Sunday, July 31, 2016

How to get an Amateur Radio (Ham Radio) Licence in India

Licensing
There are two categories of license:
1. General Grade
2. Restricted Grade

The restrictions in the second category are:
1. Transmitted power (only upto 50W in HF and 10W in VHF/UHF, compared to 400W and 25W respectively for General Grade).
2. Terrestrial only (operating through Satellite repeaters is forbidden, receiving is OK).
3. Voice only communication (with some exception in the VHF/UHF bands)
4. 5GHz band not allowed (wonder who uses it anyway)



The written exam consists of two parts:
1. Radio Theory and Practice (Exempted for those holding degree in Engineering/Science or Diploma in Engineering and have subjects electronics/telecommunications)
2. Radio Regulations

Morse Test - transmit and receive at 8 words per minute (only for General grade)

Reference:
http://www.wpc.dot.gov.in/DocFiles/a...guidelines.pdf

Tests are conducted monthly at metro cities and once in 4 months at other monitoring stations (mostly state capitals)

For starters the Restricted Grade is the way to go. It hardly makes a difference, unless you really want to get into serious contests, DXing, etc.
I would suggest the best option for aspirants is to join a local Ham club, preferably one which conducts exams regularly. There are many in South India, PM me if you need any contacts. There are many active FB groups also. The Vigyan Prasar website has a search facility to find out the nearby Hams.

Sequence of events are like this:
1. Apply for exam (filled up forms, gazetted officer attested copies of supporting documents, exam fee DD(₹100))
2. Wait for hall ticket.
3. Write the exam.
4. Wait for result (2-3 months)
5. Result will be forwarded from local WPC office to Delhi.
6. WPC will share the details with IB dept.
7. WPC will wait for clearance from IB.
8. IB will forward the papers to the local police station.
9. Local police station will verify the applicant address. (mostly they will give a call and ask to visit the PS)
10. Verified papers sent back to IB, then to WPC
11. WPC gets the IB clearance and initiates the license issuance.

12. WPC sends a letter requesting to send license fee(₹1000/2000) and another set of attested documents.
13. Once WPC gets all the required papers, it will issue the license and send to the applicant.

* Update: The IB clearence has been removed for a majority of the Indian states, except for some areas that still requires it.

In my case, the entire process was done in 11 months, and I consider myself very lucky. But this seems to be the order now, atleast in major cities. Usually the delay is caused by the local PS. I joined a club and it also helped in getting the papers in order.

But I urge anyone not to get let down by this process. It is a govt process and it will eventually happen. Things have very much improved in the last few years and many steps are streamlined.

Getting Started
Once you get your license, you can immediately be on air. One catch, you need to have the equipment, and to import one you need to have license. But you can always make one your own which is fun.

Regarding the cost, it depends on your budget and sky is the limit. A descent low power HF radio can be built for as low as 2k. A lot of Chinese manufactures have sprung up making cheap VHF/UHF radios, costing as low as 3k, which are not cheap at all in performance.

Amateur Radio (Ham Radio) in India

I am sure most of us know something about Amateur Radio, but did not pursue the hobby due to various reasons. Radio Amateurs (a.k.a Hams) are traditionally pioneers in many technological experiments. Be it any DIY stuff, Hams would have been there done that. The "first true" social networking, it brought like minded people across the world together. The invasion of computers and internet affected the hobby and there were a dearth of youngsters taking up hobby.

I myself believed that the hobby was dead, during the late 90's, with the advent of mobile phones an cheap internet. But the Hams kept innovating and evolved making better use of the latest technologies and kept pondering over the never ending challenges in radio communications.

Amateur radio for the uninitiated, is "establishing a radio station at home and communicating using his radio equipment wirelessly to another radio station". The communication could be in voice or digital mode - from the vintage Morse code, to the more advanced digital modes using computers. The kick for many Hams is the fact that they are "off grid", not dependent on any public or private infrastructure for communication. You have your own radio frequency spectrum. (BTW, the RF spectrum is the most expensive "natural" resource in the world raking in huge revenue for the governments.)The government grants the license to operate the station after successfully passing the written test and other formalities.

The Indian scene is not for the light hearted, especially the licensing part. The antiqued procedures will set back the aspirant by 1-2 (or even more) years, waiting for his license after writing the exam. Compare this to a 10 minute procedure in many other countries. Also the rule does not permit one to operate the radio at other locations than the home station, where the license was granted. This means one cannot operate "mobile" e.g. on his vehicle. These are the some deterrents for many aspirants to take up this hobby, in the modern world.

While the procedures may be age old, we are definitely not lagging behind, in terms of technical achievements or dedicated Hams. We had our own satellite - Hamsat - launched by ISRO in 2005 which served the hams worldwide for almost a decade.

Within the Ham community, there are varied interests, while some chase "DX" contacts, some like to "home-brew" their equipment, while others chase the "birds" (satellites). Popular activities include Hamfests, DX-peditions, Fox hunting, providing communications to motor sports. Hams provide voluntary emergency communication support during natural disasters, when all the other means of communications fail.

I am sure there are many Hams on the forum, and I hope they will contribute to this thread.

BTW, I got licensed last year and got my call sign Victor Uniform 3 Bravo Oscar Juliet
(pretty late in the game actually, I am the 3rd gen ham in my family and I hope my next gen too take up this wonderful hobby, someday!)


Some links in the Indian context.
http://vigyanprasar.gov.in/ham/ham.asp
http://wpc.dot.gov.in/exam_amatr.asp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio_in_India