Amateur radio in India

Amateur radio or ham radio is practised by more than 22,000 licensed users in India.[1] The first amateur radio operator was licensed in 1921, and by the mid-1930s, there were around 20 amateur radio operators in India. Amateur radio operators played an important part in the Indian independence movement with the establishment of illegal pro-independence radio stations in the 1940s. The three decades after India's independence saw only slow growth in the number of operators until the then Prime Minister of India and amateur radio operator, Rajiv Gandhi (VU2RG), waived the import duty on wireless equipment in 1984. Since then, numbers have picked up, and as of 2007, there were more than 16,000 operators in the country. Amateur radio operators have played a vital role during disasters and national emergencies such as earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, floods, and bomb blasts, by providing voluntary emergency communications in the affected areas.[2][3][4]

The Wireless and Planning and Coordination Wing (WPC)—a division of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology—regulates amateur radio in India. The WPC assigns call signs, issues amateur radio licences, conducts exams, allots frequency spectrum, and monitors the radio waves. Popular amateur radio events include daily ham nets, the annual Hamfest India, and regular DX contests.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference thetribune was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Press Trust of India (15 October 2005). "Bachchan, Gandhi style!". Indian Express. Express Group. Retrieved 23 July 2008.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference hindu-andaman was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Ramchandran, Ramesh (4 January 2005). "Sonia helps bridge communication gap". The Tribune. The Tribune Trust. Archived from the original on 26 July 2008. Retrieved 25 July 2008.