In a significant alert sent out to the security agencies ahead of the eighth anniversary of the 26/11 attacks, HAM radio operators have reported that unidentified and random radio transmissions in unknown languages are being heard on their VHF frequencies originating from deep seas off Mumbai and Gujarat coast.
In a letter sent to the Wireless Advisor, Government of India with copies to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Army, police and various agencies concerned, the HAM/Amateur operators based in Mumbai have asked the Government to look into threats to national security arising out of the interception of “unidentified and random radio transmissions” originating from the deep seas off Mumbai and Gujarat.
“As many as 78 Ham operators have signed A letter sent across to various authorities in this regard. We want the Government to look into the issue,” Ankur Puranik, the founder of Disaster Amateur Radio Emergency Services (DARES), an active HAM radio service in the State, said.
“Of late we have started receiving a lot of suspicious unidentified radio transmissions in our VHF Band. The languages used for communication are different and we cannot understand which language is being used for communication,” the HAM operators stated in their letter.
According to Puranik, some of our HAMs have tried tracking the source of these signals in our Amateur Radio Band with our (DFE) / direction finding antenna and a radio receiver with signal strength indicator and observed that most of them are appearing to originating from deep seas of Mumbai and Gujarat. “The communication is heard at odd times and randomly in the 144 Mhz to 146Mhz band," the letter states.
The HAM operators' alert should be seen in the light of the fact that 10 Pakistani terrorists, who carried out a mayhem in Mumbai in the November 26-30 attack on Mumbai, had used Arabian Sea to travel from Karachi to the metropolis to undertake the suicide mission.
One of the HAM operator that pirates were using the wireless sets that are of high power in the range of 25 Watts or 50 Watts and their signals can propagate many 100 nautical miles through the sea with a possibility of the signals reaching even to other coastal areas of neighbouring countries.
"Their wireless sets are open-band sets and can to tune to any frequency in the VHF and even transmit to any frequencies in the VHF Band from 136 to 174Mhz, of which some frequencies may be falling in the same band that used by the law enforcement agencies , government departments and other emergency services," Puranik said.