Eyeball with VU - 0020 :

My trip to Bangalore HAMFEST 2009 really turned out to be very fruitful. I had an eyeball with Viswanathan from Tellicherry, Kerala. Viswanathan is SWL since 1998 and his SWL call is VU - 0020. Uptill now he has send 30000 plus QSL cards and has received 12000 plus in return. From the 12000 plus QSL card received it contains 290 countries and 342 islands.

He showed his album to me and I was really amazed. And the best part is he is a CW SWL. Getting QSL's are at a slow pace since he depends on the QSL Bureau, but hats off to his patience.

Some of his achievements are:
Received awards such as IOTA ( And he is the 1st VU in person to get it ), EWWA-hf-250, DDFM.DPXF, KDN, R-100_o, and nine awards from ISWL - HAS, DX Century CLUB 250, Pacific Ocean, The Americas, Continental, Commonwealth, etc and HA-VK-CA, etc. Due for many awards.

Met a HAM friend from Romania :

Met OM Florian, YO9GJX from Romania, Campina on GTALK very interesting fellow, he works satellites. As I wanted to know how to work satellites he guided me step by step. He gave me a link which is a must for any layman http://www.hamradio.selfip.com/i6ibe/

We had a long chat on internet and the best part is that we both being hams have never worked on radio with each other hi hi. He was inspired by a very good friend SW1JGW. Infact his website is also interesting http://www.sw1jgw.com/.

As I use windows as operating system he guided me to use Orbitron to track the satellites and told me to try it with AO51.

His working condition for satellites are:
linux debian machine
For RX 6el yagi for 435.300
A Jingtong handy
For TX DR135 with two antennas
Jpole and a Turnstill connected with a 2m splitter

He is a member at GACW cw club for a long time.

Just do it !

Herewith I am posting 2 photographs of VU2NP, OM Dossu's Shack. Truly a perfectionist, a die hard homebrewer and a very soft spoken HAM. And the best part of Dossu is he has homebrewed his own shack carpentered it by himself. Very neatly with tools area next to his shack. Antenna's farm masting is excellent something worth watching for all new budding HAM's.

From the HAM fraternity our hopes are always with you Dossu. Thanks for that wonderful eyeball, would like to have more in near future.

Good radio shack and antenna grounding may not always improve your signal and radio reception.....But it is always the safe thing to do - Just do it!

VU2AY :

VU2AY, Cyril Alphonso a retired sailor, marine electrical engineer and presently working in a near by school just two minutes walk from his home QTH as an computer & networking engineer still going strong at the age of 72 plus.

Today it was really another memorable day in my life, long awaited eyeball with Cyril. He stays in Mumbai city place called Mazagoan. In Mazagoan itself there is a very famous lane called Mathar Pacady, when you enter this lane I am sure you all will get feel of Goan heritage houses simply awesome.


Cyril got his HAM tickets way back on 1st. January, 1966. He is basically a QRP operator and worked DX in CW with his homebrewed rig NR60 with not more than 5 watts and that to more than 20000 QSO's. "Home brewing is in my blood" Cyril says to me, with a peculiar smile on his face, his smile is worth more than million dollar. He showed to me that each and every part of his QTH is filled books, rigs, receivers, circuits, valves and what not Cyril proudly says "you name it and I have it". For HAM's it is like Alibaba's Khazanaa.


After that we QSYed to his morning QTH, the designing part of computer lab is done by Cyril himself and I tell u folks it is worth seeing. It has about 70 computers and each and every computer is assembled by him. He learned C++ by going through the books and his latest craze is HTML.His funda of life is, whenever he takes any project he completes it and that too with 100% success. We had eyeball for more than three hours. I was gifted a Matric make Electronic keyer, QSL card and 2 books (ie. The Radio Amateur's Handbook & Low-Band DXing). Finally, he dropped me to Byculla station. Thanks Cyril.

My Guru VU2SWS :

Along with VU2NXM, VU2SWS YL Sarla Sharma was our teacher, she use to teach section II. To VU2SWS HAM radio is a religion for her rightly said in all aspects on her QRZ profile. She is VU's best YL operator QRV on Digital and most of the HF bands on SSB and now on CW too.

She has a very sound knowledge and a very good teacher. Got her license in 1996 and was a student of JNA wireless. Visiting her shack was a dream come true for me, very good set up regarding rig and antenna. Along with VU2NXM, VU2SWS was also with us at Elephanta Islands for IOTA and I got the opportunity to learn "How to make a DX contact and how to handle pile-ups". She loves contest and has got many awards like the DXCC, Sly Fox etc. She was also team member of VU7LD. Above all she is vice president of Amateur Radio Association Of India ARSI and also editor of HAM RADIO NEWS. Recently she has been appointed as Liaison officer for the IARU in India. Took a lead role in International Mumbai YL Meet 2006. She is a versatile personality and loves adventure sports, music and travelling. She believes in the existence of a superior force, whatever name you give it, try to be a good ham and a good person!!

