15 July 2006

Back on the Air - Really

At last - after a long break - I am finally back on the air.

July 5th, 2006 - 7.15 AM - I picked up the hand set (a walkie-talkie -see pic.- hooked up to an exernal antenna placed on top of my owner's house) and said "VU2MUD" (my Amateur Radio Identification/Call sign). Back came the reply from an old friend Ismail "Good Morning Madhu, good to hear you after a long time. Good signals. Where are you operating from?" The reply and the continued conversation apart, I was happy that I was still remembered. It is good to meet my old friends on the air and to meet new ones. That is part of the thrills of Amateur (HAM) Radio.

I hope readers will remember that early last year, an Indian Satellite was put into orbit and one of the payloads was a "HAMSAT". It is actually a small satellite with a dedicated transponder (an automatic receive and transmit equipment to relay signals) for the use of HAM operators. I have also been able to listen to the downlink quite regularly. I do not have access to the proper equipment to put my signals out to the satellite yet.

I am now motivated enough to start a mini introductory session on HAM Radio in my future blog posts. I will keep them coming.

6 comments:

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

Interesting Madhukar, are the HAM frequencies on HF? Also, what kind of special equipment do you need to uplink to the satellite? Is that a part of your next blog as you go along? if so, we can certainly wait to learn more.

Madhukar - VU2MUD said...

Vidya, Please send me the details of your date of issue and validity date be email. It should be possible to renew with late fees - provided your callsign VU3VID has not been alloted to anyone else.

Madhukar - VU2MUD said...

Dear Anup, the Ham frequencies are in seperate bands starting from the higher end of LF through HF and VHF upto UHF. The details will be given later in the blog.

No sophesticated equipment is required. You will require equipment capable of transmitting on UHF and receiving on VHF. A tracking antenna will go along way but it is possible to uplink with simple antenna too. Only we will have to depend on the satellite being in the visible range for the antenna. Will give more details as we progress in the blog.

Docel said...

Hey Madhu........1
Great hearing from you , after " " years!!
Good to see you back on air and good to see your blog.
Visit my blogs and other forums when you can. You can find me on google for aliases.
GB GL 73S _._
docel/VU2COC/venkidoc/docvenki

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bangalorerobotics/
http://www.angelfire.com/in4/docel/
http://vu2coc.blogspot.com/
http://vu2coc.blogspot.com/2005/01/tsunami-relief.html

Docel said...

Hey Madhu........1
Great hearing from you , after " " years!!
Good to see you back on air and good to see your blog.
Visit my blogs and other forums when you can. You can find me on google for aliases.
GB GL 73S _._
docel/VU2COC/venkidoc/docvenki

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bangalorerobotics/
http://www.angelfire.com/in4/docel/
http://vu2coc.blogspot.com/
http://vu2coc.blogspot.com/2005/01/tsunami-relief.html

Anonymous said...

Phony 'Captain' Murthy! We will expose you finally. There is no bull or cow here. We will give out the truth- that is your activities in Mysore decades ago and what you have been upto since then.

Produce evidence backing up 'I don't fly cargo and I ended up as GM/CEO of a passenger Airline'. Do cry for the support of your buddies in My Mysore, majority of them are a bunch of people establishing retired life in Mysore and loudly shouting what they will do to Mysore. where were these people when we neede all the support in the past?