HAMFESTINDIA 2012 at Chennai officially on the roll!!!!

Dignitaries on the Dias....

 Mr.Natraj I.P.S Director General of Police & Mr.Dhanapal IAS, Secretary Govt of Tamilnadu releasing the Sovenier

 The packed gathering this morning.....

                             

 The flea market with all HAM goodies....

The venue entrance.....

The flea market / HAM Bazaar was a big attraction.....

Good media coverage we hope helps grow this hobby further and attract more youngsters.....

The countdown begins for a HAMFESTINDIA 2012 !!!!!!

A warm welcome / Vanakam / Namaste to all HAM's / Amateur radio lovers who have headed to Chennai from across India as well  as abroad for this event and wishing a pleasant stay and memorable eyeball for next two days. 

Live update from the venue.....taken few minutes ago....

Hectic preparations on the event as the venue is getting decked up

The registered participants kit......

Few among the organising team who are the driving energy behind this event.....offcourse several others also whom you would meet tomorrow at the venue.

Keep visiting these pages for live / frequent updates of the event including photos/videos. 

HAMFESTINDIA 2012 - GPS Map / Latitude / Longitude position

Venue : AVM Rajeswari Kalyana Mandapam , No;97, Dr.Radhakrishnan Salai

Other landmarks : Adjacent to hotel Saravana Bhavan 

Invitation & Programme for HAMFESTINDIA 2012

Final list of Chennai amateurs registered for HAMFESTINDIA 2012

Below final list of Chennai based HAM's / Radio lovers who have registered/approved for HAMFEST 2012, see you all for a eyeball. 

Blogspot visitor statistics : Quickview....

Something which shows the popularity of this blog is the below visitor profile which has coverage from across the world. Thanks to all Amateurs for visiting the blog and we continue to seek your support to make this more and more useful to the HAM / Amateur Radio community. 

HAMFESTINDIA 2012.....Countdown begins!!!!!

The countdown for the much awaited HAMFESTINDIA 2012 at Chennai has begun with less than a week to go , pls make sure all of you make it to the event and let's ensure its a grand success.

The HAM festival comes back to Chennai after a gap of 10 years! The event promises to be very exciting and rewarding for Ham community and the public. Activities like Foxhunt, public awareness, field day, Jamboree on air, Information on Ham radio repeaters, cultural programs, Great food etc.The grand gala event has been planned to be held at AVM Rajeswari Hall, Dr RK Salai, Chennai, on Dec 15 and 16 of 2012.

Pls keep visiting the blogspot / facebook page for hours updates of the HAMFEST happening on 14th & 15th , we would be posting live updates from the venue.  

ChennaiHamsBlogspot Team

2012 Mahabs eyeball Meet at Chennai a Grand success!!!!

In the words of Mr.Devdas VU2DH .

There were 62 of us assembled @ hotel mahabs @ 10 am. The meeting was formally called to order with welcome speech & MC by VU2DH - with homage to VU2PCP, VU2VWN (VASANTH)
All the hams were self introduced in short, followed by technical speech by VU2.... OM HARI, VU2ZMM - MANOJ, VU2DEV DEV. VU2DEV dev auctioned an SDR which was sold for INR 1300 and he donated totally INR 4050 to the even which was sufficient to take care of the total cost. Next program was honoring senior hams, guest lecture by VU2DEV, a short speech by VU2PTR thyagu about the departed souls VU2PCP, VU2VWN, and yet another ham (dont remember his call / name), followed by some announcements. The meeting was adjourned for lunch and afternoon session was technical, exibision/sales by VU3MII, vote of thanks and disbursed @ 4pm.

Click here for more photos in : Album 1



Click here for Video Link : Video 1

ChennaiHamsBlogspot Team

10TH HAM EYE BALL MEET (MAHABS MEET ) @ MAHABALIPURAM,CHENNAI

We are glad to inform and invite to the 10th HAM eye ball meet (Mahabs meet ) @ mahabalipuram near Chennai on 11th Feb 2012.

Mahabalipuram was a 7th century port city of the South Indian dynasty of the Pallavas around 60 km south from the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu. The name Mamallapuram is believed to have been given after the Pallava king Narasimhavarman I, who took on the epithet Maha-malla (great wrestler), as the favourite sport of the Pallavas was wrestling. It has various historic monuments built largely between the 7th and the 9th centuries, and has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The meet will be held as usual on second saturday the 11th feb 2012.

