State Telecom Disaster coordination Committee (STDCC) for *prompt provisioning and restoration of telecom network and services in the disaster affected area*. Deputy Director General Technology, DoT, Maharashtra invited me on Thu 29th May 2025 from 3 to 5 P M
LSA is chairman of this committee.
All telecom service providers are members of this committee.
We would appreciate your expertise guidance on Ham Radio which one can be used effectively during disaster for communication.
On the evening of Thursday, 29th May, we conducted a session and discussion with the DoT LSA Pune team, who oversee the Maharashtra and Goa regions, focusing on the application of Ham radio in the rapid restoration of telecom networks during disasters. The session was also broadcast live to other regional offices via live stream. Nodal officers for various service providers like V!, Airtel, Jio,BSNL etc. were present. We presented an overview of Ham radio—its history, applications, and growing popularity—which was covered by OM Vilas Rabde -VU2VPR. OM Sooraj Shenoy VU3ZAG shared insights into the underlying technology, including Ham radio’s ability and various capabilities such as transmit speech, text, data packets and images during emergencies and also given understanding on APRS it’s application in locating field operators on mobility, a demo on Pico MCU based APRS digipeater was also delivered. Understanding on formation of QRT and communication team was explained along with videos on live use case (Waynad Landslide 2024). Several proposals were put forward to enhance both community involvement and disaster management capabilities. A proposal to allot passes to hams were also discussed with a positive note. The DoT LSA team responded positively—they agreed to the first part of our proposal and requested that the remaining suggestions be sent via email. In this context, we now need to gather the relevant details and send them accordingly.
As discussed in today’s eyeball meeting(i.e. on June 01, 2025), and based on the recent interaction with DoT LSA Pune (Maharashtra and Goa), we are initiating the creation of a HAM registry as a proactive measure to ensure data availability during disasters.
Please find below the Google Form to collect information from HAM operators in Maharashtra and Goa who are willing to support during disaster situations.
Kindly circulate this form across all relevant groups in Maharashtra and Goa as we need to submit this to DoT along with the proposal as requested by the officials while concluding the discussion.
The form will remain open until 7th June.
We request the support and participation of all.
https://forms.gle/N2mXX8yjWp2utxZv6
73 DE’
SOORAJ SHENOY
VU3ZAG
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@vu3zag