A  Story behind the Photograph

A core Hurricane affected landfall near the Village Edurumondi, Krishna District of Andhra Pradesh. Those days Chenna Reddy was chief minister and the Congress party was in opposition at the centre.  It has caused extensive damage to the places like Machilipatnam, Avanigadda, Nagayalanka and Koduru of Divi Island. The impact of gale winds that have reached almost 240kmph impacted causing tailed roofs to blown away and big trees were uprooted blocking the road communication which includes between Vijayawada & Machilipatnam. The severe storm wreaked havoc and left a trail of destruction. Due to the impact of the gale winds telephone & electrical poles fell to the ground resulting in power cut & communication breakdown.

The Machilipatnam was virtually cut off from the rest of the world. Mobile vehicles fixed with Hexa blades capable of working with the petrol & diesel were deployed. They have been utilized to cut trees and clear roads to restore the road communication network. Those days and Mr Sankar Rao VU2HVR were working under the National Institute of Amateur Radio. We have been asked to move to the worst affected areas to establish a Ham Radio Emergency communication network.  On the way to the affected areas, we reached Vijayawada and camped in the State Guesthouse.

We came to know that the late Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi VU2RG along with the chief minister was about to visit Hurricane affected areas to console the victims. We have approached the then Krishna District Collector Mr Rajeev Sharma IAS   and requested permission for setting up a station in Gannavaram Airport. Collector has not accorded permission for setting up the station at the airport quoting the security reasons. Left with no other option we stayed in the guest where we had been accommodated. Later we felt happy to know that Rajeev Gandhi is about to come to the same guest house where we had been accommodated to take brief rest.

We observed that the then Finance Minister MR. Rosaiah along with the officials was seen horridly moving inside and out to know the status of Rajeev Gandhi’s arrival.  We approached Mr Rosaiah and requested permission to set up a Ham station in the Room where Rajeev Gandhi was been accommodated. We also explained to him with the help Ham network that we can get updated information about Rajeev Gandhi’s arrival from time to time. Since those days we have had a strong presence of Ham volunteers we have been deployed on the length breadth of the Bandar Road right from Benz circle to the State Guesthouse. We also explained to the Ministers no need of coming outside and inside the rooms to know the status of Rajeev Gandhi’s arrival. Those days we don’t have any cell network to have updated information.

 Our proposal was very well received by the then Ministers Mr Rosaiah and Mr Samara Simhareddy the then Revenue minister. After getting the permission we completed the whole process of erecting the makeshift antenna hardly in 10 minutes. Luckily we could manage to bring down the aerial SWR matching to 1:1. All the Ham Radio operators who were working for the disaster were eagerly awaiting the arrival of VVIP.

Our plan worked out no sooner than Rajeev Gandhi arrived in the room and observed a Ham Set was readily made available for the operation. Once after observing the Ham set in his room Rajeev Gandhi’s face was lit with the lighting. When Rajeev Gandhi entered the frequency by announcing his call sign VU2RG Immediately he was greeted by many operators who were present at the frequency at that movement. P. Hanumatha Rao who was working from Nizampatanam, a worst affected place explained how gale winds tore down his antenna by reducing it into pieces. He also explained he could  somehow managed to repair the damaged antenna.  He has given the first information about the impact of the cyclone and how it has destroyed that area by uprooting trees and blowing away the rooftops of many houses. Rajeev Gandhi spoke to all the Hams present at that time and praised them for their valuable services rendering braving all the extreme conditions.

All these things were closely observed by Mr Chenna Reddy along with many of his cabinet colleagues, Revenue & Police officials heaved a sigh of relief and praised the services rendered by the Ham Community. Till now it is the only one photograph that was available showing Rajeev Gandhi with the Ham Radio equipment which was later become a viral through the Internet.

By

Ramesh Babu  Arza

VU2RDM