All hams/amateur radio enthusiasts are welcome and have pleasant eye ball .

The details are as follows:-
Event : 10th eyeball meet ( Maha meet ) @ mahabalipuram
Date : 11 th february 2012 second saturday
Time : 9:00 am to 04.30pm
Venue: Hotel Mahabs , east raja street, mahabalipuram , opposite to mahabalipuram main bus stand,behind sbi atm
Phone no : 044-27442645 & 44 (rooms are available, pls make your own arrangments)
mobile no: +919444283695
N o d e l e g a t e f e e , for boarding and lodging please make your own arrangement, look forward to seeing one and all.

Thanks and Regards
ChennaiHamsBlogspot Team

HAMFESTINDIA 2012 to be held at Chennai!!!

Chennai Hams welcome all amatuer radio lovers to HAMFESTINDIA 2012 to be held at CHENNAI, pls view these pages for more updates.

ChennaiHamsBlogspot Team

Watch For HAMFESTINDIA 2011

Finally the countdown has begun , HAMFESTINDIA2011 is going to take place at Gokulam Park Convention Centre, Kaloor, Kochi (Cochin), Kerala on December 10th and 11th. All hams in India have to do their best to make this event a grand success.

For more detail pls visit http://www.hamfestindia2011.com/

Aircraft Emergency Frequencies

The aircraft emergency frequency (also known as guard) is a frequency used on the aircraft radio band reserved for emergency communications for aircraft in distress. The frequencies are 121.5 MHz for civilian, also known as International Air Distress (IAD) and 243.0 MHz for military use, also known as Military Air Distress (MAD). Both are in use at the international level.

The choice of 121.5 MHz was made by the ICAO in conjunction with ARINC and the ITU as a result of its third harmonic frequency relationship with the 40.5 MHz military tactical low band ground-to-air channel. Similarly 121.5 MHz is itself a sub harmonic of the military UHF distress frequency at 243 MHz. This choice gave a number of technical and operational compatibility and efficiency gains in the context of design and proximity interference.

121.5 MHz is monitored by most air traffic control towers, national air traffic control centers, and other flight and emergency services, as well as by many airliners. Separate frequencies exist for military and other government emergency frequencies. If an aircraft violates or is on a trajectory that will violate Restricted or Prohibited airspace, it will be warned of military interception on 121.5 MHz.

The frequency may also be used by ATC to establish contact with an aircraft that has inadvertently switched to an incorrect frequency. As pilots are strongly recommended to monitor 121.5 MHz at all times, a common practice is to set a secondary communications radio in the aircraft (often COMM 2) to 121.5 MHz in order to monitor, but not transmit on, 121.5 MHz. A pilot accidentally transmitting on 121.5 MHz will often hear a reply stating that they are "on guard", i.e., that they are on the guard frequency and should switch to the appropriate frequency instead.

An Exotic QSO : VU4PB DX-pedition to Andaman Islands

Members of Amateur Radio Society of India succesfully planned and executed a DX-pedition to Andaman Islands from 15th to 31st March 2011 with callsign as VU4PB . Permission was obtained and there were 4 stations active out of Port Blair, Andaman Islands,India.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal and a Union Territory of India. The territory is located geographically 150 km (93 mi) north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated from Thailand and Burma by the Andaman Sea. It comprises two island groups, the Andaman Islands and the Nicobar Islands, separated by the 10° N parallel, with the Andamans to the north of this latitude, and the Nicobars to the south. The Andaman Sea lies to the east and the Bay of Bengal to the west.

A DX-pedition is an expedition to what is considered an exotic place by amateur radio operators, perhaps because of its remoteness or because there are very few radio amateurs active from that place. This could be an island, a country, or even a particular spot on a geographical grid.

