Life-saving facet of ham radio
The small box in the major editions of Indian Express (Feb11, 1978) could have scarcely conveyed the impact how ham radio saved the life of a young boy. It all began on 4th February, 1978, when Dr.Kuriakos, Assistant Professor in Dentistry at Kottayam Medical College Hospital, who was a ham with the callsign VU2VKK, got the information from Mr. Guhan, VU2TG about the plight of a 6 year old Edwin lying critically sick in great need of a life saving drug which was not available in India. The boy's father, Mr. Jebby was a short wave listener (SWL) who knew about ham radio, VU2TG being one of his friends.VU2VKK immediately checked into the "SEA Net" frequency and told the Net Controller at that moment, Mr.Stan, VS6FE from Hongkong about the plight. VS6FE on picking up the story from VU2VKK tried to locate the life-saving drug in his home town Hongkong, but no luck. The next to try was Ron, 5Z4RG in Kenya, Africa, while the net was holding its breath. Ron tried a number of drugstores, but again no luck. About this time engineer Mr. Gopal, VU2GO from Dandeli joined the net and tried many amateur radio stations across the continents until he heard Bill, VU2AIK from Delhi, who was in contact with SV1KW (Greece) and G3FHJ (England). So he broke in with the news about the urgent need to get the drug from wherever on earth it was available. It was Sunday and both Yannes, SV1KW and Norman, G3FHJ failed in their attempt. Finally on Monday, Bill passed on the news to VU2GO that I7RQP from Italy would be rushing the drug.
 Er Gopal, VU2GO from Dandeli Image source: "Radio", April 1978 issue: A journal of the FARSI |
However, VU2GO went on and scanned the 15 metre ham band when he heard Dov, 4Z4DK at Tel Aviv, Isreal, calling with a collosal signal. Dov got the story from Gopal and asked him to 'Standby' while he made contact with the Italian I1NVT, Victor and told him the story. Dov, 4Z4DK then swinged his mighty beam antenna back to India, while the Italian, Victor went onto the local Italian 2 metre Very High Frequency ( vhf ) net. Now returning to the high frequency band, Victor, I1NVT gave the good news that 50 ampules of the drug were available from his side. Victor drove to Milan with the drug to catch the next Air India flight. Air India carried it with utmost care and free of charge. |