When the earthquake struck in 2005, two men in Islamabad loaded their bags and headed for Azad Kashmir. They made it as far as Kohala bridge where the road got cut off. From there on, they made it by foot and hitchhiked on motorcycles and the back of pick-up trucks to Muzaffarabad.
One of the few offices still functioning there was Rescue 15 whose building had half collapsed. The men asked the surprised police officials inside if they had a car battery. The officials led them to a crushed Suzuki Mehran.
The men got to work. A radio transceiver was plugged into the battery and they started transmitting messages to Islamabad since telephone landlines had collapsed. In the next few days they sent nearly 3,000 messages to Islamabad by radio, which their affiliates spread throughout Pakistan by phone. Most messages were confirmations of survivals and deaths.
These men belonged to the voluntary Pakistan Amateur Radio Society (PARS) which has been around since 1970. It is made up of licensed professionals who operate amateur or ham radio, which keep people connected when all else fails.
Decades later, the society is still going strong, and since its fledgling foray into Kashmir has increasingly taken up the cause of rescue and relief work when humanitarian disaster strikes in Pakistan.
Ham radios emerged at the end of the 19th century with licensing starting from the US around 1912. One theory suggests that it was the initials of a group of early adopters—Hyman, Almy, and Murray at Harvard University’s radio club—that shortened first into HYALMU and then the name HAM. A more popular theory is that in the early days professionals looked down at the amateurs as ‘hams,’ as in ham-fisted or unskilled. Despite the pejorative etymology, the name stuck and is used proudly today.
Amateur radio operators have operated here since before Partition. The oldest membership card was issued in November 1947 and a Pakistan Amateur Radio Society one from 1950 carries the call sign AP5B. Records show that one was active in Karachi in 1949 and from Quetta’s Chiltan Hotel in 1953.
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