The term 'Ham radio' might have first been used to mock amateur radio operators in the 19th century, but a team of Ham operators in Gujarat proved it to be a vital instrument for re-establishing communication, especially in earthquake-hit Kutch and latur. Now, the operators from the State are on their way to connect quake affected people of Nepal with the rest of the world.
On Republic Day in 2001, when a devastating earthquake struck Kutch, the peninsula in Gujarat was completely disconnected from the world. As a result, the State administration took nearly 24 hours to adjudge the scale of the destruction. At that time telecommunication network including satellite and cell phones were defunct.
In a situation where nearly 20,000 people died in Gujarat including more than 12,000 in Kutch, Ham radio proved a great help to people of Kutch to establish contact with their near and dear ones as well as for the State administration. Reason - Ham radio operators don't require infrastructure like poles, wire, towers etc.
Knowing the stupendous work done by the Ham Radio Operators in Gujarat during the crisis in the past, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) made arrangement to take them to the quake-hammered Himalayan State.
"We got a request call from NDMA. Initially, a four-member team of the operators will set up two Ham stations in Nepal's capital Kathmandu where two relief centres have been started," said Gujarat Institute of Amateur Radio (GIAR) joint secretary Pravin Valera. The team members are - Dharmendra Trivedi and Parimal Purohit (Gandhinagar) and two others Narendrasinh Jhala and Ganubha Parmar (Rajkot) are in process to set up stations in Nepal. According to him all the members of GIAR are licensed amateur radio operators.
Ham radio taps shortwave frequencies and also traverses long distances. It is compact and can be set up easily, and most importantly it can run for days by using car batteries.