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 Previous: USTTI Course Students Show Special Interest in Amateur Radio |  Next: The Amateur Amateur: My First One Didn't Work Like That |
By B. L. Manohar Arasu, VU2UR
October 26, 2004
An account of the first activation in the Maharashtra State Group--Elephanta Island, IOTA AS-169.
 A view of Elephanta Island when approached from the side closest to Uran. |
The first ever, single handed attempt to secure permission from The Wireless Planning and Coordination Wing of Ministry of Communications and Information technology, Department of Telecommunications, ie, WPC, for operating Amateur Radio from an island from Maharashtra state group, was boldly taken up by Basappa Arabole, VU2NXM (ex-VU3BKY), of Lodhivali Village, in Raigad District, of Maharashtra State. Permission was obtained for the first Amateur Radio operation from the listed island of Janjira (as per Radio Society of Great Britain IOTA Directory 2000).
Before proceeding to the island, we notified IOTA HQ that we had received permission. Unfortunately, IOTA HQ replied that it regretted that it couldn't accept Janjira Is, as it fails under rule E-7.2--it is an island enclosed in a bay. This reply at first took away all the steam from the enthusiastic group led by VU2NXM. But, undaunted, they did go and operate November 28-29, 2003. They made a few QSOs for the record, took some photographs, and returned back to the mainland after enjoying a picnic.
In the meantime, IOTA HQ in England was revising the list of islands in the Maharashtra State Group, with the welcome additions of Butcher and Elephanta Islands. After learning that Butcher Is was in the revised list, VU2NXM's indomitable spirit went immediately into action, and he requested permission from WPC for Butcher from March 25-31, 2004 to coincide with the famous CQ World Wide WPX contest.
A special call sign, AT0BI, was also requested. WPC was very kind and understanding: They granted permission for Butcher Island for the requested time period, and granted the special call sign AT0BI.
The permission letter received from WPC was copied to Mumbai Port Trust and VU2NXM requested permits/passes to land and operate from Butcher Island. VU2NXM received the quick response that due some ongoing work, Butcher is a "restricted area" and passes could not be issued. Amateur Radio may be operated from Elephanta Island, however, which is a public place.
 The inverted V antenna on the top of the house of our host, Mr Padte. |
With this ray of hope, and time running out very fast, VU2NXM immediately sent another application to WPC, requesting that the permission be changed to Elephanta Island, with same call sign and time period. MPT's letter was also enclosed. The very cooperative WPC was kind enough to issue a revised letter granting permission, with the same call, AT0BI, and same time slot, March 25-31, 2004.
After some initial trouble, on the afternoon of March 26, Basappa Arabole, VU2NXM, and Arasu, VU2UR, set off from the Uran end of the mainland toward Elephanta Island on the motor launch Neelkamal with two helpers, three 150 Ah batteries, one smaller battery with other radio equipment, new copper wire for the antennas, slim coir (coconut husk fiber) ropes and drinking water. After a journey of about 40 minutes, the group reached the island.
Famous Cave Sculptures
Elephanta Island is the most famous island among tourists
to India because of the cave sculptures dedicated to Lord Shiva. The island is
about 10 km from the Gateway of India jetty, Mumbai (formerly Bombay). The cave
temples date to the 5th century AD. The name Elephanta came from the Portuguese
when they found a stone elephant near their landing place. In the caves,
various avataaras (forms) of Lord
Shiva are sculpted from Shivalinga to Gangadhara, UmaMaheswara,
Ardhanaareshwara, Kalyanasundara, Nataraja, Maheshwara, Yogeeshwara, and so on.
But the most important and best known is the Panchamukha Shiva, a 20 foot high
relief, in which the Trimurthi (Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara, the Creator,
Preserver and Destroyer of the Universe, as Hindus believe) is a very majestic and commanding
sculpture.
 From the left: Arasu, VU2UR; Basappa, VU2NXM, and our host, Mr Padte. |
While surveying the coastline of the island for a suitable place, the group was met by our new-found friend, Shri Narendra H. Padte, a resident of this island. After hearing our purpose, he gladly offered his house and all the hospitality of his family. We just could not resist, as things were not easy at any other location. His QTH was on the Uran side of the two hillocks, which have some fortifications that predate Indian independence.
In about two hours, everything was set up, including two inverted V antennas for 40 and 15 meters with provision for changing their orientation. The automatic tuner was designed to help us with operation on the 40, 20 and 10 meter bands.
