How To Become A Ham Radio Operator
In India any citizen with an interest in the subject can become a Ham. In fact, anybody above 12 years can become a ham radio operator after passing a qualifying examination. In India Amateur Station Operator's Certificate (ASOC) examination is conducted by the Wireless Planning and Coordination (WPC) Wing of Ministry of Communications, at any of the Monitoring Stations around the country.
Passing the ASOC examination entitles the candidate to get a communication license and a call-sign. Call-sign is a set of letters which uniquely identifies each ham operator in the world.
For example my call-sign is VU2GTI. Here the first two character "VU" stands for India. Every Indian call-sign start with prefix "VU". Some of the prefixes are Sri Lanka 4S, Pakistan AP, Russia RA, Indonesia YC, South Africa ZS, France F6. The number stands for Grade of licence and "GTI" is identification given to my station.
For those who are not from India - and are interested in this fascinating hobby, look for the information on Google and you would find some club or society that would guide you through the process. If you still don't get anything, drop in a mail to me - vu2gti-AT-yahoo.com with your city / country details and I shall try to locate some friendly ham in your country to get you on the air!
