'Rag-chewing' has become clamorous affair for ham

Thanks to AIR, ‘rag chewing’ has become clamorous affair for ham operatorsFriday April 29 2005 00:00 IST

KOCHI: For hams, ‘rag chewing’ (conversing) in ham radios has become a clamorous affair thanks to the Thiruvananthapuram All India Radio (AIR) station.

The station is transmitting errant and spurious signals, thereby hampering and interrupting exclusive frequencies of ham radio operators in the country. The noise has forced several ham amateurs in India to pull down the big switch.

The AIR Thiruvananthapuram station, which is authorised to use 5010 and 7290 khz in the 60 and 41-metre band respectively for its domestic Malayalam service, regularly trespasses into the ham frequencies band, which is segmented between 7000 and 7100 khz.

“Several ham radio frequency bandwidths are affected as a result of the spurious emission. It causes extreme interference to our radio communication and we have changed several of our ham net programmes to other bandwidths and different time schedule,” said Manohar Arasu, monitoring systems co-ordinator of Amateur Radio Society of India (ARSI), who goes by the call sign VU2UR.

The corrupted bandwidths located till now are 7002, 7026, 7050, 7074, 7098 khz. There are also unwanted emissions on bands 7121, 7314 and 7362 khz, which do not belong to the hams.

“These bandwidths can even belong to radio services used for aviation communication, navigation, telephone services etc. The overpowering signals from the AIR station just elbow-in and interrupt our audio. This may not cost much for ham radios, but radio signals for aviation and navigation, if mangled, will lead to a disaster,” said P.B.Sam Kumar, who has a call sign VU3MGU.

As per the rules charted in the International Radio Regulations, it is clearly stated that no unwanted emission should be allowed to trespass into the frequency allotted to ham operators. If any such cases arise, it should be rectified as early as possible, or the transmission must be stopped.

“We had sent letters to Thiruvananthapuram AIR station for restricting their emissions. But nothing has been done so far. Their spectrum analyser showed no harmonics (a type of emission) was their reply. But in the first place, I had never told them of any harmonics at all. AIR is violating the rules framed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)”, said Manohar Arasu.

Top officials at the AIR Station, Thiruvananthapuram, are willing to solve the problem, provided the ham club co-operate. But the broadcast major has been ham-fisted in locating the erring line. The department has not changed its working frequency for several years.“We had even summoned the Wireless & Planning Commission (WPC) in vain, to detect the emission. We are willing to hold discussion with members of the ham clubs regarding this. If worked together we will be able to find a permanent solution to the whole problem,” said AIR-Thiruvananthapuram station engineer K.V.Ramachandran.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IER20050428111932&Page=R&Title=Kerala&Topic=0

S21ZA

It took almost three years to get Bangladesh off the ground in an amateur radio sense. It was not the sort of place where one could go, set up a station and start making QSOs. No legislation was in place to direct amateur radio operation, and such legislation did not feature on top of the new Bangladeshi Government's list of priorities.

Jim, VK9NS started dealing with the relevant Government departments in February 1990. In March 1991 he travelled to Dhaka in response to a 'Telex of Invitation' from the Ministry of Information, only to find that permission to operate amateur radio in Bangladesh could not be granted at that time. During his stay in Dhaka, Jim established contact with various departments and had many meetings with government officials. There was considerable suspicion about amateur radio with fears that it could jeopardize the country's security. Top officials were also generally too busy to pursue the matter further.

On 2nd. April Jim received a telephone call confirming that everything was finally approved for a demonstration of amateur radio. Operation would be restricted to using three frequencies for SSB, one each on 20, 15 and 10 M. and would be conducted in the office of the N.B.A. monitoring section. Jim thus made 730 QSOs as S21U under supervision.

The monitoring was a success, giving some locals also a chance to say hello to some amateur voice from Australia, Japan, Norfolk Island and so on. Officials of the new government were also impressed and happy to hear that Bangladesh was the centre of international attention. Jim succeeded in making them aware that amateur radio is a hobby, good fun and involves people from all walks of life.

The groundwork was done but it was to be another year before everything was in place for amatuer radio in Bangladesh to take its rightful place. Jim helped with the actual writing of the necessary legislation and in July 1992 he received a Telex from Teleboard - Dhaka informing him that the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh had approved Amateur Radio Service in Bangladesh, and invited him to make his application for a license. Jim duly made his application and had all paperwork in order by the end of the month. He travelled to Dhaka in early August and operated as S21ZA, this being the first license issued to a foreigner.

Many other foreign operators have followed and Bangladesh now sports its own Amateur Radio Society.

http://www.hidxa.nlk.nf/ExpeditionsS21ZA.htm