Renewed

I finally received my renewed license but it seems I have lost Rs. 60 of the Rs. 120 I had sent for a 10 yr. renewal. Not sure why, but my license has been renewed only for 5 years, instead of the 10 years that I had requested them to do. Maybe 'cos mine is a Grade II license???

The opportunity now to make more calls and connect back is high and I hope I get more options to get out and do my thing. Buy a rig first, and set it up at the designated QTH and then just listen in... to learn more ... and then get cracking with some good antennae designs

FinallY!!!

Made my first Amateur Radio call during the Lonavla field trip 26-27 Jul 08, at SWL Yogesh Gulati's bunglow.
I had been very apprehensive about getting it wrong and getting it mixed up for my first call on air. This fear had literally held me very tight from opening up in any way during the meet with other OM on the field. I was very keen to get myself up and running but the keenness with the anxiety to understand and get everything right got me thinking and put me in an observation mode most of the time.
I had landed with Yogesh on Friday late night around 2130 hrs. IST at his bunglow, (after a pretty interesting office team meeting at Whispering Woods resort in Valvan, about 2.5 km from Yogesh's location in Tungarli).

I was not aware as to what the activities would be on the field trip.

I have very faint memories of my earlier and first field trip during a DXpedition with the St. Paul Radio Club, (courtsey Twila Greenheck) in the twin cities way back in 2000. But at that time, I was still a rookie after having passed my Technician's license exam in the US. So I had still not paid full attention to how I would take this hobby up further.

So coming back to the scene this weekend, I was not sure what I should look forward to, but the time spent through Friday night into the wee hours of Saturday morning were absolutely rocking. The team SWL - Manish, Yogesh, Jayesh, Jagdish who landed up at Yogesh's place around 1030pm were a team united for a cause and had an awesome camaraderie amongst them. Manish and Jayesh were like the proverbial fuse and bomb - for each of these used to trigger the other to get the whole gang blow up in explosive laughter. That is one night worth remembering. Thanks Manish and Jayesh in particular.

So the big opportunity to make i-ball contact with several veteran HAMs came up right the next day.
I-balls galore with
- OM VU2SFH - who got me in touch with this field trip team and compiled the well coordinated event;
- VU2SFN, the technical guide for the HF antennae, carrying a very well maintained antenna making kit;
- VU2UBP Ullas, - who helped me make the first contact on Mumbai Night Owls Net with coordinator YL VU2PJM on 144.1 on the Mumbai repeater;
- OM VU2NXM Basappaji, an RO of caliber, a veteran in CW and very down-to-earth who helped me check into VU3BBK's Sunday net on 40m/7.085 on 27-07-2008;
- VU2UGO who got me to understand bits and bytes of digicomm;
- and the key individual through whose blog (stumbled upon on June 12th 08) I was able to get this far- OM VU2SGW.

Apart from them there were cool guy Akshay (VA7AAX - an advanced level operator in Canada), Dilip (VU3DGB), Mukesh (VU2OMV), Feroze Patel (VU2FEO), Zarir (VU2VPQ), Zyros (VU2ZRS) who added the element of advice and knowledge to the event.

All in all it was a great event with a lot of learning and knowing other fellow hobbyists.
I made my first calls on the VHF 2 mt. and the HF 7 mt bands and learnt the online lingo sufficient enough to get on by myself next time.
Jut waiting for my ticket to get back renewed.

But I hope I can find some more opportunities for me to get out and do some antenna rigging.

The only thing in such events that really makes me get to the edge is the amount of garbage that we all produced, with plastic cups and spoons adding so much of non bio-degradable waste to the already depleting pure rural countryside.

VU3SHX - the journey

With my India callsign, I have never made a contact in India since the time I got it in 1998.

The reasons were more finance related than interest, and as it usually happens with me, money wins over all other interest.

So though I got my callsign way back in 1998, I never got a chance to get out to any club in Bombay to make any contacts. So when I landed up in the US in 1999, I enrolled in SARC through Twila Greenheck and ended up getting a call sign there too - Technician grade.

Through this callsign, I participated in a DXpedition way back in 2000 in Minneapolis.

The origins of this hobby of mine started with the HAM station setup at Shri Govindram Seksaria Institute of Technology and Science, Indore VU2GSO.

Prof. (Dr.?) Pathak was our mentor in those days and we did go about dit-dah-ing around learning the morse code to be able to get into some kind of Amateur radio contacts. But unfortunately, even with key enthuiasts like Priya K, Nupur B, Vishwas R, Parvesh G, and maybe a couple more, the activity did not really move up ahead in terms of getting full attention to amateur radio operations in Indore.

So I went to Lad colony to meet an individual there whose name I forget now, an aged Maharashtrian, who had given me some tips on how to get started on this. Not sure I really understood that, or maybe that involved some more money to be spent to get some kits or something, but I didn't pursue that either.

Then came the shift to Bombay, the job at GTL and there the seriousness somehow set in. I first met some people - one in Lokhandwala (which way back in 1994 or so was not as popular as it is now) and someone at Borivali. This gentle couple at Borivali actually had a 486 PC on which they used to transmit CW, had an antenna rotator motor to rotate the antenna on the roof from their house... the works which in those days were probably a big deal.

Then with T.N.G. Kurup leading the way in sharing the gyan on wireless sets, with his background in the Navy radio, I got some tips. There I met VU2GT, who unfortunately, again, I lost in touch with once I moved out of GTL. GT is a keen enthusiast and an expert on antennae. He explained things to me which - for being practical brained - didn't make sense to me till I saw how it all was set up. So again, I didn't get much out of the sessions with GT - I hope this will change soon.

Someone, I don't remember again the name, at Essar towers in Lower Parel, was into Amateur radio. This was SRIL time. I used to go there to set up their SprintMail systems. He led me to Swadi Automobiles and then to this training club, most probably JNA(?), that I got some training on CW and passed the exam. I also remember going to the Borivli station to get the updates about my license. But again, all faint memories.

So during my time in GT and later after I moved out to SRIL and then to TUL, I pursued this hobby more often than not. And was able to thus get my call sign for GRII in 1998.

I hope this post of mine, if picked up by the relevant people will help me connect back with those erstwhile stepping stones of my road to Amateur radio - people whose names I have forgotten but who remain significantly important for me in this journey.