Radio signal exchange through SSB (single side band) mode was made possible with radio enthusiasts in 27 countries from the Henry’s Island of the Sunderbans Reserve Forest during the activation of Beach on the Air (BOTA) event hoisted by the West Bengal Radio Club since yesterday.

“We had direct conversations with radio stations of 27 countries including Japan, Russia, Ukraine, China, Thailand, Spain, England, Germany while trying to detect the propagation changes in wave length during the transition from winter to summer at our BOTA event camp in the Henry’s Island today where our six-member group of technical experts and radio operators joined hands for DXing (search for distant unknown station) and recording the readability and signal strength during day and night hours and the recorded database will be shared with the weather offices,” said Ambarish Nag Biswas, secretary, West Bengal Radio Club.

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He said: “Such propagation alterations are usually witnessed during the natural calamities and disasters like super cyclones.” Prior to this camp, the operators tested a communication with Gurvinder Singh, Commanding Officer of 2nd Battalion of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) headquartered at Haringhata, Nadia.

The club already has established a permanent radio link with state Disaster Management cells with Bengal’s pioneering 25 Watt VHF (very high frequency) repeater installed at Ward 14 of Panihati Municipality in Barrackpore that covers the radius of six districts. The district administration and police headquarters of six South Bengal districts like South and North 24-Parganas, Hooghly, Nadia, Howrah and Kolkata were included for inter-communication, which becomes highly essential especially during natural calamities.

To ascertain the fluctuations, the club of volunteer radio operators had chosen Henry’s Island as such islands fall victim of catastrophes. when radio communication becomes the only resort for rescue operations and restoration. Henry’s Island is an isle covered by mangrove forest surrounded by a wide beach about 130 km from Kolkata close to Bakkhali in South 24 Parganas. The six member team had Jayanta Baidya as technical expert and Sohom Chakraborty, Dibas Mondal as DXing experts