I have been a HAM ie amateur radio enthusiast with the call sign of” VU2RAD”, for more than 3 decades. When we started, all our electronic radio transmitters and receivers were valve based systems. This was due to the fact that even when basic discreet devices were around , one could not import them due to strict government rules and it was always used equipment from the west. Gradually the rules were relaxed and today any equipment regarding amateur radio can be imported thus giving a flip to amateur radio in India. This hobby is an extremely technically oriented one, and one should have a deep passion for technology to pursue this hobby. HAM radio fraternity in India owes a lot to the late PM Rajiv Gandhi as he removed all the blocks for the development of Amateur radio India. He was an avid HAM as well.
I have passed the basic grade -2 , grade 1 and then finally the advanced grade license which entitles you to do communicate via satellites like OSCAR, AMSAT. Etc. One had to pass exams conducted by the “Wireless Planning Council of India” ie “WPC”, in which a morse code test ie sending and receiving morse code along with a written exam on radio communication theory with the knowledge of circuits in a radio transmitter and receiver. All this together was tough. But it was fun . I have never had any formal electronic engineering education. Every thing was self taught I am proud to say we Hams generally had more knowledge about radio communication in those days compared to people who had an engineering degree in electronic and communications!. Every thing was learnt due to an enormous passion for electronics and communication. Over the decades I have built my own radio transmitter and receivers. Designed antennas like yagi arrays, cubical quads, verticals etc. I have spoken to fellow HAMS from all over the globe. We acknowledge the contact by sending QSL cards , a form of post card where the time date and country of the person contacted is printed. It was sent by international mail mostly.
I have shown in the gallery ,the pictures of the radio equipment and antennas that were used by me in the course of my amateur radio hobby.
Gradually as technologies evolved, several digital modes of communication came into existence like RTTY, PACKET RADIO, AMTOR, SLOW SCAN TV, ECHO LINK ETC and finally mobile phone technology. The older forms of communication were in AM , SSB, FM modes etc. They are still in use today. Todays transceivers as depicted above, is the ICOM 7851. This is Considered to be the top end model of amateur radio transceivers ,It cost about 12 lacs !!. They are all totally digital and are software defined in nature where the voice is digitized and processed via digital signal processors . The RF signals are again processed digitally all by software and transmitted. This article is for visitors who are assumed to have little knowledge of this very technically oriented hobby. Thanks and 73`s