Kidderpore College students get training on ham radio

Kolkata: For the first time ever, amateur radio enthusiasts ventured into an institution in the city for imparting training on setting up ham radio stations which comes handy at a time when communication systems go haywire due to natural calamities.

West Bengal Radio Club (WBRC) and Indian Academy of Communication and Disaster Management conducted a workshop for the students and teachers of Kidderpore College, which is affiliated to Calcutta University, where lessons were imparted about the utility of ham radio and how one can be a responder in a group of people if they are struck by any disaster, with the help of ham radio. Some 100 odd students and 10 teachers joined the workshop on Monday.

“We tried to inculcate the lesson that amateur radio cannot be a career option but it can surely act as an additional benefit for the career as it involves social responsibility. A student can be a friend of the society with the basic knowledge of ham radio,” Ambarish Nag Biswas, secretary of WBRC said.

Kolkatans still recollect the severe cyclonic storm Amphan in May 2020 that affected communication systems at many places. It was the ham radio enthusiasts who worked hand-in-hand with Kolkata Police in establishing communication and delivering necessary assistance to affected people, be it due to uprooting of trees or supply of medicines for the sick or the snapping of water supply. The latest disaster in Sikkim has also come as a glaring example of ham radios’ effectiveness with normal communication systems getting jeopardised.

“It was a step from our end to make our students socially responsible, going beyond the normal curriculum. It was a learning experience for our students who are mostly first generation learners and also for the teachers,” Bahni Mukhopadhyay, senior librarian of the college said, expressing her gratitude to principal Abhijit Mukhopadhyay for necessary guidance.