On the event of World Amateur Radio Day, an Indian newspaper story about amateur radio reports, “Narayanan, [a] veteran ham from Madurai, pointed out that even though several radio clubs in India try to attract youngsters to take up HAM radio as their hobby, lack of interest in youngsters seems to the reason they stay away.”
It goes on to say, “Although WPC [the Indian version of our FCC] revamped the examination process it failed to expedite the licence process. ‘It takes about a year for a person to get licence. This is another reason why people do not want to take up amateur radio as their hobby,’ a ham said.”
A year to get a license!? No wonder so few are taking up the hobby. The Indians really have to figure out how to speed up this process.
Sachin PK says
There would be even less number of HAMS in India, thanks to the “highly efficient” departments involved in the licensing procedure. As some one pointed out, it may take a couple of months in USA for a license to be issued. In India, consider yourself lucky if you get it in two years time.
I have written this exam in 2009, and the results were out in two months flat. And yes, that is the only thing positive which I have to show. The verification (said to be done by the local police and one of the intelligence agencies) procedure does not mandate any time line for completion. There is no mechanism in place to get an update on what the status of the verification. There is no way to know if some documents needs to be produced, and where it has to be produced. Police stations and offices are still not noted for their people friendliness in India. Only a lucky few may able to get a meaningful response from them. The security agencies any way do not operate from a well marked office.
With a wide range of hobbies available, no wonder people don’t worry much about radios and radio telegraphy. Because they have better things to do in life. To all prospective HAMs my advice would be:-
1. Start when you are young, perhaps when you are in your kinter garten. You may get a license when you graduate.
2. Also start looking out for parallel hobbies, so that at the end of it you would not feel frusturated that all your efforts on this hobby is gone waste.
3. Be friendly with police man, because as part of your quest for HAM license the police stations would be one place where you may have to spend some time.
Saquib Ahmed says
I think I can comment on this post – I am a newly licenses amateur radio Indian state of Assam. For a long time, amateur radio licenses weren’t granted to radio enthusiasts. WPC Wing of Dept of Telecommunication stopped issuing any new license around in the early 90s for anyone from in North East India. Its only a couple of years, things have changed ( in my part of India)
I got my license within 6 months from the date of declaration. Yes! It’s still a long wait time for western standards, we didn’t have any choice!
I am glad to inform you all these are now things of the past. Nowadays WPC is super fast in delivering licenses super fast. Within 1 -2 weeks!
Please do check out my blog – itshamradio.com I write amateur radio news and blog from IARU R3
73s
de VU3HZW