The first batch of operators and installation personnel consisted of VU2GGM-Poru, VU2RCR-Chandru, VU2GMN-Gopal,VU2MTT-Murthy,VU2ABS-Aravind,VU2CDP-Deepak,VU2SJD-Sanjay and VU2LU-Ramesh. Among Chennai Hams VU2GMN Gopal , VU2ABS Aravind, VU2DH Das and VU2SJD Sanjay participated . Operations were from 160 meters to 10meters and totally almost 32,000 QSO's were made.
A large number of log check requests were generated due to the pirate activities that unfortunately took place. The breakup of QSOs by Continent for the operation which logged around 33,000 contacts is given below:
EU – 45%
AS – 30%
NA – 20%
Others – 5%

A Small Photoprofile below:

The first batch of personnel(ops and logistic team)
Rear (left to right) VU2SMN-Suhas (rear left), VU2DH-Das,VU2MTT-Murthy, VU2GGM-Poru, VU2LU-Ramesh
Front (left to right) vud2CDP-Deepak, VU2NXM-Basappa, VU2GMN-Gopal, VU2RCR-Chandru, VU2ABS-Aravind, VU2SJD-Sanjay

Equipment used during VU4PB:

RIGS:
Elecraft K3
Two Kenwood TS-2000
ICOM 756 Pro II
ICOM 756 Pro III
Yaesu FT 847
Kenwood TS-950
Antennas:
Two Spider Beams (20-17-15-12-10m)
SteppIR 2-element Yagi (20-6m)
SteppIR 3-element Yagi (40-6m)
SteppIR Big IR vertical (40-10m)
Wire and vertical antennas for low band operation (160-80-40-30m)
18m Spider poles for Low band antennas (160-80m)
Force12 C3S Yagi (20-10m)
Amplifiers:
Yaesu Quadra VL1000 Amp
Kenwood TL-922 Amp
Yaesu FL2100 Amp
TenTec Hercules II
Ameritron ALS-500 Amp
Ameriton AL-811H Amp
Digital:
MicroHAm MicroKeyer II
RigExpert Standard
Signalink USB

For full photo profile, pls click on below links.

http://vu4pb.info/

The unusually bad weather made things very challenging at times. Having to frequently check if your antennas have not been blown away by the storm force winds tends to slow things down for sure. Band conditions were not been ideal either with a lot of QRN.

However certain mornings the weather was better which permitted low band antennas to be putup and used . VU4PB went QRT as scheduled at 1829z on 31st March 2011 and the various operators have headed home to get back to their normal lives.

I am sure it must have been a once a lifetime experience for all those who participated.

G.Vipin Shankar
ChennaiHamsBlogspot Team

A Tribute to "VU2PCP" OM Paneer

That familiar steady voice on Yercaud VHF net daily "VU2 Pappa Charlie Pappa” has become silent key & would'nt be heard anymore . Vu2PCP handle "Paneer" based at Tiruchengode passed away today afternoon 1:30 pm in Coimbatore , 12 days since hospitalization after a stroke . PCP has he was called by all was among the senior most and most active HAM's in South India and used to attend all HAM related meetings in and around India and was instrumental in setting up and maintaining the most effective VHF repeater in South India based at Yercaud. He was the custodian of the Tiruchengode Repeater Club.

PCP got his ticket in 1990’s and has been a HAM for past 20+ years. He was active on HF/VHF and was a very good homebrewer and has contributed many test equipments/antennas to the hobby.

The last HAM meet he attended was the Pollachi HAMFEST. He is survived by his wife and two children. All Chennai south HAMS salute this great HAM and his contributions to the hobby, we are sure he would be remembered always as a nice person we knew and who cherished being a HAM and contributed selflessly towards this passion all of us share.

May his soul rest in peace.

ChennaiHamsBlogspot Team

A HAM who's been a Net Controller for 25 Years : VU2DPN felicitated during HAMFEST 2010

The Madras VHF group started a small round table net on 145.500 Mhz from 20.30 hrs during 1985 . 5 to 8 VHF stations joined and used to discuss about various technical subjects related to VHF Radio. This was the period when the chennai VHF activity had just started like a new baby's birth. In the mid 80's madras VHF hambirds were flying only with 1/4 wave antennas which covers only 5 to 10 km radius, slowly the antenna set up improved the VHF activity also became popular . That was the time the a formal net was lauched with set timings,frequency and so on.

Slowly the net check-ins increased from 25 to somtimes 75 callers checking-in . An average of 25 check ins per day used to be there both for the morning and night nets . When the Federation of amateur radio conducted the AGM in chennai the check in crossed 100 callers . After getting the repeater the activity sky rocketed and checkins also crossed average of 50 callers. During the August net checkins 125 callers came on air in an hour.

