Dear VU2SHF
Thank you for the encouragement. I am thinking of a survey(bit detailed) hosted online and secure where all hams can unbiasedly and confidentially put their comments and take the poll. CallSigns/one identification (email-id) will be required so that there is no false data, I will collate the data and publish the results.
Question list will be circulated shortly, where people can add a question or ask why the question is required at all. I am not going to sell the data/email-id, nor even make a business of ham radio, pure interest is to see if I can add value to the hobby and pay-forward something to society.
Just as a matter of clarification to everyone, the INR 7.5Lacs is just an indication of what can be raised @INR500/ham is we want to so something about it. It could be Rs.50 or Rs.100 as a donation. But, then one becomes answerable if money is given, I have received some good offers and if I setup a paypal account, I will publish the list on a website and the work that is being done so that it is all transparent. Let me work out how the system can be made transparent, as I have no intention of being labelled as an internet scam artist.
There would be a need for dedicated volunteers as the project goes along to set up stations in India in IITs, RECs etc. (This is just an idea, not sure what is feasible now)
73
Ravi Miranda
Believe each human being has the potential to change, to transform one's own attitude, no matter how difficult the situation." - Dalai Lama
--- In HamBrewers@yahoogroups.com, Pravinkumar Anandan <ab9xc@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Ravi,
>                       I carefully went through your article . I completely agree with what you have told about India in general and VU hams in particular. I am a VU2 ham licensed for last 30 years. Most of my spare time was spent designing and assembling ham home brew rigs and test equipments using scarce resources available at that time (at least 20 years back). It was a vastly different scenario at that time . No ebay,no amazon, no internet or cellphone !! Not may RF components (especially active components and prime passive components like toroids etc) were available in VU land . One has to make multiple visits to the electronics shops (even in big cities) to get reasonable components . Finally I managed to assemble a simple HF receiver for 40 meters and 20 meters with components available readily at an affordable price even in small Indian cities. The same was also published in one of the most read ham radio magazine of
> the time . I got so many letters requesting clarifications even 2 years after the initial publication of the article. I tried my best to clarify the doubts but I am sorry to tell that I haven't heard of anybody who seriously tried to assemble it. Many were willing to avail my services in assembling it (even offering a payment) ,but I was not interested in doing a business out of it . My aim was to infuse a home brew culture and there by improve the availability of ham rigs so that many people can at least listen to the ham QSOs and get interested in the hobby. But alas I failed so miserably for reasons still not understood . The receiver I designed was just a modification to the then popularly ( and cheaply) available "Delhi Board" semi assembled radio . Even with such an easy option many people were not willing to put there own efforts in assembling minimal circuits required to complete the receiver I think it has something to do with
> our inherent culture of indifference and laziness. Everybody want an easy way out . Best way is to import one at a high price ( it was costing at least 6 months salary of an average person at that time). And remember it is only for a hobby and not for any productive use . So one can understand how many people can afford it and I think it is one of the reasons for the hobby not picking up in India for the given size of the population. The scenario is vastly different in developed countries like US ,UK, Japan etc. There are any number of home brew clubs and the price of an off the shelf rig is comparable to a month's salary only. Moreover quality components are all readily available from many in country mail in firms at a very affordable price even 50 years back . There were firms like Heatkit in US who were specialists in supplying kits for ham radio. With the off the shelf rigs now becoming so cheap (when compared to average salaries) it is sad to see
> kit companies going out of business in US .
>                      With the great generic shift in the attitudes of the new generation towards home brew I doubt whether it will be worth while attempting a SDR project by pooling money from general ham population. As you have mentioned I also propose a poll on home brewing topic with the VU hams before embarking on the SDR project. In the present day Indian scenario it is extremely difficult to control the spending in a transparent way especially a big amount like Rs 7.5L. I have the unfortunate experience of hearing many hams complaining about another fellow ham who collected a nominal amount ( 25 years back) in advance promising life membership in a ham organization he floated and not honoring the commitment . Such stories are widespread and in the prevailing culture in VU land today it is difficult to control . In the process many well meaning and honest people will get tainted because of the selfish motives of few
> rotten people. So before somebody tries to raise a capital amount a complete transparent system should be put in place to oversee the utilization of the funds for the intended purpose. I think raising the amount will be easier than utilizing it for the intended project.
>
> Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Nevertheless I am extremely interested in the SDR project and wondering how to go forward in the given scenario in VU land now.
