History of TARS
Established in the year 1973, Trivandrum Amateur Radio Society (TARS), is the oldest nonprofit association of Radio Amateurs and Amateur Radio enthusiasts in and around Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram), Kerala. The society has its origin in the Electronics Club formed at Nanthencode, Thiruvananthapuram, in the late 1950s under the leadership of an electronics enthusiast SWL Ravi. This club was converted into an Amateur Radio Club in 1958 by OM Venkateswara Sulu VU2GV, who was a Police Wireless Officer. This club initially started meeting at Nanthencode and then moved to Trivandrum Flying Club. OM Nilacantan VU2LN was the first Ham to get licensed in Trivandrum. OM Kuki VU2VK also joined soon along with OM Jayaraman VU2JN. TARS, in its name was formed in 1973, under the august leadership of OM M. Nilacantan VU2LN (SK), Prof. R. Jayaraman VU2JN (SK), OM Austin Thompson VU2TF (SK), OM Krishnan Kutty VU2PKK (SK), OM Sivachandradas VU2CSD (SK), Dr Umadethan VU2BUD (SK), Dr Venugopal VU2KVG (SK) OM N C Pillai VU2PN (SK) and OM Boothalingam VU2BTH (SK).
OM Raj Kumar VU2NUT joined TARS in 1977-78, followed by OM Salim VU2LID in 1979. OM Vaidyanathan VU2PRV and OM Jojith Mathew VU2JAW joined in 1980. OM Girish Babu VU2KGB and OM Rajasekharan Nair VU2RJR joined TARS in 1981. OM Jayasankar VU2JAA and OM Hari VU2HRI joined in 1985, followed by OM Sanal Kumar VU2TNA in 1986. OM Madhu VU2TEA became a member of TARS in 1987, followed by Venu VU2IVG in 1988. Other regular attendees at TARS meetings then, included OM Hari, VU2GHB, OM Ravindranath VU2RVJ, OM Jeyan Sam VU2GJS, OM Sreedharan Das VU2SRQ (SK), OM Ved Prakash VU2VP (SK), OM Rajagopal VU2RPL, OM Muralidharan VU2AGM (SK), Dr Mahadevan VU2SWM, OM Vishnu Senan VU3CSV (SK), OM Rafeeq VU2TEL, OM Hemachandran VU2TEG, OM Jose, VU2JKV, OM Sreekumar VU2FCC, OM Sasi VU2LBM, Capt. Augustine VU2KGI, Dr Firoz VU2FAB, OM Ramukutty VU2REW, OM Thankachan VU3KHD (SK), Dr Mohan VU2MHM, OM Lesley Paul VU2LVJ, OM Allen VU3AUZ, OM Sreekumar VU2AEU, OM Alex Chandy VU2TXZ and OM Ajith Mohan VU2AJM (SK). TARS’s Lady members include YL Rachel Austin VU2IYL, YL Maya VU2CIA, YL Vijayalexmi VU2VOZ, YL Hima VU2ZHS and YL Sreelatha VU2SGQ. Our long term SWL John (SK) who was one of the most regular and enthusiastic members of TARS needs a special mention. Also remembered is OM David VU2SXB’s (SK) strong support for all the initiatives of TARS for many years.
OM Austin VU2TF gracefully held the Presidential chair of TARS for a long time. He gave a clear vision to the Club that radio amateurs will not be ‘manufactured’ by TARS. The doors of TARS were always open to SWLs and communication technology enthusiasts alike. SWLs were keenly observed over a period of time and only if they were found to have genuine interest in the Amateur Radio Service, support was then extended to get license. OM Austin was always insisting that TARS should not keep large funds. President was permitting only petty cash with the Treasurer and the expenditure for tea and snacks for the meetings were equally shared by the members present. It is also worth noting that we never had formal elections within TARS. Office bearers were always nominated during the Annual Meetings. One of our senior most Hams, OM Nilacantan, VU2LN (we call him by the handle Neel) very rarely used to attend the club meetings. He deeply believed that Hams should meet more on the Band, not always for eye-ball. OM Neel and OM Jayaram, VU2JN were the real Gurus of not only TARS, but of the Ham community of the state.
The first VHF repeater of TARS, VU2XT, was put together during 1999-2000 and commissioned in July 2000, located on the top of SUT Hospital, Pattom, Thiruvananthapuram. This was fully homebrewed under the guidance of VU2TF. The fabrication & assembly was done by VU2JAW and VU2HRI. The Telewave 4 cavity duplexer was donated to TARS by OM Ronald Angelo, A4XIS who was always a well wisher of TARS. OM Jojith VU2JAW and OM Anil VU2KHC were regular net controllers for a long time.
TARS even today does not have a venue of its own. The club initially started meeting at the Flying Club. Other venues were the Alliance Franchise, Rocket Recreation Club, KSIDC, Tandem Institute, Computer Society of India, Institution of Engineers and now at Science and Technology Museum. Occasionally we used to meet in the QTHs of veteran Hams. Mostly OM Kutty, VU2PKK was hosting such meetings. Interestingly we had a task team headed by OM Sanal VU2TNA which used to visit the shacks of other Hams regularly with a specific intention of giving physical help with men and materials to erect or repair the antennae. Those days nobody could complain that his antenna is down or not working for the fact that OM Sanal and his team would immediately show up and start the repair work. This was a very successful initiative which brought in a strong friendship bondage among the members. Antenna erection at Ham QTH was always a celebration. OM Girish VU2KGB happily remembers OM Austin expressing his willingness to climb Girish’s guyed tower to install the CD-318 Jr HF Yagi. A busy practising doctor Venugopal VU2KVG left his job for the day and stayed throughout on KGB’s terrace, holding the rope and supporting the antenna installation and tuning. Such enjoyable moments were very frequent in TARS.
