History of TARS

Established in the year 1973, Trivandrum Amateur Radio Society (TARS), is the oldest nonprofit association of Radio Amateurs and Amateur Radio enthusiasts in and around Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram), Kerala. The society has its origin in the Electronics Club formed at Nanthencode, Thiruvananthapuram, in the late 1950s under the leadership of an electronics enthusiast SWL Ravi. This club was converted into an Amateur Radio Club in 1958 by OM Venkateswara Sulu VU2GV, who was a Police Wireless Officer. This club initially started meeting at Nanthencode and then moved to Trivandrum Flying Club. OM Nilacantan VU2LN was the first Ham to get licensed in Trivandrum. OM Kuki VU2VK also joined soon along with OM Jayaraman VU2JN. TARS, in its name was formed in 1973, under the august leadership of OM M. Nilacantan VU2LN (SK), Prof. R. Jayaraman VU2JN (SK), OM Austin Thompson VU2TF (SK), OM Krishnan Kutty VU2PKK (SK), OM Sivachandradas VU2CSD (SK), Dr Umadethan VU2BUD (SK), Dr Venugopal VU2KVG (SK) OM N C Pillai VU2PN (SK) and OM Boothalingam VU2BTH (SK).

OM Raj Kumar VU2NUT joined TARS in 1977-78, followed by OM Salim VU2LID in 1979. OM Vaidyanathan VU2PRV and OM Jojith Mathew VU2JAW joined in 1980. OM Girish Babu VU2KGB and OM Rajasekharan Nair VU2RJR joined TARS in 1981. OM Jayasankar VU2JAA and OM Hari VU2HRI joined in 1985, followed by OM Sanal Kumar VU2TNA in 1986. OM Madhu VU2TEA became a member of TARS in 1987, followed by Venu VU2IVG in 1988. Other regular attendees at TARS meetings then, included OM Hari, VU2GHB, OM Ravindranath VU2RVJ, OM Jeyan Sam VU2GJS, OM Sreedharan Das VU2SRQ (SK), OM Ved Prakash VU2VP (SK), OM Rajagopal VU2RPL, OM Muralidharan VU2AGM (SK), Dr Mahadevan VU2SWM, OM Vishnu Senan VU3CSV (SK), OM Rafeeq VU2TEL, OM Hemachandran VU2TEG, OM Jose, VU2JKV, OM Sreekumar VU2FCC, OM Sasi VU2LBM, Capt. Augustine VU2KGI, Dr Firoz VU2FAB, OM Ramukutty VU2REW, OM Thankachan VU3KHD (SK), Dr Mohan VU2MHM, OM Lesley Paul VU2LVJ, OM Allen VU3AUZ, OM Sreekumar VU2AEU, OM Alex Chandy VU2TXZ and OM Ajith Mohan VU2AJM (SK). TARS’s Lady members include YL Rachel Austin VU2IYL, YL Maya VU2CIA, YL Vijayalexmi VU2VOZ, YL Hima VU2ZHS and YL Sreelatha VU2SGQ. Our long term SWL John (SK) who was one of the most regular and enthusiastic members of TARS needs a special mention. Also remembered is OM David VU2SXB’s (SK) strong support for all the initiatives of TARS for many years.

OM Austin VU2TF gracefully held the Presidential chair of TARS for a long time. He gave a clear vision to the Club that radio amateurs will not be ‘manufactured’ by TARS. The doors of TARS were always open to SWLs and communication technology enthusiasts alike. SWLs were keenly observed over a period of time and only if they were found to have genuine interest in the Amateur Radio Service, support was then extended to get license. OM Austin was always insisting that TARS should not keep large funds. President was permitting only petty cash with the Treasurer and the expenditure for tea and snacks for the meetings were equally shared by the members present. It is also worth noting that we never had formal elections within TARS. Office bearers were always nominated during the Annual Meetings. One of our senior most Hams, OM Nilacantan, VU2LN (we call him by the handle Neel) very rarely used to attend the club meetings. He deeply believed that Hams should meet more on the Band, not always for eye-ball. OM Neel and OM Jayaram, VU2JN were the real Gurus of not only TARS, but of the Ham community of the state.

The first VHF repeater of TARS, VU2XT, was put together during 1999-2000 and commissioned in July 2000, located on the top of SUT Hospital, Pattom, Thiruvananthapuram. This was fully homebrewed under the guidance of VU2TF. The fabrication & assembly was done by VU2JAW and VU2HRI. The Telewave 4 cavity duplexer was donated to TARS by OM Ronald Angelo, A4XIS who was always a well wisher of TARS. OM Jojith VU2JAW and OM Anil VU2KHC were regular net controllers for a long time.

