Twice recipient of Rajiv Gandhi Award for Amateur Radio
and recipient of International Awards from various countries in the world
in Amateur Radio
FROM HORSE’S MOUTH – A SHORT WAVE LISTENER
Name : Rayaprolu Sarath BabuCall Sign : VU3RSB
Year : 1994-95
Licence Number : 7056
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Mr Rayaprolu Sarath Babu, aged around 24 is a Software Developer. Presently working as EDP In-chagre for a Leading Earth Moving Equipment Marketing Company, at Hyderabad
"Rayaprolu" the name itself will bring the now forgotten memories of Sri Rayaprolu Subba Rao, who invented the "Anti-Biotic" by which he has helped the mankind.
Mr Rayaprolu Sarath Babu - let us call him Sarath - is unlike his contemporary Young Turk’s, a set apart from the herd. He was attracted to the highly intellectual and astute method of Amateur Radio - Ham - in a very young age. Fortunately, his relations have visualised the outcome of his hobby and encouraged him to the hilt.
Though the hobby started as a past-time hobby, he realised the importance of the Ham and the unlimited resources and communication capability of Ham within a short period. The important thing is that he has not discarded the responsibilities attached to the Ham. Rather, he invited them! Here the real Sarath will come into existence. Sarath - the VU3RSB - the most travelled, frequent Ham Net Surfer, Net Organiser, originator of the few remarkable Nets.
If I say, that for any Ham activist, VU3RSB is as familiar as our beloved Rajiv VU2RG - I hope it is not an overstatement.
Well! Let us peep - or say surf - into the history of that VU3RSB - Mr Sarath Babu
1994-95
As a member
of the RACES, wing of NIAR, during the
Cyclone period, a complete paralysed patient was stranded
in the Village Koonavaram, a remote agency area of
Bhadrachalam forest. The climate was heavy with
cyclonic gales and winds. Time was around 10.00 p.m.
in the night. Sarath was at the control room
erected at Koonavaram. Suddenly a message was received that
an aged, paralysis patient was sick, and has to be attended
by the doctors urgently. As soon as the news reached
Sarath, he caught hold of the line and
talked to Vinod of Kerala who was actually on
line and informed the situation. Then the messages
started flowing, and from Kerala, Ham was sent to Hyderabad
and then from Hyderabad, Bhadrachalam was contacted
and by 11.45 p.m., Bhadrachalam confirmed back to
Sarath, that assistance is on the way!
After two days, when there was a heavy rain lashing that area,
boat carrying essential supplies was caught in the middle
of the river's rough weather. Unfortunately, the boat
drifted for some time and went towards another direction, and an
SOS was received by Sarath asking for right direction and
guidance. He with the help of local officials
directed the Boat, by giving minute by minute
instructions.
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1997-98
In 1997, June - when the heat was at its peak, and scorching sun was high on the sky, several thousands of people, of all ages, and religions, from all parts of the world gathered to receive the medicine for Asthma, which was to be administered freely by a devoted family on only one day in a year, one can visualise the crowd, urgency, race and competition. Asthma is one lung disorder, which will take away the strength of a person from his body. With this incurable problem, most of the people gathered, are weak and are unable to stand for a long time. Sarath along with his associates was making rounds in the crowd, locating and meeting the needy people. A person aged around 68 years, was standing in the line, and his son was helping him to have a glass of water. Suddenly, he started falling down, and his son tried to keep him standing. The crowd was pulling and pushing and Sarath spotted the old man who was slowly going down to the floor. Instinctively, he rushed to him while asking for help through his Radio. In three minutes, the old man became sick and required emergency care. In another three minutes the Ambulance has arrived, and two more Hams have come and the patient was moved to the Hospital, and Sarath was moving and searching in the crowd.
On the same venue and the same date a lady aged about 30 years
was suffering due to actute asthma and was unable to breathe properly. It was understood that Oxygen was needed in the first place to keep her alive for some time. Sarath contacted the nearest hospital and enquired for the Oxygen, and arranged for the Ambulance within 10 minutes and she was shifted to the hospital immediately. The relatives of that lady were so much happy and praised Sarath for his timely help.
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On 14th February at around 11 p.m. Sarath was busy in conversation with nets and Hams and he was totally absorbed in the discussions. Suddenly there was an inturruption in Radio and when he contacted, his Ham friend is on the line and his tone was desparate and he was upset in his discussions and informed him that his daughter aged 3 years shallowed a Cockroach, and he was unable to do any thing. Sarath ran down and brought the doctor who was staying next to his house and asked him to talk to his friend. The doctor gave the instructions and his friend’s daughter was all right.
