LZ2KAD – city radio club – Gabrovo
Whoever and whenever starts talking about the radio club in Gabrovo, must start with the name of its creator – Eng. BORIS KONYAROV.
Memories of Lyuben Penkov (later LZ2LF) from Balchik, one of the veterans of our amateur radio movement.
He says: “I was born on August 5, 1916. I have been involved in amateur radio since my teenage years, when I was still a student at the Bulgarian high school in Dobrich. I still have my “Standard” headphones that I bought in 1935 for 250 lei. At that time, Southern Dobrudzha was Romanian. I read Romanian magazines and saw how far Romanian radio amateurs had come in this field. They had created their own organization, they made radio connections with radio amateurs from all over the world. In the fall of 1935, together with my friend Boris Konyarov, who was also my student, we decided that we should try it too. We constructed the first amateur transmitter in Southern Dobrudzha – a single-tube Hartley generator, but the first tests did not work because we were cutting the common minus, not the anode circuit”.
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Boncho Vassilev (later LZ2AS) from Polikraishte remembers: “My amateur radio activity began in 1948-1949. I was a student at the electrical engineering school in Gabrovo under the guidance of Eng. Konyarov, whom the radio amateurs in Gabrovo honor as the founder of the amateur radio movement in this city. One evening he turned on an ordinary receiver somewhere on short waves. Morse signals were heard, he recorded something and said: “A Romanian is working with a Frenchman”. This deeply impressed me and I became interested. I learned the Morse code.
Who is Eng. BORIS KONYAROV:
1927: People crowded the square in the town of Dobrich. The gaze is directed towards a roof where the “priests” of a new magic trick are stretching wires. Fragmentary, strange words are heard: Radio!…Budapest…Rome…Tokyo…Everyone is jostling.. A dry, thin boy with a neatly folded school cap makes his way through the crowd, not without difficulty. This is Boris Konyarov’s first encounter with the wonderful world of radio waves. Young Konyarov is very studious – he reads literally around the clock and even has his reading time limited on doctor’s advice. A few years after the radio session, Boris comes across the book “The Miracle of Radio Waves” by E. Eisberg.
And this encounter is fateful. The book contains a diagram of the black box /TELEFUNKEN receiver/, which the master of séances once showed. The book is in French – accessible and fascinating for Boris: “The world of radio waves is accessible to everyone.” Boris with youthful enthusiasm rushes into this new world, everything is now clear to him and the path to his first receiver is not long: here a capacitor, there a coil… There is no crystal, but… he will grate some lead, add sulfur powder, light the alcohol lamp and – the crystal is ready! The receiver is expensive, but the good grandmother will sacrifice a few more levs for the ambitious grandson.
The receiver is ready and he listens to broadcasts every day. My books and experience increase daily.
Years later, together with Yordan Boyanov, they try to find a place in the amateur radio field. But then this is impossible because “Radio broadcasts” are a state monopoly.
After the end of WW-II, Konyarov is already an engineer and works in Gabrovo. There, in 1946/47, he creates one of the first amateur radio clubs at the National Radio and Television Institute, and later at the Mechanical and Electrotechnical School. The number of radio amateurs is growing rapidly. Among the first are Botyu Botev /later senior research associate at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences/, Ivan Mechev, Hristo Hinov, Shkodrev – designers at the DIP “Electronics” Gabrovo, Stefan Dunev – republican champion in “fox hunting” and many others.
In 1949-1950 the first radio club was built. It bears the name of A. S. Popov and is a source of pride for the people of Gabrovo. During this time in the country, at the National Radio and Television Union there were only sections and circles of this kind.
Will, enthusiasm, patriotic deeds – this is the basis of the activity of the club led by Konyarov. Exhibitions of the work of radio amateurs are organized, classes dedicated to radio amateurism on local radio equipment. In Gabrovo, a feverish radiofication begins, expansion and improvement of the existing radio equipment according to the project of Eng. Konyarov. The performers are enthusiasts from the radio club – dressed in foreman’s clothes, led by Konyarov, erect poles, stretch wires, install radio points.
Eng. Boris Konyarov, in addition to his activity in Gabrovo, is a member of the council of the Tarnovo district radio club and a member of the Republican section of radio amateurism at the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Radio Amateur Society. Later, he is a member of the council of the district radio club in Ruse. In Ruse, he is first the head of the OSS, and then the director of the printed circuit board factory.
The time of this man, who has dedicated himself, outside of his responsible official duties, to a wide range of public activities, is very precious. How much time does he dedicate to his listeners through lectures and talks, to rationalizers/as he himself is/, to young radio amateurs…
A tribute to the memory of this titan-creator of the radio amateur movement in our region.
About the Gabrovo Radio Club:
According to Rumen Stefanov LZ2RS:
The radio club was founded around 1946-48.
1. 1st NR unknown /or Konyarov…/.
2. Trifon Kolev- until 1962
3. Atanas Gatev – until 1968
4. Ivan Sofroniev until around 1970
5. Kolyo Kolev
6 Ivan Ivanov
