"This is Sierra 21 Romeo Charlie, from Bangladesh. Do you copy? Over."

"I copy Bangladesh. This is the International Space Station, this is Yury."

This is part of a short conversation between a Bangladeshi youth Fazlay Rabby and Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov. This communication took place in 2009 between the two over a VHF (very high frequency) radio while the cosmonaut was circling the planet Earth at a speed of 27,000 km/hour onboard the International Space Station (ISS), and Fazlay Rabby was in his residence at Bhuter Goli in Dhaka. 

Most of the astronauts (US trained) and cosmonauts (Russian trained) aboard the ISS have amateur radio licences, and they use the station's ham radio to contact amateur radio stations on ground in their free time.

Fazlay Rabby, who is also an amateur radio operator, has been pursuing this hobby for more than two decades now.

Amateur radio, or ham radio, is the use of two-way radio equipment for various purposes such as private recreation, non-commercial communication, wireless experimentation and emergency communication. 

In an interview with The Business Standard, Rabby shared his story, described how this century-old hobby survived in the age of internet and mobile phones, and how someone new can start practising it. 

"Since my childhood, making electronics has been one of my hobbies. In 1997, in a scout camp in Sylhet, I first saw an amateur radio station, and I was fascinated. While I often dreamt of making a wireless transmitter and communicating with friends like Kishore, Musa and Robin [from Tin Goyenda] did, those guys with amateur radios were talking to the world with their own personal wireless sets," reminisced Rabby.

"In 1997, I came to Dhaka for higher studies and later in 1999 I found that the same person, Manju Haque (call sign S21AM), who was operating that station in Sylhet almost two years back. He mentored me in his lab at Lalmatia. I sat for an exam in 2000 and got my ham radio licence the same year. At that time, the former BTTB (Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board) was the authority issuing licence from their Tejgaon office," Rabby added.

There are multiple branches of ham radio that the hobbyists can pursue: some only converse with others for longer time (called 'rag chewing' in ham radio parlance), some focus on trying to communicate with another ham radio operator who is in distant places around the world (called Dxing), some pursue new technical challenges like making Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite and launch it with the help of universities and space agencies like NASA and ESA. And there are even some who use the moon as a reflector to bounce their signal to be received by another operator sitting on the other side of the world.

"There are some other popular and internationally recognised activities such as Dx-expedition, Islands On The Air (IOTA) etc. In the latter case, solo operators or groups of operators set up amateur radio stations in a remote island. In Bangladesh, I did IOTA from St Martin's Island (2009), Char Kukri (2021) and am planning to do it in Dhal Char this year," said Rabby.

"When you start radio transmission from such a place, millions of operators from around the world will try to talk to you at least once. Because it is a 'rare' station," Rabby added.

There are specific rules, and often prior permissions are required for these activities. There are awards for those as well. New amateur radio enthusiasts need to apply to BTRC (Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission) for a Licence. BTRC takes Amateur Radio exams every few years and issues licences. 

"After passing the exam, one will get an internationally recognised unique call sign. Once you have the licence to operate radio equipment in amateur bands (frequencies), you can either buy a commercially made radio equipment as per your choice or start building one if you have that expertise. Both require prior permission from BTRC," explained Rabby, shedding light on the path to becoming a ham radio operator.

Apart from communicating with the help of radios, Rabby is into building his own radio equipment as well. As he planned to contact the ISS back in 2009, he spent many days buying suitable wires and PVC pipes from the Hatirpool hardware market to make a suitable antenna. Once he sent the log file, ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) sent him the acknowledgement certificate which is called a QSL card.

Rabby also has some other remarkable achievements so far.

"My hobby gained momentum during the Covid pandemic as I had much time staying at home. By this time we have our own geostationary satellite transponder [Es'hail 2 Sat, Launched by Qatar].  I started making my own SDR [Software Defined Radio] radio and antenna system to communicate with the QO-100 [Qatar Oscar 100]," said Rabby, adding, "it took me almost a year to finally speak with other ham operators via that satellite. It was like a hurricane when they first heard my callsign, S21RC. 

They [European stations] were very astonished to find that someone from Bangladesh [a Rare DX station to them, number 28 in worldwide most wanted list] managed to make his own station and accessed the satellite with crystal clear signal." 

For building the system, most of the parts were procured from Daraz and the antenna came from DTH TV system (Akash). 

Some of his circuit designs and codes have become popular among the international community, often called S21RC design.

When asked how this century-old hobby is faring in the age of internet and mobile phones, Rabby said, "there is a popular way to answer this: 'Not your grandfather's ham radio.' When the contemporary world is working with 2 to 5 GHz for the latest 5G mobile – amateur radio operators started using 247 GHz frequency decades ago."

However, Rabby added that in real life the hobby is declining worldwide. 

"The younger generation do not find it as exciting as we did in our time. Most of the hobbyists are old timers. But still there are some perks remaining: many universities often built Low Earth Orbit Satellites; getting an OSCAR (Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio) designation is a pride for them. It also helps them as they can use the internationally allotted amateur radio frequencies, often get free slots for launch vehicles with NASA, get free millions of earth stations for monitoring the telemetry etc, and of course the most precious orbital slots as well," Rabby explained.

In this part of the world, China and Japan have their own LEO OSCAR launched multiple times in the past. From Bangladesh, the LEO satellite launched by Brac University was not an OSCAR, Rabby informed.

Another motivation is the pride one takes to be able to deploy a small radio station quickly and establish communication with the world without internet or mobile phone infrastructure in case of disasters. Radio is still the most reliable medium in such times, which is why humanitarian organisations and law enforcement agencies still use two-way radio devices called wireless sets, said Rabby, who works for an international humanitarian organisation as an ICT Officer.

"If one really wants to understand telecommunication practically from scratch, tries to make a radio transmitter which can transmit thousands of kilometres, getting a licence for amateur radio is his/her ticket to this fun world," said the hobbyist.

"It's a purely technical hobby and a gateway to telecommunication. I feel bad that none of our universities, even Buet, has amateur radio clubs. In other countries like Japan, the US, and many European countries, schools and universities have their own club stations. It should be mentionable that apart from educational institutes, organisations such as NASA, UN, ITU (International Telecommunication Union) all have their own amateur radio club stations," said Rabby.

There are two registered amateur radio clubs in Bangladesh: Bangladesh Amateur Radio League (BARL) and Amateur Radio Society of Bangladesh (ARSB) who can help anyone looking forward to starting this hobby.

However, although BTRC is supposed to take licence exams regularly, the last one was held in 2018. 

"They should organise exams more often. As this hobby creates technically advanced human resources, one day it might prove helpful for the country," the ham concluded.

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