From the day one of starting the informal Chennai VHF Group/round table in the mid 1980's till today , HAM's in Chennai and outside who check-in to the morning 7:00 am VHF 145.775 Mhz net in Chennai are familiar with this lovely call from a passionate net controller "This is the good morning net conducted by MADRASVHF GROUP, inviting callers to the morning Channels , VU2DPN listening" .

This voice has been rendering service to HAM Radio as the Chennai Net controller for the past 25 years with his unmatched dedication , passion and committment to this unique hobby . The chennai hams wanted to honour him at HAMFEST 2010 held at Pollachi and presented him with a special award . Om Charuhassan VU2 SCU present a memento to him.

Thanks for the efforts taken by VU3 MOA OM mohan in organising this and all wish to keep hearing VU2DPN as net controller for many more decades to come.

HAMFESTINDIA 2010 held at pollachi a grand success

Hamfest India 2010 held at pollachi on 13th and 14th November was a grand success with great eyeball and nice get-together celebrations for all radio lovers . More than 510 HAM's from all over India as well as abroad participated. Around 30 hams and swls attended from Chennai.

For Full profile 100+ Photo Albums Click below links:

HAMFESTINDIA 2010 ALBUM 1 (Courtesy VU2RDN)

HAMFESTINDIA 2010 ALBUM 2 (Courtesy VU2VAU)

HAMFESTINDIA 2010 ALBUM 3 (Courtesy VU2VAU)

The weather conditions were excellent, a simple homebrew VHF repeater with 500mw output at the venue for local communication (covering from palghat to Coimbatore with low power). Hams from Calcutta, Bombay, Cochin, palaghat, Bangalore and one from Japan also participated. Excellent arrangements from the college, good food. Few stalls selling commercial and home brew antennas, old and new connectors, assembled working boards used scopes and frequency counters added special interest to the home brewers.

Our Chennai ham Aravind VU2ABS with his XYL had the biggest stall selling all kind of HAM tech stuff like a Ham radio superstore you find abroad.

A special thanks to Vijayan VU2 WDP and other pollachi hams for the great function. The next ham meet would be at palghat. More updates with photos would follow.

Chennai hams who participated :
VU2 AB, VU2 ABS, VU2 AIR, VU2 AKW, VU2 CMR, VU2 CSM, VU3 CBM, VU2 DH, VU2 DRK, VU2 GMN, VU2 KLS, VU2 UMX, VU2 SDU, VU2 SCU, Vu2 JA, Vu2 DBS, VU3 VEE, Vu3 USI, Vu3 MOA, VU2 GJR, VU2 ISR, Vu2 VAU, Vu3 VWR, Vu3 OEL, Vu3 GGK, Vu3 MII, Vu2 DPN, Vu2 RDX , VU3 CPE, VU3 MSP

Wouxun announces VHF/UHF DualBand Base Station

Its good news for all the Wouxun brand radio lovers . Already ChennaiHams Team facilitated two lots of imports of Wouxun dualband handies into India with very good user feedback from Indian HAMS in terms of features vs price & overall value for money.

Finally, Wouxun has announced a new radio in their line-up. It is a dual-band mobile radio. Wouxun have unveiled the KG-UV920R dual band mobile rig. 50/25/5w VHF/40/20/5w UHF RX/TX with AM 500-2000KHz/FM 65-220MHz and LW 150-500 KHz reception.

* Dual Receive (Truly, not dual-watch like the handhelds)
* Crossband
* Dual Frequency display
* 50W
* 999 channels
* Remote head.. Mount radio somewhere else and just put the head on your dash. Looks like Mic plugs directly into the head also. Hope that's a standard feature and includes mounting gear.

Looks like there are going to be multiple versions like the handhelds. 218-260 is listed! So there's a possiblity there of 2m/222.. 136-174/218-260. There's also some weird stuff like the possibility of 2mhz-30mhz AM-only receive. Or 500-2000khz, Or 50-500khz all AM-only. Apparently FM broadcast is available too. So one option there gets you AM & FM radio.

We will need to await and see how they are going to price and how the final version performs , keep reading these pages for further updates.

Times of India Chennai Article : Amateur weathermen saw cyclone Jal fizzling out

Times of India Chennai published an article on how avid HAM weather enthusiasts based in Chennai monitored weather channels as well as used sattelite data for cyclone data interpretation of recent cyclone "Jal". It also speaks about general benefits of HAM radio and how valuable it is to the society.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6891333.cms?prtpage=1