The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : From Hyderabad to Cocos Island

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Saturday, Jan 26, 2008
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From Hyderabad to Cocos Island

Sadineni Yamini (22), the only woman of a 15-member international team of ham operators, will be on an uninhabited island for two weeks

Top of the world: S. Yamini

HYDERABAD: I am looking forward with excitement and trepidation since I will be away on an uninhabited island for almost a fortnight,” remarked 22-year-old Sadineni Yamini, the youngest and sole woman of a 15-member international expedition of ham operators to the picturesque Isla del Coco (Cocos Island), off Costa Rica from February 6.

Incidentally, she will be the first Indian to participate in a ‘dxpedition’ of radio amateurs outside India.

To live in boat

Talking to The Hindu here before leaving on Friday en route Amsterdam, Miami (USA) and San Jose (Costa Rica), Yamini described the upcoming visit as an ‘adventure and a technical experiment’ during which she and the others will live in a boat on the high seas of the Pacific coast. The Cocos Island is one of the national parks of Costa Rica and was declared a world heritage site. Its deep waters are home to hammered sharks, rays and dolphins and other marine fauna. It is also famous for scuba diving.

The young Indian ham enthusiast has been sponsored by the Austrian Amateur Radio Society and the National Institute of Amateur Radio (NIAR). Yamini, whose call sign is VU2YAM, said the team after sailing for about 40 hours from San Jose and reaching the island would set up five to six amateur radio stations. The main aim of the expedition is to test state-of-the-art technologies. She has been assigned a particular mode of voice and digital communication called PACTOR-3.

NIAR founder chairman and director S. Suri, said many new communication technologies would be tested during the expedition. He said PACTOR-3 was a modem for digital communication and would be tried for sending e-mail without internet.

Aiming for the top

Yamini, who is married and has a three-year-old daughter, said her aim was to be numero uno among women ham radio operators in the world. Besides seeking to achieve the highest number of communication contacts, she would like to serve during calamities and spread awareness among schoolchildren about the utility of ham radio.

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