Amateur Radio in India

Amateur radio or Ham Radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectra for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication. This is different from the commercial broadcasting because it is for personal aim and without direct pecuniary interest of the specified persons called Ham operators.

Usha Mehta and her Secret Congress Radio

The first amateur radio operator license in India was issued in 1921. In those days of freedom struggle, the illegal radio played important role in dissemination of anti-British emotions. For example, Usha Mehta and some of her close associates began the Secret Congress Radio, a clandestine radio station in 1942. The first words broadcast in her voice were: “This is the Congress radio calling on 42.34 meters from somewhere in India.” The radio broadcast recorded messages from Gandhi and other prominent leaders across India. To elude the authorities, the organizers moved the station’s location almost daily. Ultimately, however, the police found them on November 12, 1942 and arrested the organizers, including Usha Mehta. All were later imprisoned.

Amateur Radio in India

In our country, a license is needed to run ham radio. The first amateur radio license was given in 1921. Clandestine amateur radio played significant role in the freedom struggle. After freedom, the amateur radio did not grow for at least 3 decades.

• In 1984, Rajiv Gandhi government waived the import duty on wireless equipment so that the amateur radio grows. The number has grown since then.
• According to Hyderabad-based National Institute of Amateur Radio, there are 16,000 licensed HAMs in the country today. The policy of the government been has been encouraging to Ham radio.

How Amateur Radio is regulated in India?

• The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology regulates the amateur radio via the Wireless and Planning and Coordination Wing (WPC).
• The WPC assigns call signs, issues amateur radio licences, conducts exams, allots frequency spectrum, and monitors the radio waves.
• The WPC has its headquarters in New Delhi with divisional offices in Mumbai (Bombay), Kolkata (Calcutta), and Chennai (Madras). It also has monitoring stations in Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Ajmer, Bangalore, Darjeeling, Gorakhpur, Jalandhar, Goa (Betim), Mangalore, Shillong, Ranchi, Srinagar, Dibrugarh, Vishakapatnam, and Thiruvananthapuram.
• The Amateur Radio Society of India (ARSI), Chennai represents amateur radio interests at various forums.

Amateur Radio and Society

• Amateur radio operators have played a vital role during disasters and national emergencies such as earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, floods, and bomb blasts, by providing voluntary emergency communications in the affected areas.
• The HAM operators have done pioneer works in emergency communication in general and disaster management in particular. The notable contribution of the Ham radio was in Odisha Cyclone attack in 1999 and Gujarat Earthquake in 2001.
• Ham radio can be helpful in monitoring the weather, text messaging, Internet linking with radio, time management, activity coordination and the like.

Ham Radio and the Computers

• Computers and Internet have supplemented the technology to make ham radio better. For example, using some software and connecting the computer to radio, it is possible to communicate digitally over the air.
• Some of these digital modes can be more effective in marginal transmission conditions and some even sport error free transmission. Some of the latest technologies hams can supplement a modest station with Internet connections.