Malabar Hill gets HAM station to combat rains
Mumbai: Residents of Malabar Hill, home to the city’s elite, have teamed up with the BMC to set up a full-fledged HAM radio station to relay information to civic authorities during monsoons this year.
The station was installed on Monday in the Acropolis-A building, which, according to officials, has the clearest access for transmission and reception of radio stations.
The initiative, part of the BMC’s disaster management services, will soon be extended to areas in the suburbs, including Bandra, Chembur and parts of central Mumbai, where similar stations will be set up before the monsoon.
The initiative, part of the BMC’s disaster management services, will soon be extended to areas in the suburbs, including Bandra, Chembur and parts of central Mumbai, where similar stations will be set up before the monsoon.
The station will be manned by HAM operators who will ensure coordination between all the associations and citizens and route the information to BMC’s disaster control room at CST.
“This is a first-of-its-kind initiative by a resident association and one that calls for a lot of coordination between the resident groups and the authorities,’’ said Indrani Malkani of the Malabar Hill Residents’ Association.
The operator of HAM JNA Wireless installed the “shack”, the operating room of the HAM, along with different radios with several other antennae for various frequencies in the building.
The HAM frequencies are used for long range, short range as well as international and space communication. Also, there are different modes of communications in HAM, such as AM, FM, CW, SSB and digital modes. “During the 26/7 deluge and bomb blasts in Mumbai, we used HAM effectively to supply information to the authorities,’’ said Sudhir Shah of JNA Wireless.
The residents have proposed to start a training course, the first of which will begin in the third week of June, to build an army of operators for upcoming stations. “It is vital that we have young people coming forward to be part-time HAM operators,’’ said a senior BMC official.
ACTION TIME: The initiative will soon be extended to areas in the suburbs and parts of central Mumbai