Patna, Sept. 4: Noted Gwalior-based ham operator Jayant Bhide who had helped rescue many people from Kathmandu during April this year after a high-magnitude earthquake struck the Himalayan range, would be in the state capital tomorrow.
Bhide would speak to ham operators of the city apart from the aspiring Ham operators at a programme organised by a city based ham operator's group - Society of Radio Amateurs (SORA).
The president of SORA, Pranav Sahi, said: "We would discuss the disaster communication plan with Jayant. All such techniques, which are required to set-up communication when any disaster occurs, will be a part of the discussion."
He added: "When any disaster occurs such as earthquakes and others, the telephone network and all other modes of communication are damaged in no time. The role of ham operators are vital in this period as they try to set up communication with the help of wireless radio at their stations. In such a scenario, people desperately want to get information regarding their close ones. Thehamradio technology uses certain dedicated radio frequencies ranging from 500KHZ to 500MHZ.We would also discuss what role a local ham operator has to play in such a situation and how is it different from that of an international ham operator."?
The city has now more number of ham operators than last year. All of them are members of SORA.
Pranav added: "Two more people have got their licence earlier this year. With the addition of these two people, the number of ham operators in the state capital has gone up to 15."
Four more people have passed the examination and are waiting for their turn - Ajay Sinha, (a builder), Neelmani Kumar (secretary of Magadh Motor Sports Club), Aishwarya Sahi, (a student ofSt Xavier's College, Calcutta) and Aradhya (a BCom student at JD Birla Institute, Calcutta).
According to Pranav, the process of getting a licence is a bit complicated.
At first, one needs to pass the written examination conducted by the wireless planning and co-ordination wing (national radio regulatory authority) of ministry of communication.
Only if one passes this exam, he/she can apply to ministry of communication for a license. The licence of ham operatorsneeds an inter-ministerial clearance. It is the home ministry, which finally issues the licence after proper verification of the person concerned. A police verification and character verification is done before issuing the license.
The local ham operator's group is also trying to associate with old ham operators of the state who had stopped working.
Pranav said: "Recently, we have been able to communicate with a Begusarai-based judge who had stopped working. We are trying to motivate old ham operators to reuse this mode of communication. According to our record, Begusarai had a bunch of around 30 ham operators in the past."
