Defying ham radio operators

Ham radio for media persons

               Ham radio received a unique type of recognition when it became the only sources of news during US Grenada invasion in 1983. Mark Baratella (Call-sign KA2ORK/J37) a student ham radio operator, operating from his second-floor room at Saint George's Medical School became an essential link between the island and the rest of the free world as a result of Regan Administration's decision to prohibit members of the press from accompanying the Marine to Grenada. What emerged from Mark's transmission during the invasion was not only the chronological events which began on the morning of October 25, 1983, but also a sense of urgency to promote ham radio and its expertise and finally courage inherent in a ordinary ham like Mark.

                It may be mentioned that existing rules don't permit a ham radio operator to transmit following types of messages:

-Messages like the reproduction of broadcast programmes or tape recordings or transmissions of entertainment value or music.
-News, advertisements, communications of business, statements on topics of political/industrial controversy.
-Superfluous signals or any mater which is indecent or of obscence character or of a seditious tendency or which is grossly offensive or such as is likely to arouse racial, religious, or communal animosity;
and
-Messages for pecuniary reward or any messages for, or on behalf of third parties.

(Source:Ham Radio News: A journal of the Amateur Radio Societies of India, Issue Unknown)