Getting On The Air

Eyeball meet with HAMs in Ahmedabad

#eyeball #qso #vuland #triplog

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I was in Gujarat for about a month for my mQTH related travel. I had a fairly hectic schedule and some uncertainty on being able to deploy any antenna, so decided not to carry any of my radios. An a lark decided to reach out to HAMs in Ahmedabad to check if they have a meeting similar to the BARC meetings we have in Bangalore. I reached out to OM VU2MAU Adhir Saiyadh1, who very quickly invited me to an eyeball meet with a few local HAMs.

I guess I was jinxed, Gujarat Institute of Amateur Radio (GIAR) celebrated their silver jubilee on 8th March 20262, this was a couple of days before I contacted VU2MAU. It would have been great to meet some of the HAMs from different geography and various age-groups. But I guess it wasn’t to be this time around.

OM VU3NLA kindly offered to host us for the meet at his mQTH. We were joined by OMs VU3XFQ, VU2UTZ, VU3OZM, VU3RXQ, and VU3PJI joined us for a brief time over the phone. It was a joy talking radio in the middle of a hectic travel schedule. VU2MAU told me about the wonderful time he had when he visited Bangalore a long time ago and the hospitality of HAMs in Bangalore as they visited the city and spent time travelling around the city. VU3NLA gave us a wonderful introduction to his work in mapping using drones and the advances in the technology since when he started geo-spatial mapping a long time ago. There was a smattering of discussion about the silver jubilee celebration, the new requirements for getting/registering/obtaining new cards on the Saral Sanchar portal in India, etc.

The earthquake in Bhuj in 2001 invariably came up, and the range of experiences by those in the room as they recalled what they were doing at the time of the earthquake and how they navigated their lives in the aftermath did become a recurring theme for my trip3. VU3NLA regaled us with his travel and war stories, firing guns, being in war zones, and being welcomed in war torn areas by strangers. Unfortunately, we did not take a photo of the motley crew of seven that assembled. And the conversation did end up veering to RF and the spiritual partaking of RF4!

I do regret not carrying a handy as I did come to know that the HAMs are very active in the region on VHF and UHF. Something to remember for next time in region!

  1. Please do check out his site at https://radioactivevu2mau.wixsite.com/mysite, I love that he got his call sign the year I was born! ↩︎

  2. Do check out a few photos from their celebration at https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZhBpSr1NdMAKDarM8 ↩︎

  3. I heard similar stories from close to a dozen other folk who I met in various parts of Gujarat as part of my mQTH travel over the next three weeks. ↩︎

  4. IYKYK ;-) ↩︎

Citation 🔗

BibTeX citation:

@online{vu3gljeyemee2026,
  author = {Bharath M. Palavalli},
  title = {Eyeball meet with HAMs in Ahmedabad},
  date = {2026-03-16},
  url = {https://ham.bharathpalavalli.com/posts/20260403201258-eyeball_meet_with_a_few_hams_in_ahmedabad/},
  language = {en},
  note = {Callsign: VU3GLJ}
}

For attribution, please cite this page as:

Bharath M. Palavalli. 2026. "Eyeball meet with HAMs in Ahmedabad", 16 March 2026. https://ham.bharathpalavalli.com/posts/20260403201258-eyeball_meet_with_a_few_hams_in_ahmedabad/.

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