“CQ CQ CQ... VV3 VBL calling. Anybody copying me?” repeats Vivek Bansal several times into a speaker attached to a small radio.

“If this was on, then we could have hoped for an answer!” smiling he lets me take a look at the equipment that helped him talk to astronaut Commander Michael of the International Space Station, all done sitting comfortably at his home.

“I am an Amateur Radio (AR) operator, a.k.a. a HAM,” Vivek Bansal, a Chandigarh-based businessman, introduces himself. “I had been trying for six to seven months before I bumped into the ISS in space,” tells Vivek of his first ‘out of this world’ chat!

Welcome to the world of satellite-tracking and space chats. “We call it ‘talking to the birds’!” says Bansal of his hobby that he has no words to describe.

A few years ago he saw his friend, lawyer Amit Sethi, use the AR and then began his journey as a HAM operator. “Now we have three HAM licenses in my family — my wife, my brother and I. There are only two more HAMs in the city,” says Bansal adding that securing a license is not an easy task.

While no license is required to listen to AR, to be able to transmit and listen to particular frequencies one has to clear the Grade Two test taken by the Ministry of Communication. The first part is Technical — based on Maths and Physics of up to Class X (exempted if one is an Electric Engineer) and the second part is legal — based on the Indian Telegraphic Act 1985.

... contd.