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| Executive Vice-chairman and Director of National Institute of Amateur Radio S. Ram Mohan and Tom K Jose of Hyderabad who played an active role in the relief works of the recent Hudhud Cyclon |
Uses his Ham radio skills to gather vital information
during Hudhud. One contact talked about trees falling at a Jain temple in
Bhimli and resulting in precarious conditions. The young Ham immediately passed
on the information to senior officials, who in turn directed their field
personnel.
For a week, Tom K. Jose
kept his studies aside, travelled to a cyclone-hit city and used his Ham radio
skills to contribute to disaster management.
When Hudhud swept
through Visakhapatnam disrupting its communication network and a team of
amateur radio (Ham) operators from the city were sought, the 15-year-old
student of Little Flower Junior College, Uppal, volunteered for the task.
With his call sign,
VU3TMO, Tom was stationed in the control room set up at Visakhapatnam Police
Commissionerate and spent long hours collecting messages from other team
members spread over the cyclone affected areas and passed them on to the
administration for relief measures.
The intermediate first
year student, who got his Ham licence at the age of 13, along with colleagues,
operated under adverse conditions, often skipping meals and spending long hours
before the radio, waiting for it to crackle with messages. “For seven days, I
was at the Visakhapatnam Police Commissionerate and one day at the District
Collector’s office at Srikakulam and made anywhere up to 500 contacts,” says
Tom.
One contact talked about
trees falling at a Jain temple in Bhimli and resulting in precarious
conditions. The young Ham immediately passed on the information to senior
officials, who in turn directed their field personnel, and the situation was
attended to. Another was a contact from Bangalore who was desperately trying to
locate his brother and sister in the Hudhud affected area. “We operated without
checking the watch or caring whether it was day or night. We had to just sit in
front of the radio and wait for a contact,” he says.
Tom, who got his licence
when he was in class 9, explores the Ham world and so far, has contacted more
than 150 countries and received appreciations for his operational skills from
Ham associations from different parts of the globe, including US, Germany and
Japan. He comfortably juggles his hobby with studies and says, “Each night
after studies I spend 30 minutes to 45 minutes with the radio apart from a
brief tryst in the morning before going to college.”
( An excerpt from "THE HINDU" published on 26-10-14 )
