The Gestation Period - 1985 - 1987 - Part 1

After I pass the ASOC exams in 1985, it was a period of waiting to "officially" get on the air.  But we could still "un-officially" get on the air - through "modulation test" - a "created facility" to put SWLs - "Still Waiting for Licence" - as we expanded it  (actually Short Wave Listener) - on the air during contacts being made by the hams.

As already mentioned in a previous post, I used to listen to the radio very regularly and knew most of the Indian hams - either by reputation - or by way of sending SWL reports and getting their QSL (verification/ confirmation of contact) cards.  I used to visit VU2JCE daily in the evening - to assist the batches taking ham classes and after that to listen in on the contacts being made.  The interesting aspect of the shack at VU2YSG/ VU2JCE was its furniture.

It had one table about 3 1/2 ft in height and just wide enough to accomodate the Yaesu FT-757 GX, the FP-757GX power supply and the log book.  There was a single light bulb/ tubelight, a metal cupboard and a metal folding type chair - seat of which was around 2 ft.  Sitting on the chair, the table top would be just under shoulder height for the operator.  The chair could accomodate probably 1 1/2 lean persons to sit ackwardly if required.  So the only COMFORTABLE position for me or for that matter any second person in the shack would be to bend forward, rest the elbows on the table & cup the chin in the palms of the hands.  I used to be in that position for close to 2 hours!!!

Seeing my plight, operators would offer to share the seat - which I would jokingly reject referring to my generous girth :) !!!

The antenna is use those days were two dipoles - one for 40m (also useable on 15m) & the other for 20m.  The 40m dipole was hung between nearby trees and the 20m dipole was about 2 ft from the roof with the feed point "slightly elevated" by a stick - on the two storied  building.  Propogation those days was so good that this setup was great enough to get us voice (SSB) contacts will all parts of the globe.

When VU2YSG (the Mysore University ARC) was closed and VU2JCE (SJCE ARC) was inaugurated in 1986, the shack was shifted to a 3 - storied building with a seperate exclusive 12' x 12' room on the terrace which gave us plenty of space of a multi-band fan dipole and an excellent horizontal clearance in all directions.  We had slightly better infrastructure - a larger table, 4 chairs, well lit and 2 windows - one facing west whcih gave us a fantastic view of the setting sun.  There were days when we would stop operations - just to watch the sunset!!!

From this shack, we experimented with fan dipoles for multi - band operation, a boomless cubicle quad for 20 - 15 - 10 & a horizontal dipole for 40m made of aluminum tubes - which unfortunately foded up horizontally due to high winds and insufficient strengthening.  We also later erected a tower designed by VU2SSR for a 3 element tri-bander.

Activities from this club station also included communication support to motor ralles.  This was a unique experience althgether.  This was the activity where I could officially get on the air by myself.  This was due to the fact that such communication was conducted OUTSIDE the ham bands on a special permission.  This also gave me the experience of propogation variations, skip distance, round the clock operations, split frequencies, etc.

I will share my rally communication experience seperately in the next post.