ORIGIN OF GENERAL EMERGENCY MEDICAL NET (G E M NET) - Ram, VU2AB

 This very useful and life saving net started just like this. One day myself, Cpt.Dasan (VU2AID) since we had a common interest in flying he being a professional pilot and myself being a hobby flyer (private flying licence holder once) were having a chat on some mysterious midair aircraft explosion and its meteorological aspect of possibilities etc. At this juncture, I casually mentioned Capt.Dasan who was an ex-Air India flying Captain that when someone eats the fatty lunch provided on board including potatoes etc which are gassy and FARTS (Letting out gas the wrong way) and right at that time passenger of the next seat lights a cigarette. How about this gas let out causes explosion due to the next passenger lighting his cigarette.

Just then Dr.Samad another ham from Kerala broke in and promised to check the gas nature from human source at his biochemistry lab. Infact the very nextday he came up on the band and assured that this may not be the cause for any explosion since the gas 1. Wet and 2.contains mainly H2S which is not volatile. Then someone came on the band and asked some medical advice fromDr.Samad.

After a few days Govi (VU2SGR, Gaja VU2GJR, Dr.Velu VU2ENT, along with the earlier three for fun had this nightly net not named then conducted to pass medical traffic , medical advise etc. Just then VU2RDH OM.Radha who was then a new ham asked for a help to locate and help a poor girl from his village who had come to Madras for Knee cancer treatment. With great difficulty we managed to locate this poor girl in a slum quarters really struggling to get good treatment.

Next day, myself, Capt.Dasan, Govi, Gaja and Charu(VU2SCU) took this girl to nearby All India Cancer Institute where they mercilessly demanded Rs.60,000/-for amputation and chemotherapy and the chances of then surviving rate was only 3 out 10. The mother of the girl agreed and immediately we collected about Rs.6500/- what we could manage out of our pocket then and assured the hospital that they should go on with further treatment and we will undertake to pay the rest of the bill. We immediately returned to my morning QTH where I typed a letter in this regard and during this time we coined the name "GEM" acronym for General Emergency Medical and still this club is registered and I am the Tech.adviser and VU2AIG(Grace ) is the treasurer and we still have some money in the bank on this account. We used to get request from 4S7land and other part of the country for medical help, which was being extended actively.

During mid 90 I left for US and VU2SGR was also not keeping good health and since several request for medical help were also being communicated on CW not many who were taking part could manage. It must be stated that during this period Dr.Gaja and Surya one night along with other members of the GEM net rendered assistance to a child of a doctor from Kerala but unfortunately it was a cardiac operation and the child became a silent key. Our people contacted all the concerned in Kerala and finally Dr.Gaja managed to get a vehicle to take the dead child back to Kerala with all assistance enroute to minimize any trouble.

We also extended the GEM net operation on 14MHz with another team operatingSplit-band mode operation. When after my return the activity was not that terrific and Dr.Gaja was individually handling some medical traffic for 4S7 friends only both through 7MHz SSB and Packet mode.