When all communication networks are down, Ham plays a significant role in disseminating information. On the orders of the DGP, a 10-member team of National Institute of Amateur Radio (NIAR), led by its founder and chief advisor S. Suri, arrived here on Wednesday.

A man from Naglonda is desperate to find out the safety of his brother staying at Vijayanagar Palace layout in the Hudhud-battered Visakhapatnam.

A colonel is living at PM Palem and his son in Kerala is frenetic to know how he is.

At Padmanabham near Bhimili that suffered badly in the cyclone there is no power or water.

These are pieces of information tricking in from a few Ham (amateur) radio operators that are working in the cyclone-affected areas of Visakhapatnam and received at the Control Room set up at the Police Commissioner’s Office. Ham has significant role to play when communication networks are down.

On the orders of the DGP, a 10-member team of National Institute of Amateur Radio (NIAR), led by its founder and chief advisor S. Suri, arrived here on Wednesday.

“We came here in five teams with five high frequency sets and six very high frequency and ultra high frequency sets. On contacting DCP M. Srinivas and SP (Communications) Surya Rao, we have been told to go to four places to improve police communications as the load on their devices is heavy,” says Yamini, a celebrity Ham operator and an entrepreneur who took keen interest in amateur radio right from her junior college days. Over the last few years she emerged a leader participating in international conferences. She has to her credit the distinction of representing Asia in a 12-member team from all over the world in an experimental Ham operation on Isla del Coco, an uninhabited island in Costa Rica, braving risks and obstacles.

She has been participating in Ham operations in all the cyclones and floods since 2006, she says.

She has not studied communication engineering but pursued it with intense interest even using earth-moon-earth communication process.

That Ham radio is easy to operate by even students is illustrated by Tom K Jose from Hyderabad, now in junior intermediate. With his father working in NIAR, he took quite early to the operation and Hudhud is his first operational exposure.

COMES IN HANDY

Ten members from National Institute of Amateur Radio arrive

They are equipped with high-frequency sets

#Celebrity operator

Yamini, who has been participating in Ham operations in all cyclones and floods since 2006, is part of the team

#Task assigned

To improve police communication