Girls Missed the Bus - Helped by Hams

Situational awareness is always key for hams doing emergency communications - and it was never more important than at a recent religious pilgrimage in India, where one observant radio amateur intervened to help find two missing children. Jim Meachen ZL2BHF brings us that story.

Hams around the world who were making DX contacts with AU2WBRC, the West Bengal Radio Club, were no doubt happy to log a QSO from the second largest religious gathering of Hindus in India, the Gangasagar Mela in West Bengal. They may not have realised that one member of the team made another important contact - off the air - with the cooperation of a drone operator in the area. A 9-year-old girl and her 3-year-old sister had boarded a departing bus, expecting their mother and grandmother to follow, but the adults failed to join them because the massive crowd at the bus stand had got in their way. The bus pulled away with the unaccompanied children.

“...key in completing the search operation in such a short time.”

— Local Newspaper

Saborni Nag Biswas, VU2JFC, was at the festival to assist with the radio club's DXpedition and public safety work. She told Newsline she was near the bus stand, assisting others who had lost their way in the crowd, when the frantic mother approached her after the bus pulled away. The mother could not recall the bus' identifying number. Knowing that there were drones flying over the island for security purposes, Saborni telephoned the drone operators to see if any footage captured from the air could identify the departed vehicle. After the bus was identified, located and stopped, she accompanied Kolkata police to the bus and the girls were returned to their mother and grandmother.

DMR Radios Open Up The World To Students in India

Students in government residential schools in rural parts of the Indian state of Karnataka can now reach out and touch the world with the help of Digital Mobile Radio, or DMR.

Twenty new DMR radio base stations are opening up the world to students in rural schools run by the state of Karnataka’s Social Welfare Department. The installation was done by the Indian Institute of Hams at the request of the state. According to news reports in the Hindu and the Bangalore Mirror, science teachers and a pair of eighth-grade students from a number of the schools received online training for their amateur radio licenses and then successfully sat the exam from the Ministry of Communications.

The radios are designed to give the students access to scientists, researchers and others in the amateur radio community who would normally be inaccessible from within their remote rural communities. The radios are available to be operated around the clock. Just as significantly, the radios are available so the schools can serve as emergency communications centres when disaster strikes and the remote regions are likely to be cut off from many services.

The initiative is called Ham Yatra and spans the state, the ham institute’s director, S. Satyapal [pron: Sat-YUH-poll] told local media. He said he hoped the radios would open a window of curiosity for the students about opportunities in the world of science.

Ham Operator Must Pay in First-Responder Interference Case

A ham radio operator in Idaho must pay a record $34,000 penalty for causing interference with communications during a fire suppression effort.

That’s the ruling from the Federal Communications Commission in the case of Jason Frawley, licensee of amateur station WA7CQ.

When the commission issued its notice of liability 2-1/2 years ago, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote: “You can’t interfere with public safety communications. Full stop. So today we propose the largest fine of its type for this interference that put fire suppression and public safety itself at risk.”

Frawley acknowledged that he operated on a frequency without authorization but argued that he did not interfere with government communications and was trying to help. He asked for a cancellation or reduction but the commission has rejected his appeal.

It’s not clear why the FCC took so long to finalize the penalty.

When the forfeiture finally was adopted the day after Christmas, Commissioner Nathan Simington dissented but did not release a reason. Radio World has followed up with his office and will report any response.

More Information - https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/headlines/ham-operator-must-pay-in-first-responder-interference-case

Bob K0NR (blog) - https://www.amateurradio.com/erroneous-prepper-frequency-lists/