TARS even today does not have a venue of its own. The club initially started meeting at the Flying Club. Other venues were the Alliance Franchise, Rocket Recreation Club, KSIDC, Tandem Institute, Computer Society of India, Institution of Engineers and now at Science and Technology Museum. Occasionally we used to meet in the QTHs of veteran Hams. Mostly OM Kutty, VU2PKK was hosting such meetings. Interestingly we had a task team headed by OM Sanal VU2TNA which used to visit the shacks of other Hams regularly with a specific intention of giving physical help with men and materials to erect or repair the antennae. Those days nobody could complain that his antenna is down or not working for the fact that OM Sanal and his team would immediately show up and start the repair work. This was a very successful initiative which brought in a strong friendship bondage among the members. Antenna erection at Ham QTH was always a celebration. OM Girish VU2KGB happily remembers OM Austin expressing his willingness to climb Girish’s guyed tower to install the CD-318 Jr HF Yagi. A busy practising doctor Venugopal VU2KVG left his job for the day and stayed throughout on KGB’s terrace, holding the rope and supporting the antenna installation and tuning. Such enjoyable moments were very frequent in TARS.

Turning back the pages of the history, TARS was instrumental in setting up and operating a communication facility at Secretariat, Trivandrum, connecting Gujarat with the state capital when an earthquake hit Gujarat in 2001. During Peruman train tragedy which occurred on 8th July 1988, the members of TARS, particularly Dr Venugopal VU2KVG, Dr Umadethan VU2BUD and OM Girish VU2KGB played major roles in handling the disaster communication. TARS also played the lead role in providing communication support for National Games held at Trivandum in 1987. During the Kuwait invasion in August 1990, three members of TARS, OM Krishnankutty VU2PKK, OM Umadethan VU2BUD and OM Girish VU2KGB took the lead roles in providing HF communication. Though not a member of TARS, the role played by OM Guhan Menon VU2TG (SK) is greatly cherished here. OM Austin VU2TF and OM Jojith VU2JAW along with TARS team members have conducted many demos and exhibitions for students of various schools in Trivandrum. This has helped to create awareness on the Amateur Radio Service, within the teachers and students alike. The years 1992 and 1994 witnessed the unwavering communication support of the TARS teams being provided for the Popular Motor Sports Rally. TARS members also got hands-on experience in directional antenna making and quick deployment of radio stations in the forest areas, during the rally communication control. It was during this event that we discovered two young and capable SWLs Sunu and Sunish who later held the call signs VU2SXA and VU2SGJ respectively. OM Sunish, VU2SGJ is now on the Governing Council of TARS as Information Technology (IT) coordinator.

TARS team participated in the VHF Hill Top DX contest conducted in May 1995 and October 1996. The location chosen was Mangaladevi Hills, deep inside the Wild Life Sanctuary at Thekkady. The TARS team consisting of VU2KGB, VU2ACT and VU2TNA won the first prize in 1995, procuring 6800 points, far ahead of the teams from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. TARS also conducted two Fox Hunts during 1996 and 1997 at Trivandrum, both of which were greatly enjoyed by the participants.

TARS always had a lot of DX hams as regular visitors. Prof Gerhard Mayer DJ5GM (VU2DVL), OM Bernhard Stefan DL2GAC (VU2BMS), OM Hans Ehlers DF5UG (VU2INK), OM Norbert Prenzel DJ9RB (VU2RBQ), Capt Bill, AC4BD, and Prof Rodney Moag W5NDS and Dr John VE3OGZ (SK) were our Patrons/regular visitors to TARS meetings. OM Peter G3ELH, OM Udo Zahronsky VU2UDO, OM Leo Shoeberle DG3MKL were also present in many TARS meetings, to share their global experiences. OM Rodney Moag W5NDS, a Professor in Texas University once surprised the members by fluently speaking Malayalam in one of the meetings of TARS. Many of the above Scientist/Engineers were connected to the Space Research and hence their speeches and workshops were very valuable to the members of TARS. Field days and Antenna workshops led by OM Norbert Prenzel DJ9RB at Kovalam were most educative and enjoyable to the members.

