What is amateur radio?
Amateur Radio (sometimes called Ham Radio) is individuals using specified radio frequencies for personal enjoyment, experimentation and the continuation of the radio art.  Amateur radio operators must be licensed by their Government.  In India, the Wireless Planning & Co-ordination Wing (WPC wing), Ministry of communications, Department of Telecommunications issues Amateur Radio Licences.  Normally a test on operating practices, radio theory and in some cases Morse code proficiency test is administered.  Amateur radio is not to be used for commercial purposes.  Also Amateur radio operators are restricted from using profanity and using amateur radio for illegal purposes.

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What is "HAM" ?
(From Florida Skip Magazine - 1959 )

Have you ever wondered why radio amateurs are called "HAMS"?
Well, it goes like this:
The word "HAM" as applied to 1908 was the station CALL of the first amateur wireless station operated by some amateurs of the Harvard Radio Club. They were ALBERT S. HYMAN, BOB ALMY and POOGIE MURRAY. At first they called their station "HYMAN- ALMY-MURRAY". Tapping out such a long name in code soon became tiresome and called for a revision. They changed it to "HY-AL-MY", using the first two letters of each of their names. Early in 1901 some
confusion resulted between signal from amateur wireless station "HY-ALMU" and a Mexican ship named "HYALMO". They then decided to use only the first letter of each name and the station CALL became "HAM". In the early pioneer days of unregulated radio amateur operators picked
their own frequency and call letters. Then as now, some amateurs had better signals than commercial stations. The resulting interference came to the attention of congressional committees in Washington and Congress gave much time to proposed legislation designed to critically limit amateur radio
activity. In 1911, ALBERT HYMAN chose the controversial WIRELESS REGULATION BILL as the topic for the Thesis at Harvard. His instructor insisted that a copy be sent to Senator DAVID L. WALSH, a member of one of the committees hearing the Bill. The Senator was so impressed with the Thesis that he asked HYMAN to appear before the committee. ALBERT HYMAN took the stand and described how the little station was built and almost cried when he told the crowded committee room that if the BILL went through they would have to close down the station because they could not afford the license fee and all the other requirements which the BILL imposed on amateur stations. Congressional debate began on the WIRELESS REGULATION BILL and little
station "HAM" became the symbol for all the little amateur stations in the country crying to be saved from the menace and greed of the big commercial stations who didn't want them around. The BILL finally got to the floor of Congress and every speaker talked about the "....poor little station HAM."
That's how it all started. You can find the whole story in the Congressional Record. Nation-wide publicity associated station "HAM" with   amateur radio operators. From that day to this, and probably until the end of time in radio; and amateur is a "HAM."

Frequencies allocated  for Amateur services in India:

 1820 - 1860  KHz.
 3500 - 3900  KHz.
 7000 - 7100  KHz.
14000 - 14350 KHz.
18068 - 18168 KHz.
21000 - 21450 KHz.
24890 - 24990 KHz.
28000 - 29700 KHz.

  144 - 146   MHz.
  434 - 438   MHz.
 1260 - 1300  MHz.
 3300 - 3400  MHz.
 5725 - 5480  MHz.


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