Students experience the thrill of Ham operation

It was a thrilling experience for 70-odd students from the Electronics and Communications departments in Potti Sriramulu College of Engineering and Technology. They carefully observed as a group of Ham operators made swift arrangements to capture the signals from their college premises to help them see pictures transmitted by members of Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS), to mark its 20th anniversary. Ham operators A. Ramesh Babu (VU2RDM), Prabhu Das Ankala (VU2DOS) from Hyderabad, Subba Reddy (VU3OUA), B.Y. Prasad (VU3XOH) and B. Umakanth (VU3UBU) took the lead in conducting the event. The college Principal K. Nageswara Rao, faculty Ranga Rao and others were present. The Hams made a special three-element Yagi VHF uni-directional antenna and fixed it on a tripod so it could work from all directions with the orbiting International Space Station (ISS) at latitude 48.330, longitude 114.210, altitude 406.66 KM and speed of 27624 KMPH. This space station takes about three hours to complete one cycle around the globe.

The Hams demonstrated how fast the ISS moves in the orbit and astronauts communicating to the ground station at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) through Ham Radio. The Ham operators also monitored live activity of the ISS. The students stayed up all through the night watching the Ham radio experts at work. Ham Prasad exhibited a portable self-made low power/low cost (₹ 500) VHF transceiver that can help one communicate with anyone across the world by linking it with the VHF Repeater installed atop Gunadala hilltop with an Eco link web-based global technology. Dr. Prabhu Das explained how he communicated through satellites with Hams in other countries. He said Ham Radio was a very important tool of communication between astronauts in the space and Hams on the earth. Mr. Ramesh Babu urged students to improve their knowledge in global digital technology and also participate in a forthcoming National Ham Fest slated for December 16-17 this year in the Science City, Kolkata. More than 1000 Hams from different parts of India and neighbouring countries were expected to participate, he said.