Sarath is very fond of the family of the Girl, who swallowed Cockroach and the proximity has made him as a SOS friend. The mother of this girl was suffering from some unknown virus and the medicine was not available in the nearest place. The friend of Sarath has tried with his contacts for the medicine. Knowing the facts, Sarath used to put the enquiries in the net discussions, and one Ham from Bellary proposed that there was a medicine which can be used in case that medicine was not available and also he has packed the medicine for Sarath. The story afterwards is always as usual – every body happy !
Dr Ramani’s – VU2BHR - father was a heart patient. He required Caloptin 40 immediately. Though he was staying at Bangalore, the medicine was not available there. Dr Ramani contacted Sarath over Ham and Sarath arranged the medicine immediately for Brig. Seshamani – father of Dr Ramani.
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ORIGIN OF GENERAL EMERGENCY MEDICAL NET (G E M NET)
This very useful and life saving net started just like this. One day myself, Cpt.Dasan (VU2AID) since we had a common interest in flying he being a professional pilot and myself being a hobby flyer (private flying licence holder once) were having a chat on some mysterious midair aircraft explosion and its meteorological aspect of possibilities etc. At this juncture, I casually mentioned Capt.Dasan who was an ex-Air India flying Captain that when someone eats the fatty lunch provided on board including potatoes etc which are gassy and FARTS (Letting out gas the wrong way) and right at that time passenger of the next seat lights a cigarette. How about this gas let out causes explosion due to the next passenger lighting his cigarette.
Just then Dr.Samad another ham from Kerala broke in and promised to check the gas nature from human source at his biochemistry lab. Infact the very nextday he came up on the band and assured that this may not be the cause for any explosion since the gas 1. Wet and 2.contains mainly H2S which is not volatile. Then someone came on the band and asked some medical advice fromDr.Samad.
After a few days Govi (VU2SGR, Gaja VU2GJR, Dr.Velu VU2ENT, along with the earlier three for fun had this nightly net not named then conducted to pass medical traffic , medical advise etc. Just then VU2RDH OM.Radha who was then a new ham asked for a help to locate and help a poor girl from his village who had come to Madras for Knee cancer treatment. With great difficulty we managed to locate this poor girl in a slum quarters really struggling to get good treatment.
Next day, myself, Capt.Dasan, Govi, Gaja and Charu(VU2SCU) took this girl to nearby All India Cancer Institute where they mercilessly demanded Rs.60,000/-for amputation and chemotherapy and the chances of then surviving rate was only 3 out 10. The mother of the girl agreed and immediately we collected about Rs.6500/- what we could manage out of our pocket then and assured the hospital that they should go on with further treatment and we will undertake to pay the rest of the bill. We immediately returned to my morning QTH where I typed a letter in this regard and during this time we coined the name "GEM" acronym for General Emergency Medical and still this club is registered and I am the Tech.adviser and VU2AIG(Grace ) is the treasurer and we still have some money in the bank on this account. We used to get request from 4S7land and other part of the country for medical help, which was being extended actively.
During mid 90 I left for US and VU2SGR was also not keeping good health and since several request for medical help were also being communicated on CW not many who were taking part could manage. It must be stated that during this period Dr.Gaja and Surya one night along with other members of the GEM net rendered assistance to a child of a doctor from Kerala but unfortunately it was a cardiac operation and the child became a silent key. Our people contacted all the concerned in Kerala and finally Dr.Gaja managed to get a vehicle to take the dead child back to Kerala with all assistance enroute to minimize any trouble.
We also extended the GEM net operation on 14MHz with another team operatingSplit-band mode operation. When after my return the activity was not that terrific and Dr.Gaja was individually handling some medical traffic for 4S7 friends only both through 7MHz SSB and Packet mode.
GEM Net, General Emergency and Medical Net revived and reconstituted by Sarath has really helped so many people in getting the Medicine in emergency. A peep into his diary will certainly explain the people who were benefited and from where to where. The purpose is not to gain the popularity and name but only to serve the people with real interest. That is the reason why Sarath has not maintained any log for the assistance rendered to any body. The objective behind the GEM, the aim of GEM and the idea behind the GEM are entirely different from the usual log book nature. Purposefully, no log was maintained for GEM.
