We celebrate every Mysorean who figures in our directory. A few merit a mention in the dispatches, as they say. Mr Konanur Ramachandra Rao Madhukar is such a Mysorean, for two reasons – 1) he is the first amateur radio enthusiast to figure in our directory; and 2) he belongs to a fourth generation family of Mysoreans.
Madhu, as his friends call him, is a HAM with a radio handle (identifier) - VU2MUD. As such, he belongs to a select group, that too from the town that put India on the global amateur radio map. To cite history, India's first short wave public broadcasting station belonged to Dr. Matcalfe, VU2KH, a radio amateur. He was Vice-Chancellor of Mysore University. His group of radio amateurs established an entertainment public broadcasting station VU6AH in 1935. But then the authorities cancelled amateur radio licensing and took away ham radio equipment from enthusiasts when the War broke out in 1939. It was also the radio station in Mysore that gave the present day All India Radio acronym - AKASHAVANI.
Madhu’s family had moved to Mysore, from Konanur, three generations back. In Mysore during during early 19th century the main precincts of the town were confined to the walls of the palace fort. Madhu’s great grand father Shri .Mylar Rao, who was on the Palace Service, built In 1910, a house in Siddappa Square "Chandra Mouli" that is still in great shape and occupied by Madhu’s brother. Their grand father, Shri K.M. Subba Rao, was a lawyer, the "closed collar coat - peta" type. A stickler for time, Subba Rao was an all-round sportsman proficient in cricket and football. He partnered in golf and tennis Sri Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar. Madhu’s father, Shri K.S. Ramachandra Rao was a senior technical assistant looking after the audio-visual dept. at CFTRI..
