Maj.Gen. R.Z.Kabraji VU2BK - (SK) – A FISTFUL "CW" PERSONALITY.

The Defence Forces have seen quite a few amateurs from all ranks. But, the one that I always remember, is OM Kab. In my early years of Short Wave Listening and lateron hamming, I remembered him, first for the beautiful CW he was sending, and secondly for the very prompt QSL he sent even for every SWL and the novice hams.

The first QSL I received from his QTH at Middlesex Road, in Mhow, M.P., for my SWL report, (as SWL VU-0016), was a colourful one with a bald "been" player showing the famous Indian Rope Trick. Right on the top of the very very long rope which went up, was a three element beam. That is a cherished QSL. In the course of my SWL activities of reporting, I came across SWL VU-0006, who was my predecessor, that was SWL OM Zal, who was none other than the son of the famous CW operator., who was more in the voice mode monitoring. Then, followed other SWLs like OM Viswanathan, SWL VU-0020, OM katiyar SWL VU-0035, who was a Civilian Official in the Military Engineering Service. Alas, this breed is seeing the end, as neither the National society nor the WPC, do not recognise them anymore.

After getting my Novice licence,as VU2URZ, I started taking part in the various International amateur radio contests, in the CW category. Again, I used to see in the result sheets, that the only other VU operator,sending his logs was Zal, this time as VU2DK, for the Voice mode category. All that for the ITU contest organised by the Brazilian Telecommunications Ministry.

Kab was a keen elmer, mentorand guide to many up-coming amateurs those days in the 50s, and he went long distances, to help them with disposal equipment through ARSI, located at Delhi-SafdarJung Airport area. There were a few from among the Civilians who got motivated by him, whereas his subordinates and the colleagues of the Signal Regiment, were the most benefited.

His personal enthusiasm and dedication to start and maintain the club station VU2SS.

At Mhow, is a history of sorts. There were more uniformed men, with their own tickets, than from any civilian group of those times.

His homebrewing and experimenting with the Cubical Quad antenna, led the way to the first ever Army Expedition to Bhutan, in the leadership of OM Uncle Sam VU2US, with the call sign VU2US/AC5, and a highly enthusiastic group of army amateurs in the team. The expedition proved a tremendous success with the world getting for the first time, an amateur radio signal of quality,from Bhutan, the land of the Druk, and a fine QSL to all the QSOs made with all the DX stations.

He had also proved with the WS-19 experiments, from Bhavani Sagar area in South India, that a modest 5w QRP signal can also reach USA in CW mode.

He kept in touch with the "birds of the same feathers", and had eye ball QSO with the 4 Star US Gen. Theodor J. Conway, W4EII, who was the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Strike Command,(USCINCSTRIKE/USCINCMEAFSA) from 1966 to 1969, which had jurisdiction covering Middle East, Africa- south of the Sahara, and South Asia.

The second QSL card I got from him, for a CW QSO, after he retired from the Army and settled at Pune, showed a perpetual truth in the words that the maxim " I have a small window, through which I look at the whole world", as his favourite message.

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