First ham in India
-Amarendra Chandra Gooptu
(received his licence in 1921, Call-sign
VU2JK)
India's first public broadcasting station belonged to
-a ham Dr.
Metcalfe (Call-sign VU2KH). He was the Vice-Chancellor
of Mysore University. He and his group of hams established an entertainment
public broadcasting station VU6AH in
1935.
Amateur Radio licences were withdrawn in India
in
-1939 when the World
war II started and ham equipments were sealed by the
authorities.
First ham radio club of India is
- Amateur Radio Club of India (ARCI).
Major B.M. Chakravarthy, VU2BU founded this club on May 15,
1948 in the School of Signals,
Mhow.
Amateur Radio Society of India (ARSI) was
born
-On May 15, 1954, at
New Delhi.
Federation of Amateur Radio Society of India (FARSI)
was founded in
-1972.
First Ham Radio Station established by the Governement of
India's Department of Science and Technology with an aim to popularize ham radio
is
-VU2NCT. It
became operational in 1991.
Do you
know that
- by the begining of 1948, there were hardly
50 odd licensed hams in India?
Do you
know that
- total ham population in India at present is 15,000
(approx.).
The first Indian ham radio operator who had been to
Antarctica is
- Dr.
Ashutosh Singh, VU2IF of Amateur Radio
Association, New Delhi. His station became operational from the expedition
ship "Finnpolaris" on 4th December, 1983.
The first ham radio operator to participate in
an expedition(to the Arctic in 1923)
- was an American, Don
Mix.
Country with the highest ham radio operators is
-Japan (more than 1.5 million).
World's first broadcasting station
- became operational from
as early as 6th November, 1919, which belonged to a Dutch ham- Hanzo
Idzarda.
World's first ham radio organisation (American Radio
Relay League)
- was
established by Hiram Percy Maxim in May, 1914. He and
Clarence Tuska, a college student started publishing an amateur
radio magazine named "QST" in 1915.
The highest Internation Body in Amateur Radio
is-
- International Amateur Radio Union (IARU).
IARU was formed in Paris in
1925
The first artificial communication satellite
meant for ham radio operators is
- Orbital Satellite Carrying Amateur
Radio-I (OSCAR-I). It was launched by the hams from USA on December 12,
1961.
Sources:
1.Wireless-Glimpses of
Yesteryears by S. Ramamoorthy, VU2SRJ: ZERO-BEAT, August/October
1985
2.Brief History of Amateur
Radio in Calcutta-by Avinash Missra, VU2EM:Hamfest India '96
Souvenir
3.Department of Ocean Development,
Technical publication No. 3, p-265-266.
4.ARRL Handbook,
1993