Reminiscences of a Radio Amateur
Reminiscences of a Radio Amateur
I read about the concept of Amateur Radio while at school in the 1970s from an Astronomy Book. It was on the discovery of radio waves from outer space by Karl G. Jansky a Radio Amateur using his directional 20 m antenna. This discovery later led to the development of Radio Telescope and Radio Astronomy. Just looked up the reference for his original publication now and found it in the Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, 1932 [1]! At that time I never knew that there were Radio Amateurs right here in my place as well.
It was later when I was at college that an article on Ham Radio in the local news paper which caught my attention and introduced me to Short Wave Listening. At that time I started tuning in to Ham Radio stations in my home radio, at 7 MHz, which I later used as a receiver during my life as a Radio Amateur. Some of the prominent stations were VU2TG (Guhan from Kottayam, Kerala, India) and VU2JN (Prof. Jayaraman). There were a few stations on Single Side Band (SSB) which I could not listen at that time because I did not have a Beat Frequency Oscillator (BFO) which was needed to introduce a carrier to make SSB stations intelligible on an ordinary radio.
My mentor at that time was VU2BY Karan, from Kozhikode itself. But I could not master Morse Code needed to pass the Amateur Station Operator’s Certificate (ASOC) Examination at that time. After my graduation, I came back to the hobby under the guidance of VU2NYR (Narain) and mastered Morse Code. I took the ASOC exam held at Kochi and passed Grade I.
Another long wait followed for receiving the license and call sign VU2JFP. It was in mid 1980s that I received my callsign. At that time a QRP designed by VU2VWN (Vasanth) was very popular and I homebrewed that solid state QRP and came on air with phone guidance, for the first contact from VU2NYR on CW. Later AM mode was added and I was regular on 7 MHz, checking into Charminar Net at 7080 regularly.
As I gained more experience in hobby electronics, I ventured into homebrewing a vacuum tube QRO with 3 x 807, obtained from an old radio shop in the city. At that time high power RF transistors were not available and there was no chance of homebrewing a solid state QRO. The QRO opened my world to DX. I could contact several countries on CW and few countries on AM. At that time contacting W land (USA) was considered to be the most tough one from this region on 7 MHz.
We had only a short time window in morning and evening when 40 m band opened to W land. I still remember that my first W contact was someone from Maryland, USA, on CW. As my radio receiver did not have the 14 MHz amateur band, I could not work on 20 m. Tried my luck on 80 m instead. We had plenty of space at home for an 80 m antenna. I used to throw a string tied to a stone up to a coconut tree and pull up the 80 m antenna which was held between two coconut trees, which were there in plenty in the compound. I could work several local stations on 80 m.
I received my Advanced Grade license after my post graduation and could get a two letter call sign, VU2JO with the help of VU2SDN (Sahar).
Then again due to the tough schedules at I work, I went into dormancy on Amateur Radio, to come up in late 1990s with VHF on 2 m. I had a hand held and a base station and used to work on the repeater located at Nelliampathy, Palakkad. A directional beam was given to me by VU2FWW (Murali) which gave me access to the repeater.
Still later, a repeater was installed at the Super Specialty Block, Govt. Medical College Kozhikode, under the leadership of VU2JYN (Jayan). I could access this repeater easily as it was quite nearby! Now I have been in dormancy on Ham Radio for quite some time and wish to revive my hobby after retirement, with more time to spare. Yesterday I had a phone contact with VU2JOS (Jos), my old Ham friend who has also encouraged me to come back on the air. I hope I will be able to, sooner or later!
Reference
- Karl G. Jansky, Directional Studies of Atmospherics at High Frequencies. Proc. Inst. Rad. Eng., 20, 1920; 1932.