over Bhopal's Bairagarh area

Over the past decade it is estimated that more than five hundred Hams in Delhi and

NCR have received their ticket but strangely, less than ten per cent are actually active thereby, turning the vast majority into paper Hams. Many ascribe such trends due to the misconception by the prospecting candidates or would-be Hams (shortwave listener/SWL) that an amateur radio licence would fetch them a cushy government job in disaster management and the various Ham radio training camps tacitly endorsing the same. Similar is the situation in several other cities. Besides, there are observers who feel that a significant lot are simply interested in acquiring the licence as it gives them a distinct government valid identity which can be used for several purposes and lastly, it could be due to the high cost in importing transceivers in India which may have disinterested many Hams to come live on air. However, the matter needs to be probed and addressed by a competing authority so that Delhi-NCR airwaves too becomes thriving. 

So far, so good - I am thoroughly enjoying ever since I went live on the airwaves. Really want this amazing hobby of ours and world’s oldest form of social media to remain sacred so as to destress us from the mundane life. It would certainly be great to see more Hams active in the bands and also hope import duty on all rigs are significantly reduced. Incidently, India does not manufactures any transceivers or hardwares and therefore, most Hams here are completely dependent on imported goods. Finally, it all depends from what perspective one looks at Ham Radio.

Today's moments, tomorrow's treasure...Related videos below:

Bangalore Multiple morning VHF Nets 


VHF Nets from the terrace in Bangalore

Range test during a morning walk in Bangalore

Efficiency of these tiny radios that triggers all the repeaters at Bangalore

Delhi and Pune VHF Nets audio clips grab  At the Pune VHF Net listen toVU2VQL,  Professor Sadhashiv, who turns 87 and one of India's oldest Ham Radio Operator




The All Women Net Control Station