Recently, active operators like OM Salim VU2LID, OM Ravi S. Gopan, VU3HPF, Dr Ranjith VU2OY and Capt Sunil VU2MTM have been instrumental in giving technical demonstrations and speeches in advanced frontiers of Amateur Radio. TARS members always remained in the forefront of communication technology. Members of TARS were among the first few, who appeared on QO-100 satellite with booming signals. TARS members had a pivotal role in getting the recent rule amendment for mobile portability of amateur stations.

The present repeater of TARS is an ICOM FR 5000 with Sinclair Duplexer and the system is located at Technopark Campus, Trivandrum. Procurement of this was made possible with the efforts of the present Treasurer OM Alex VU2PAG who contacted the existing and old members of TARS who joined hands and contributed generously towards raising funds for purchasing a good commercial quality repeater. The Trivandrum VHF net is conducted every evening at 20:45 hours IST via Trivandrum VHF Repeater, VU2XT (145.600 MHz with negative shift). OM Anil VU2KHC and OM Sanal VU2TNA take turns to conduct the net. OM Arun VU2AMW and OM Kiran VU2FGL are giving local support at Technopark for the repeater maintenance.

TARS meetings are now held on the first Saturday and third Saturday of the month at 6:30 PM. The meeting on the third Saturday of the month is conducted online, via Google Meet platform. The current membership strength of TARS is more than 50. 

The present team is steering the Society in a friendlier direction where cordial relationship with non-members and sister clubs are given prime importance. Members of TARS actively participate in the events organized by other clubs. This friendly gesture has paved way for many non-members to have come forward and financially contributed to the VHF Repeater Project of TARS. In response, TARS will reciprocate and extend all possible support to other Amateur Radio Clubs and Associations. This will strengthen our motto and tag line “Amateur Radio for Universal Friendship”.

DX-pedition

A DX-pedition is an expedition to what is considered an exotic place by amateur radio operators and DX listeners, perhaps because of its remoteness, access restrictions or simply because there are very few radio amateurs active from that place. This could be an island, a country, or even a particular spot on a geographical grid. "DX" is a telegraphic shorthand for "distance" or "distant".

Early DX-peditions were simply exploratory and geographical expeditions in the late 1920s and 1930s, in which one or more radio amateurs participated in order to provide long-distance communications. At the same time they communicated with fellow radio amateurs who wanted to contact a new country. Most notable are the Antarctic expeditions of Admiral Byrd. Another example is the voyage of the schooner Kaimiloa, which traveled the South Pacific in 1924. While the ship's wealthy owners enjoyed the islands, an amateur radio operator kept contact with, and sent QSL cards to, experimenters in the United States.

The participation of radio amateurs in geographical expeditions was resumed after World War II, e.g. the participation of Bill Snyder, W0LHS, and Bob Leo, W6PBV, in the Gatti-Hallicrafters expedition in Africa of 1948. The most unusual expedition to place reliance on amateur radio for communications was that of Kon-Tiki organized by Thor Heyerdahl in 1947 and using call sign LI2B.

The activity of dedicated DX-peditions was pioneered by one-time ARRL president Robert W. Denniston, W0DX. Mr. Denniston's 1948 DX-pedition, using call sign VP7NG, was to the Bahamas and was called "Gon-Waki" ala Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki expedition the previous year.

DX-peditions are planned and organized to help operators who need to contact that area to obtain an amateur radio award. There are several awards sponsored by various organizations based on contacting many different countries. Perhaps the most famous of these is the DX Century Club (DXCC) award sponsored by the ARRL. The base level of this award involves contacting and confirming 100 distinct geographical entities, usually countries, as defined by the ARRL.

There are currently 340 separate entities recognized for award purposes. An "entity" for such purposes is any location that is either politically separate or physically remote (or both) from other jurisdictions/locations. For example, even though Alaska and Hawaii are politically part of the United States, they are separate DX entities (physically separate). Small countries, even ones surrounded by larger ones, such as the Vatican, count. Other entities include transnational organizations such as the International Telecommunications Union, and the United Nations. These are within their host countries but have distinct ITU prefixes. Finally, a few areas of historic or special status have been included, such as Sardinia, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Antarctica, and Western Sahara. While the ARRL criteria for new entities were rationalized in 1999, those entities introduced before that date under relatively lax rules remain on the list, as long as they satisfy the original criteria.