The test calls made on 28, 21 and 14 MHz SSB did not yield any QSO, and we were forced to call VU2SWS on a mobile telephone and request that she monitor the 40 meter band for our test call. She reported a poor signal and distortion. Immediately, all the battery terminals were thoroughly cleaned with the slim coir ropes.
The Operation Begins
We were ready by 1300 UTC to log our first official QSO with VU2SWS, and continue the operation. In the phone bands under good conditions, we were swamped by pileups from those with very strong signals who never followed any order or discipline. Our attempts to work split frequency (2 to 5 up) using the call area method and even calling by countries did not yield any relief. We were able to copy a complete call in a minute or so, asking for repeats on the prefix and suffix, and so on, as our signals were weak from the 25 to 30 W out and the inverted V. Sometimes, we had to QSY to other phone bands to avoid the mad pileup, but we were mercilessly chased. All this drained our batteries in Phone mode much more than in the CW mode--HI.
We might have worked one out of every five who called, in the peak conditions. Some of the operators who were not sure of getting in our logs made duplicate calls and QSOs. We were writing logs manually--there was no PC help. It was nice to hear Roger, G3KMA, personally coming to our frequency to give the provisional IOTA number AS-169.
 From the left: Sarla, VU2SWS; Basappa, VU2NXM, and Arasu, VU2UR. |
It was much better on the CW frequencies, and we listened from 1 kHz to 5 kHz up, and would reply every now and then. This helped us conserve our batteries also.
In the approximately 1000 QSOs, we worked stations from the continents of AF, AS, EU, NA, OC and SA. The CW QSOs were obviously more than the number in Phone mode. Europe and Asia were the top callers and QSO chasers. A single country like Italy was after us all the time. While attempting the CQWW WPX contest on Phone, we never had a single pileup, as our signal was weak and many of the stations we called could not hear us. Even the sweet voice of VU2SWS, our guest operator, could not raise a pileup on the best of the phone bands.
 Basappa, VU2NXM, at the operating position of AT0BI. |
 The famous "Trimurthi" bas-relief at the Elephanta Caves, for which the Caves are very famous. |
 Basappa, VU2NXM (left), and Arasu, VU2UR. The FT-757GX is on the table. |
Thank You
We thank the stations (like VU2SWS, 4X4JU and PY7ZZ) who kept telling us about our performance and providing signal strength comparisons. We also thank all the stations that were cautioning others by saying "up," etc, which helped us do well on CW. While we thank all those who gave us QSOs, we are sorry for those whom we could not copy and have a QSO, but hope they will have better luck next time.
We express our deepest gratitude to the Deputy Inspector General of Police Goa Shri Muktesh Chandar, who himself is a ham radio operator, VU2HJZ, and VU2SWS for all the encouragement and timely help. There are many others who have directly/indirectly helped and encouraged us, though they could not come with us and operate.
This was an exercise managed purely out of the personal savings of the two operators. The equipment donated to VU2NXM two years before by Josh, N7XM, and Pat, WX7M, without any expectation of anything in return, were fully utilized. They were a Ten-Tec 540 transceiver, MFJ 901B ATU, Logikey-K1 memory key, MFJ 107- B UTC clock, and K 2216 electronic keyer by Unita of Poland. The gifts have indeed helped VU2NXM give back something in return to Amateur Radio. In addition, equipment of VU2UR, like the Yaesu FT-757GX and his Vibroplex bug key, were also used. Thus, Basappa Arabole, VU2NXM, became the first VU to operate from two of the islands of Maharashtra state.
This first-ever attempt to activate Elephanta Island would not have been so successful but for Shri Narendra H. Padte and his family for their ideal hospitality. They took care of each and every requirement of food, shelter and all the petty needs of the group. We thank the members of this special family led by the Grand Old Lady (mother of Mr Padte) for all the lovely, delicious, home cooked food and care.
God willing, the group may activate some island again in the near future.
On the air since 1967, Arasu loves CW contesting, and has
put India in many international contests. A career railroad bridge engineer,
since 1999, he has been Regional Monitoring Systems Coordinator of IARU Region
3. Arasu has been motivating VU boys for island activation. Sagar Island,
AS-153, was the first success, followed by Basappa Arabole's expeditions to Janjira
and Elephanta Is (on which he served as second op). He says he owes all his
achievements to the encouragement and sacrifice of his wife Anuradha. You can
reach the author at MIG-6, 80 Feet Rd, Kengeri Upanagara, Bangalore 560060,
India; vu2ur@lycos.com.
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