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In 1995 he has contacted 4000 above Radio stations and in 1996 he has contacted approximately 10000 above Radio stations in that year alone. In 1997, it has touched peak - 30,000 above Radio stations were contacted, which includes Net and DX.
It may be very difficult to produce all the Log Books in support of the above statement, but as an example, one Book is produced for verification and the list below shows the selected reputed old time Hams:
CALL SIGN HANDLE
VU2AB RAM
VU2ABE ABI
VU2AF ADOLF
VU2AJ DUTT
VU2BBJ ASU
VU2FI SATYAPAL
VU2HSM MANI
VU2JOS JOSE
VU2MY SURI
VU2NYK NAYAK
VU2PAL PAL
VU2RBI BHARATHI
VU2UKR SUNIL
VU2XTO GOPAN
Here is a story to be told. Sarath, unfortunately, suffered with severe back pain, unusual for any body of his age. It is actually connected to the Spinal Cord, and the pain was unbearable and Sarath has to lie down for three months non-stop. These three months time was actually converted by him to his advantage and contacted the Hams non-stop, discussing, connecting and contacting the Hams.
Sarath has participated in the Hunting Lions in the Air Contest, organised by International Association of Lions Clubs, Illinois, and USA and co-ordinated by Flen Lions Club, Sweden in the year 1996-97 and he was ranked in 26th Internationally and 5th in National level.For the year 1997-98 Sarath submitted log Sheets, while he was on bed, and received the acknowledgement which is self-explanatory.For the 1996, he has participated in RG Contest and Trans-India Contest, well; there was no response so far.For the year 1997-98, He will be participating for the Trans- India contest by 31st May 1998.Surprisingly, the Ham Association of Pakistan has sent an E-mail, which is reproduced below:
Dear Sarath
Thanks for your message. The awards have been prepared and will be posted on 25 May, and you will receive them within a week time, say by first week of June 1998.
Sorry for the delay.
Best regards. SAAD
AP2KSD
That is it !
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The list is vast. Let us see year by year in simple format.
1994-95
Demonstration & Seminar Conducted By:A. National Institute of Amateur Radio - Demonstrations. Attended as a VolunteerB. National Institute of Amateur Radio - (Hamvention'94) held at Bangalore. Attended as a volunteer.C. National Institute of Amateur Radio - Attended as volunteer for the seminars D. In July 1994, participated in a Demonstration along with Venkat VU2RAT at Yamunanagar conducted by Dept. of Sports & Culture, Govt. of Haryana.
1995-96
On 25th January 1995, VAARTHA, a new Telugu Daily was inaugurated at Vijayawada by the then Prime Minister Sri P V Narasimha Rao, and then a demonstration was conducted where Sarath has participated.B. He participated in all the seminars conducted NIAR in the year 1995 as Volunteer.C. Again, a demonstration conducted by the Govt. Of Haryana, Sports and Culture Dept., at University of Kurukshetra.
1996-97
A. Attended as volunteer for all Seminars and Demonstrations conducted in the year 1996-97 by National Institute of Amateur Radio.
B. The NIAR conducted a seminar on "Promotional aspects of Amateur Radio in India" at YMCA, Teen Murthy Marg, New Delhi, where
Sarath has participated.C. Sarath, has conducted at Setwin Computer Institute, Moulali, Hyderabad a demonstration.D. He has conducted a Demonstration at LEO Maths Institute, Santhosh Nagar, Hyderabad for all the students and the teachers.
E. Shri Ram Enterprises Hyderabad, conducted a demonstration
Where Sarath was the organiser.
1997-98
A. Sarath has conducted
demonstrations in support of the importance of the
communication equipment and also particularly when
equipment such as Heavy Earth Moving machinery
gets Break-down some where at a remote area, how Ham can
help to communicate to either Mumbai or Chennai for necessary
parts in shortest possible time, particularly that machinery is
under operation of Flood Relief, Cyclone Relief or any
Calamity.The above demonstration was actually
initiated by M/s Anukamp Engineers
P. Ltd., who are Authorised Dealers for ESCORTS
JCB Ltd., manufacturers of Earth Moving Equipment, when their
machines were actually engaged in Flood Relief operation at East
Godavari Dt., of AP.
The demonstrations were conducted in seven of their area offices,
here the Customers - owners of these equipment -
participated and understood the Ham in real terms.B. In
Guntur, Hindu College, a demonstration was conducted on 5th Feb.
