MY HARMONIC
MY XYL & HARMONIC
Me & My Harmonic
My Ham Radio Station
ABOUT ME!
-I applied for a ham radio licence in 1987.
-appeared for the ham radio licencing examination on 15th January, 1988
-finally got my licence in 1989.
-did my graduation in Agriculture (B.Sc. Horticulture)
-hold a Post Graduate Degree in Agricultural Science (M.Sc. in Nematology)
-served as an Agricultural Officer under the Government of Assam for nearly two years.
-Presently I work as a Scientific Officer in a science popularization organisation (Vigyan Prasar) under the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India, New Delhi.
-Being a left hander I belong to one of minority communities in the world and proud to be so!
I am from a
state located in the remote North-Eastern part of India (Assam).
I am one of the few fortunate persons from the North Eastern part of India to get a ham
radio licence long time back in 1989 when I was 19 years old.
It took about two years for me to get my licence from the date of my
application for a ham radio licence.I had to visit the the WPC,
Ministry of Communications, New Delhi twice to get my licence! It was only my passion for
this noble scientific pursuit, which tempted me to visit the capital city (New Delhi) from
such a remote (a distance of more than 2000 kms) place solely for the purpose of getting a
ham radio licence which I was entitled to get. It was a memorable day for me when
I received the much awaited "TICKET" sent to my hostel address by my mother.
The population of our state is more
than 20 million. At the time when I got my ham licence, there were hardly
three licenced hams in Assam. Probably I was the 4th ham in Assam! I established my ham
radio station in Assam Agricultural University( in 1989). Mine was the sole ham radio
station which was operating from an university campus. There were/are three Engineering
Colleges, One IIT, one North Eastern Regional Institute of Technology (NERIST is of course
in Arunachal Pradesh), One Central University and two other Universities in Assam. Till
now not a single ham radio station has been established in any of these educational
institutes. I feel proud to claim to be the first student ham radio operator in
Assam! I feel proud to say that I brought Assam Agricultural University to the
ham radio map! I was there to do my graduation in Agriculture with a
specialization in Horticulture. Later on , I did my M.Sc. in Nematology.
I tried to assemble a
QRP CW rig (designed by VU2VWN), but failed. After that my friend
Ranjit Da (VU2RCH)presented me with a low cost CW QRP rig which he built himself.
During my stay in Assam Agricultural University till 1992, I was active
on-the-air in the 40 m band with a morse key. After completing my
B.Sc.(Agri) in 1992, I discontinued my study. In 1993 I came to New Delhi and
bought a 40m CW QRP rig developed by Vigyan Prasar (where I now work!). During my
initial days of ham radio career, I had to receive other ham stations using an ordinary 3
band domestic receiver (A two-in-one National Panasonic!). After that I bought a digital
communication receiver(also from National Panasonic) from Bhutan. This receiver got
damaged when the RF power from my transmitter accidentally entered directly into it! I
have decided to assemble a NR-60 (a popular model developed by VU2NR when he was 60 years
of age!) in the last part of 1992. I went to my friend Ranjit Da's QTH with a PCB of NR-60
etched by me. Layout of this PCB was provided to me by Dipu Da, VU2DPD (Haldia Port, West
Bengal) which I got through my friend Baruah Da, VU2NKB. In fact I got my first lessons in
Morse Code from Baruah Da, VU2NKB (Guwahati). Ranjit Da's (VU2RCH) QTH was located 150 km
away from my home QTH. I stayed in his home for 7 days! He trained me to make the coils.
With 99% effort of his, I could return home with a fully functional dual band (20m &
40m) SSB/CW transceiver (which I still use to operate and proudly claim -"I am using
a homemade transceiver!" VU2RCH is well known throughout India as a self
made expert in this field.
During the dormant period of
my academic study (between 1992 and 1994), I compiled two books
and wrote many articles for a popular Assamese weekly newspaper. One of the
compilations was that of my short stories and articles in Assamese language
and another is the "Scanning the World with Amateur Radio". This is a 100+ page
comprehensive guide to ham radio. I took Rs. 25,000/- from my encouraging father and
published 1000 copies of this book for the cause of popularizing ham radio! (I
get a real boost when a few hams I meet on the ham band says that they got their first
inspiration to become a ham from my book only!)I bought a Commercial Linear RF Amplifier
(for Rs. 10,000/-) from Ken, VU2KEN. This time also my father gave me that huge amount,
because he could not discourage my dream to increase the power of my ham radio
station. I renewed my higher studies again in Assam Agricultural University in
1995. This time I was equipped with my NR-60 and the HF Linear ( Which I used to
block pirate transmissions in the ham bands). I considered it a noble duty to
interfere with the unauthorized transmissions(mostly in the 7-7.1 MHz band) in the ham
bands!
harmonicI completed my M.Sc. (Agriculture) in 1997
(My Research topic was: "Crop loss Assessment of Lentil (Lens esculenta
MOENCH) due to Meloidogyne incognita (Kofoid and White, 1919)Chitwood, 1949 and its
management without using pesticide (using organic amendments)" with
a percentage of 75.8. I got the job of a Class-I Gazetted Officer
in the Assam Government through Assam Public Service Commission selection.
I worked as an Agricultural Officer till 1998 and also got Crystal
controlled to Nandita . I QSYed to New Delhi in the mid part of 1998 after
I got the job of a Scientific Officer in Vigyan Prasar(an autonomous body under the
Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India). I got a male harmonic
(child) this year (1999) on the 5th of April.
I also look after the VU2NCT club station (the sole club station in India which is located
in a ministry campus i.e. in Ministry of Science & Technology). My
present age is 30 years. I feel happy to sit in front of computers and working with web
pages! Drawing cartoons and making paintings are my other passions. In fact
I feel quite spontaneous at my skill to draw and paint! Very shortly I shall upload
cartoons/paintings made by me! I am a left hander ;-)... a lefty ;-).....
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