Mumbai city - Net controllers :

Tune on to 144.100 +600 Mumbai repeater & 145.000 +600 Matheran repeater at 2130 hrs. IST corresponding to 1600 hrs. UTC, and you will hear either VU2WLL, OM Vispy or VU2PJM, YL Perviz. They are presently the net controllers of Night Owl's Net carried out in Mumbai city. This net is from Monday to Saturday.

Vispy and Perviz duo both brother and sister visually impaired have been conducting this net from 1996 consistently. The very first net controller for this net was VU2RIG, OM Rajen followed by VU2NFS, YL Nafisa. When collecting details from Vispy on lima lima, he told me that previously when he was in San Francisco, CA USA for studies lots of blind friends were HAM's and they insisted Vispy after going back to India do apply for HAM license. First he got information that classes of HAM radio are conducted in Nehru Science Center, But somehow that did not work and one fine day Vispy came into contact with VU2SVS, OM Sudhir Shah who was running JNA wireless classes. Vispy joined JNA classes in 1994 and after two year got his license. As there was no one to take the Night Owl's Net VU2GTE, OM Roomy told Vispy to go-ahead and take it and from that day he is conducting this net regularly. Perviz got her license in 1999.

On 15th. August 1997 it happened to be 50th. Anniversary of India's Independence day and Vispy 100th Net, so a thought came into Vispy mind that there should at least be 50 check ins. And his dream came true it was all together 63 checkins. Vispy told that there were days when not a single check ins. It reminds me of Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) he used to say that if one person is there with me the struggle for freedom will go on.......Vispy proudly says. And both of them are still following that. We all HAM’s are really very thankful to both and wish them good luck.

Courtesy as told by VU2WLL & VU2PJM

Living legend :

VU2LK, Radio handle: Bob, real name Bhavsinh Morarji Tanna popularly know to family members as mota bhai i.e. big brother. Truly big in every aspect he is presently 93 yrs. Old and still going strong and very active HAM in Mumbai. He is very regular and first person to check in into the Night Owls Net which is conducted in Mumbai 144.100 +600 repeater shift from Monday to Saturday.

Bob is the oldest HAM operator presently in VU land and second one to receive HAM license way back in 1936 at the age of 21. Story of getting into this hobby is also interesting, once when he was returning home from his school a roadside vendor used to sit outside his school and lend magazine for two paise each. One of them had an article titled “Travel round the world without leaving your armchair” and this way he came and got attracted to this amateur radio hobby. His father too was very much happy and got more literature and information on HAM radio.

Bob took a lead role during freedom movement. He helped Indian National Congress and made equipment for them as there were no tape recorders in those days and he used to record the messages and speeches on acetate discs. It was going on smoothly for more than ten months and one day he was caught by the British. He was detained and kept in Colaba police station. They tortured him for seven days and was made to lie down on a block of ice with only an underwear. When they realized he did not have anything to share, they shifted him to Arther road jail and was set free after nine months.

He was very active HAM operator and used homebrew rigs and antennas. Most of the HF contacts by Bob is using simple windom antennas. I consider myself one of the luckiest person to have an eyeball with Bob. I was there for almost four hours and he forced to have lunch with him, that was really a memorable day for me in my life. He is an inspiration to all of us and that’s why I call him living legend…………

My Guru VU2NXM :

VU2NXM - BASAPPA ARABOLE

My very first eyeball with VU2NXM, OM Basappaji was in 2005 December at Thane Amateur Radio Association classes. During the tea break I told Basappaji that it is impossible for me to learn CW. Being an EX-Navy Telegraphic officer he just told me one thing that I still remember, this are his words "still the war has not started and you want to surrender yourself, without even fighting".

VU2NXM took pains teaching me CW in a very simple way jumbling alphanumeric words for practicing CW. It is because of Basappaji I was a part IOTA DXpedition (IOTA AS-169) Elephanta islands when I was an SWL, were each and everything was clear regarding the pile-ups, split, digital and setting up of antennas.

Basappaji's former callsign was VU3BKY. Has worked CW and SSB but his taste is more towards CW. Enjoys working split with a speed of 25-30 WPM. He has participated in most of the CW contest and few SSB. He has won many awards and one of them is the prestigious DXCC.


VU2NXM, team member of VU7LD Lakshdweep Island expeditions, worlds most wanted DXCC country