Other DX-peditions focus on operation from islands with little or no local radio amateurs, for the Islands on the Air (IOTA) award which is sponsored by the Radio Society of Great Britain. A small number of DX-peditions focus on activating a specific Maidenhead locator square for the benefit of VHF and UHF operators.

Many DX-peditions take place from locations with adequate access to power and supplies, often where the country has a small resident amateur population or where licensing is not very difficult. Many Caribbean and Pacific island nations, as well as European micro-states, have very small populations, but have hotels, reliable power, and supplies, and are easy to gain operating permission in. Therefore, these states are regularly activated by amateurs, often in combination with a family holiday.

Some locations are also rare due to their extreme inaccessibility—examples include Peter I Island, Campbell Island, Clipperton Island, Navassa Island, or Desecheo Island. When amateurs travel to remote locations such as these they must first obtain permission to operate from that location from whatever political jurisdiction rules the area they wish to travel to. Even in countries such as the United States, this permission can be difficult to obtain.

Once operating permission is assured, then transportation must be arranged. This can be both expensive and dangerous. Some locations are coral atolls that almost submerged at high tide, such as Scarborough Reef; others are sub-polar islands with inhospitable climates such as Peter I Island. The amateur must also take care of the basic necessities such as food, water, and power.

In addition to licensing and survival issues, DX-pedition participants devote much attention to the radio equipment they use.

In an extremely rare location for a popular awards program like DXCC, hundreds of stations may be calling the DX-pedition at any one time (known as a 'pile-up'). Therefore, DX-peditioners will aim to use high power and gain antennas on as many bands as practical, in order to achieve a loud signal worldwide and keep control of the inevitable pileups that occur. Operators may also receive and transmit on different frequencies, called split operation, in order to be heard by distant stations without interference to their signal from the pileup. This can also help the operation to make a substantial number of contacts with parts of the planet that have unfavourable propagation from the area visited, lying perhaps in the region on the Earth's surface which is diametrically opposite to it—its antipodal point. Examples would be the Central Pacific from Europe, or the Caribbean from Japan.

For smaller operations to remote locations, smaller radios which run off of a 12 V DC power supply and antenna systems which are more easily transported are favored over larger and more difficult to transport equipment. However, generators are usually used because of the power requirements for amplifiers and the ease of refueling versus recharging a battery.

When the individual or group arrives at the DX-pedition destination, they must set up their station and get on the air. DX-peditions are usually group affairs since the desire is to make as many contacts as possible from the location. Round-the-clock operations on multiple HF bands simultaneously are typical, which necessitates a group activity. The use of the Internet to upload logs (allowing quick confirmation of questionable contacts) and for QSLs (formal confirmation) has made the process somewhat easier.

Holiday operations from locations where there are few resident operators are often more leisurely affairs. Nonetheless the operator will seek to make as many contacts as possible in the operating time available, with the result that contacts are often extremely brief, limited just to an exchange of signal reports.

Many DX-peditions are organized around various radio contests that happen throughout the year. This is often done so that the DX-pedition station can gain an advantage in contests and maximize the number of contacts that they make during the DX-pedition, since the radio bands are the most active during contests.

Contesting

Contesting (also known as radiosport) is a competitive activity pursued by amateur radio operators. In a contest, an amateur radio station, which may be operated by an individual or a team, seeks to contact as many other amateur radio stations as possible in a given period of time and exchange information. Rules for each competition define the amateur radio bands, the mode of communication that may be used, and the kind of information that must be exchanged. The contacts made during the contest contribute to a score by which stations are ranked. Contest sponsors publish the results in magazines and on web sites.

Contesting grew out of other amateur radio activities in the 1920s and 1930s. As intercontinental communications with amateur radio became more common, competitions were formed to challenge stations to make as many contacts as possible with amateur radio stations in other countries. Contests were also formed to provide opportunities for amateur radio operators to practice their message handling skills, used for routine or emergency communications across long distances. Over time, the number and variety of radio contests has increased, and many amateur radio operators today pursue the sport as their primary amateur radio activity.

There is no international authority or governance organization for this sport. Each competition is sponsored separately and has its own set of rules. Contest rules do not necessarily require entrants to comply with voluntary international band plans. Participants must, however, adhere to the amateur radio regulations of the country in which they are located. Because radio contests take place using amateur radio, competitors are generally forbidden by their national amateur radio regulations from being compensated financially for their activity. High levels of amateur radio contest activity, and contesters failing to comply with international band plans, can result in friction between contest participants and other amateur radio users of the same radio spectrum.