98 and near about 500 students
participated and the programme was so
successful, the students requested Sarath to give them a
write-up on the Ham so that, they will learn more about Ham.C. In
Hyderabad, on 14th Oct 1997 and again on 23rd March 98, 200
students gathered at VMH Junior College, to see and observe the
Amateur Radio's full capability, and the capacity of Sarath in
full length.
D. Sarath became a permanent participant for all the demonstrations conducted by National Institute of Amateur Radio.
In the year 1997-98, they have conducted around 10 in Colleges
as well as in Junior Colleges.
In Dec 20 of 1997, Sarath attended the Cochin Hamfest 97 and exchanged views and contacts with around 500 delegates
with "Special Eyeball QSL Card"
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Sarath has organised few Nets, revived Nets and saw to it that Ham Nets are holding the ground, irrespective of the competition from other sources.
Net Name HF/VHF FREQUENCY TIME(IST)
Rajiv Gandhi Net VHF 145.000 07.30
Marconi Net HF 7.080 20.00
Rajiv Gandhi Net VHF 145.000 21.00
Rajiv Gandhi DX Net HF 14.220 21.30
Rajiv Gandhi Net HF 7.080 22.00
GEM Net HF 7.080 22.00
Rajiv Gandhi Net HF 7.80 was actually conducted by Radha, VU2RDH from Kannanur, and was revived by Sarath. Now, that Radha became active, the Net was reverted back to VU2RDH, and alternatively a GEM Net is initiated.Later on Sarath started 2 more Nets on VHF Band in Hyderabad and Marconi Net in HF on 7.80 Khz, Rajiv Gandhi DX net in HF.The Gem Net - actually General Emergency Medical Net - which was earlier very popular all over the world of its Voluntary Services - is now revived by Sarath, and is being used exclusively for the Emergency and Medical Traffic.Apart from these Nets, Sarath usually conducts special Nets on few important days, such as New Year Day, Independence Day, Diwali , Durga Pooja Ramzaan and Christmas.
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Mr Sarath Abu is a member of the RACES, a relief wing of NIAR, Hyderabad. RACES have participated in the relief operations in August 1994 at Badhrachalam, when it was hit by the severe cyclone.In 1995, he has participated in the relief operations conducted by NIAR at the Guntur District Collector’s Office.In 1996 October, He has taken active part in relief operations for the Cyclone Relief Operations at Cudappah.In the same year, November month, When severe cyclone was attacked the East Godavari Dt.; I have participated in the monitoring of the Relief Operations at A.P. Secretariat.In 1997 June, the famous Fish Medicine Mela was organised at
Hyderabad. It was an annual affair where thousands of Asthma Patients would visit from all over the world to take the free medicine of Fish, which would be supplied only on a particular day as per Hindu calendar. As the supply was free, and a service to the people, NIAR took interest in organising the crowd, serving, educating and also attending the old and sick people. In fact, the Ham activists start mobilising their resources weeks before the actual event, to organise themselves to face the toughest challenge. It was like another Khumbhamela, and only Ham can serve, attend, meet and keep in touch with the emergency. Sarath, was and is in the core group of organisers. In 1998, the day is fixed around 8thJune, and the Ham is humming with activity of bracing themselves to meet the emergency.
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A Complete question and answers guide was prepared by Sarath. In a PC and recorded in a floppy and the same is being forwarded to any body who wishes to know more about the Amateur Radio. This guide was very much exhaustive. The most frequent question was asked by the new comers was about how a person, without proper financial support and contacts can acquire the Wireless Set. This questions was answered by him and he has volunteered his help in every matter till the set was installed, which includes the training and operation and service. Sarath is confident that with limited resources, one can acquire the set, provided he has the will to utilise the service.
We wish him good luck and wish him that he should continue the service in the same vigour and strength and also we pray the God that He should provide Sarath the good health and trouble free
Life, so that we will be ultimately benefited with his services.
Written, edited without any prejudice and with sincere and true liking towards Mr Rayaprolu Sarath Babu – so called VU3RSB
GOOD LUCK TO YOU !
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Director
M/s. Sara Soft Online E-Mail: sarasoftonline@excite.com
Key responsibilities
As a Director Incharge for Marketing, Software Developmet,
Consultancy and other Developments in the organisation.
Street address
Plot No:28, Durga Nagar Colony, Panjagutta, HYDERABAD -500 082
Electronic mail address
vu3rsb@fcmail.com
Web address
http://skyscraper.fortunecity.com/activex/914
Office phone
91-40-3323024
FAX number
91-40-3304306
Home phone
91-40-3310287