Turning back the pages of the history, TARS was instrumental in setting up and operating a communication facility at Secretariat, Trivandrum, connecting Gujarat with the state capital when an earthquake hit Gujarat in 2001. During Peruman train tragedy which occurred on 8th July 1988, the members of TARS, particularly Dr Venugopal VU2KVG, Dr Umadethan VU2BUD and OM Girish VU2KGB played major roles in handling the disaster communication. TARS also played the lead role in providing communication support for National Games held at Trivandum in 1987. During the Kuwait invasion in August 1990, three members of TARS, OM Krishnankutty VU2PKK, OM Umadethan VU2BUD and OM Girish VU2KGB took the lead roles in providing HF communication. Though not a member of TARS, the role played by OM Guhan Menon VU2TG (SK) is greatly cherished here. OM Austin VU2TF and OM Jojith VU2JAW along with TARS team members have conducted many demos and exhibitions for students of various schools in Trivandrum. This has helped to create awareness on the Amateur Radio Service, within the teachers and students alike. The years 1992 and 1994 witnessed the unwavering communication support of the TARS teams being provided for the Popular Motor Sports Rally. TARS members also got hands-on experience in directional antenna making and quick deployment of radio stations in the forest areas, during the rally communication control. It was during this event that we discovered two young and capable SWLs Sunu and Sunish who later held the call signs VU2SXA and VU2SGJ respectively. OM Sunish, VU2SGJ is now on the Governing Council of TARS as Information Technology (IT) coordinator.
TARS team participated in the VHF Hill Top DX contest conducted in May 1995 and October 1996. The location chosen was Mangaladevi Hills, deep inside the Wild Life Sanctuary at Thekkady. The TARS team consisting of VU2KGB, VU2ACT and VU2TNA won the first prize in 1995, procuring 6800 points, far ahead of the teams from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. TARS also conducted two Fox Hunts during 1996 and 1997 at Trivandrum, both of which were greatly enjoyed by the participants.
TARS always had a lot of DX hams as regular visitors. Prof Gerhard Mayer DJ5GM (VU2DVL), OM Bernhard Stefan DL2GAC (VU2BMS), OM Hans Ehlers DF5UG (VU2INK), OM Norbert Prenzel DJ9RB (VU2RBQ), Capt Bill, AC4BD, and Prof Rodney Moag W5NDS and Dr John VE3OGZ (SK) were our Patrons/regular visitors to TARS meetings. OM Peter G3ELH, OM Udo Zahronsky VU2UDO, OM Leo Shoeberle DG3MKL were also present in many TARS meetings, to share their global experiences. OM Rodney Moag W5NDS, a Professor in Texas University once surprised the members by fluently speaking Malayalam in one of the meetings of TARS. Many of the above Scientist/Engineers were connected to the Space Research and hence their speeches and workshops were very valuable to the members of TARS. Field days and Antenna workshops led by OM Norbert Prenzel DJ9RB at Kovalam were most educative and enjoyable to the members.
Recently, active operators like OM Salim VU2LID, OM Ravi S. Gopan, VU3HPF, Dr Ranjith VU2OY and Capt Sunil VU2MTM have been instrumental in giving technical demonstrations and speeches in advanced frontiers of Amateur Radio. TARS members always remained in the forefront of communication technology. Members of TARS were among the first few, who appeared on QO-100 satellite with booming signals. TARS members had a pivotal role in getting the recent rule amendment for mobile portability of amateur stations.
The present repeater of TARS is an ICOM FR 5000 with Sinclair Duplexer and the system is located at Technopark Campus, Trivandrum. Procurement of this was made possible with the efforts of the present Treasurer OM Alex VU2PAG who contacted the existing and old members of TARS who joined hands and contributed generously towards raising funds for purchasing a good commercial quality repeater. The Trivandrum VHF net is conducted every evening at 20:45 hours IST via Trivandrum VHF Repeater, VU2XT (145.600 MHz with negative shift). OM Anil VU2KHC and OM Sanal VU2TNA take turns to conduct the net. OM Arun VU2AMW and OM Kiran VU2FGL are giving local support at Technopark for the repeater maintenance.
TARS meetings are now held on the first Saturday and third Saturday of the month at 6:30 PM. The meeting on the third Saturday of the month is conducted online, via Google Meet platform. The current membership strength of TARS is more than 50.
The present team is steering the Society in a friendlier direction where cordial relationship with non-members and sister clubs are given prime importance. Members of TARS actively participate in the events organized by other clubs. This friendly gesture has paved way for many non-members to have come forward and financially contributed to the VHF Repeater Project of TARS. In response, TARS will reciprocate and extend all possible support to other Amateur Radio Clubs and Associations. This will strengthen our motto and tag line “Amateur Radio for Universal Friendship”.