>
>
> 73s
> DE
>
> (Pravinkumar P.A)
> VU2 SHF
> AB9XC
>
> Â
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: ravimiranda <ravimiranda@...>
> To: HamBrewers@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Sunday, June 10, 2012 3:26 PM
> Subject: [HamBrewers] Call to action ... Indian Hams
>
>
> Â
> Fellow Hams/Indians
>
> Over the past several weeks we have debated this issue, there are several pertinent points raised and there has of course been some action from various groups over the past 60 years to talk to the Ministry/WPC/IB etc. which is all very nice. However, in a country such as India nothing moves unless there is some gain(financial) to be had from making the decision. The buck-passing is of course the best way to delay a decision and take no action, extremely useful by the ministers.
>
> We have only a one point agenda which is the mis(use) of the hobby for disasters, and that's about it. There is so much more to talk about and achieve but many think that Ham Radio will come to the rescue during disasters. We have no storyboard!!
>
> Licensing issues will persist in our country, and since the laws and regulations are so convoluted that making sense of them is a nightmare. The touts will charge a tidy amount for getting you the material legally in the country. I am no authority on the Indian Customs rules and regulations, and there have been a number of attempts by others to explain the regulations albeit in their own way. At least it is heartening ot note that there is good knowledge abd experts on the topic and some hams have also volunteered to assist with the import based on correct paperwork. Politicians do not care about the hobby and we all know why, so even trying to involve them is a useless venture and we can keep emailing them and writing to the Ministry etc., but will achieve nothing. Inviting them for events are also a waste of time. No technocrat ministers are there who would understand the value of an advanced hobby such as Ham Radio, Ministers do not even understand
> sports (besides cricket).
>
> Of the interested ham population there are many who have imported rigs on their own and these do not count. In these VU2 e-groups ARSICOM- 749 members, CQ-VU- 642 members, Hambrewers - 308 members, vuhams - 922. This means that there are about 1500 hams on these e-groups. Of which 90% have good rigs and are not interested in importing anything more or building anything, which leaves us with 150 hams who are keen to get their hands on a kit and actually build it/use it. So these groups have been active in the last few weeks about doing something, but we are happy if someone else does it for us, I have asked for volunteers for a kit build in SDR (that's the future) but from 1500 active hams (online), I just got 6 people of which just 2 of us are doing some active thinking and we are NOT making a huge publicity and slowly but surely getting something done. Our target (sub INR 5000 RXTX), I will not mention who and how this is being achieved but I think by
> 20-12-2012 we will have made an entry. Maybe others will be spurred on by seeing a target :D
>
> There was a mail earlier about PUMPING some money into making a kit, but NO-ONE came forward to say, well here is Rs. 1000 as a contribution go ahead lets make something happen. We love stories on how great INDIA was 5000 years ago and we love stories on how we achieved independence 60 years ago (that was because the British were broken due to the Second World War, that they decided to consolidate), but when there is a call to ACTION, there is no one. Oh yes, and we love the story of how our former President contributed in building missiles in the face of opposition from the United States, but, what have you done for the hobby? Parliament is ruled by factionalism and so are we.. Let's admit it.. we cannot get one proper rig out for use, despite our IITs, RECs, our so-called brains, India shining etc., and how VU2RG was a great ham, and another minister loved the hobby in his town.
>
> Questions still open
> 1. How much activity is happening in all the alloted bands? Can we set up an automated reporting system to monitor the bands in the country? With reporting on the web so we can all see the activity?
> 2. Are we willing to contribute time and energy to get a kit ready in VU land?
> 3. Will the rich/settled/well-to-do hams make a donation to a club/ham/college who will then use the funding to get a kit out? I'm sure that if each of us contributes Rs. 500 (assuming 1500 hams)at the minimum we can create a corpus of INR750,000 enough to build a sophisticated rig. I'm sure we all spend a significant amount on other things :-)
> 4. How many hams will actually build a kit and use it? Do we need a poll on this?
>
> Ratan Tata made the NANO, we achieved freedom, let's make things happen!!
>
> 73
>
> Ravi
>
> PS: If there are any brickbats, please write directly and I shall be happy to defend the views above, if you want to contribute constructively please do so.
>
> Believe each human being has the potential to change, to transform one's own attitude, no matter how difficult the situation." - Dalai Lama
> Fr
>
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