Hyderabad: Amateur Radio operator community in Hyderabad organised a ‘Field Day‘ on a hillock near Koheda village on Hyderabad outskirts on Wednesday.
A ‘Field Day’ is an occasion for the Amateur Radio operators aka Ham operators to test their skills in erecting antennae and establishing communication links with outside world on High Frequency (HF) and Very High Frequency (VHF) bands. During any natural calamity like cyclones or heavy rains or earth quakes, it’s the communications systems like the telephone or mobile phone systems that are disrupted first.
In such scenarios, it’s the Ham Operator community that would rush in to restore the communication links to help the government agencies to commence the relief rescue operations, as witnessed during natural calamities all over the world.
AU5HYD – Special Call Sign
The Central Government has allocated a special call sign “AU5HYD” for the day specially for the Field Day. With the allocation of the special call sign, the Hydeabad Field Day was listed as a Field-cum-SOTA event. SOTA is an acronym for Summits on The Air in which all Ham operators across the world try to communicate with the special call sign.
The hillock which has an Anjaneya Swamy temple and a police repeater station was abuzz with activity as nearly two dozen Ham operators gathered with their State-of-the-art wireless communication equipment, which ranged from the latest iCom-705 VHF, HF and UHF wireless set to the indigenously made micro Bitx HF set made by HF Signals started by Farhan, VU2ESE.
The Field Day is an opportunity for the Ham operators to check their preparedness to erect the antenna and use the communication equipment using all possible power sources like a battery from a car. From the inverted V dipole antennae to the most advanced hex beam antenna, the ham operators went live using the wireless sets and exchanging pleasantries and critical reports with other ham operators in the country and world.
Basically, A Field Day concept is to prove how efficient one is with the equipment and support available. Such exercises help the Ham operators plan for emergencies. During such Field Day, one is prepared to establish a communication link between two points without any infrastructural support, internet, power, how to establish comm between two points, points out Ashar Farhan, VU2ESE. Farhan, a Hyderabad, is the designer of the most popular microBitx HF wireless set.
“A Field Day at this location where is there is no interference is an occasion to showcase the homebrewed equipment. More over field days provide an opportunity for us to intersect and learn new things’ says V. Shivaramakrishnan, VU3SFE. Shiva Ramakrishnan is a chef by profession.
“Field Day provides an opportunity to test out skills to establish communications with the limited and low power equipment in real time disaster situations” affirms K. Nagasainath, VU2TJF, a student of BTech.
“It’s an opportunity to exhibit skills acquired after painstaking practise. Here there is barriers like who is a junior or a senior,” says Dr R. Rajasekhar, VU2HMY, a Consultatnt for Aqua culture industry.
This is where you practise outside comforts of homes using a makeshift antenna and work on whatever facilities available. This is more like a practise for emergency situations to work with whatever is available, Most importantly, it’s team work”, says V. Kishore, VU3ONG, an engineer by profession.
Rachakonda Commissioner M. Mahesh Bhagwat and policemen from Abdullapurmet station extended all possible help to the ham operators.
