The Amateur Radio Village
On 10.10.1966, several enthusiastic young people initiated an organized amateur radio movement in the village of Polikraishte.
In a room, in a private house, on the village square – Boncho Vassilev /LZ2AS-sk/,
Boyan Adzharov/SK/ – an activist of the radio club in G. Oryahovitsa and Milko Pendov /LZ2UC/, placed on a table /taken from the community center/ a converted concert receiver “Orpheus”, a Morse code manipulator and a buzzer and “the wheel turns”. It began with listening activities and a radiotelegraphy club with students from local elementary schools /3/. During this time, the transmitter of the future radio station was built with 100% materials provided by the District Radio Club LZ2KBA with head Ivan Popov/LZ2SA/ and on a cold winter day, on 15.01.1968 LZ2KPK went on the air with about 50 watts on one GU50 and Ant VS1AA.
The receiver was the same “Orpheus”, but was later replaced with the Russian KV-M and then with the Bulgarian “Signal”. As a result of the positive impact among the youth, the amateur radio club received the support of the mayor’s office, the school administrations, the public in the village and the most effective was the financial assistance from the local Agricultural and Rural Development Committee/TKZS/.
Thanks to this assistance, a 10m iron pole was erected on the building of the Agricultural and Rural Development Committee where the radio station is housed, on which a 4-element square antenna with a boom length of 9m was built. A Delta was made for 3.5 MHz, materials were prepared for making 3 elements of a beam for 7 MHz and 5 elements of a square of 28 – but unfortunately the latter were not implemented.
The educational activity continues at a good pace – every year there are three circles – two on telegraphy – for beginners and for advanced and one on radio detection “fox hunting”. The latter is going poorly due to problems with the material base – an insufficient number of receivers and only one transmitter.
It only reaches participation in district competitions. The number of operators is constantly changing, but there are periods when their number reaches 15-20 and this leads to the organization and opening of a second radio club in the village at the Youth Center with the initials LZ2KAB.
The radio amateur operators regularly take part in internal republican and international HF competitions with varying success, but there are also prize places. In the 90s of the last century, the activity of the clubs gradually died out and after 2000 they officially ceased to exist, but they remained the most active on the air. One statistic: as of 2010, in Polikraishte there were 9 personal amateur radio stations with 22 initials and about 2000 inhabitants.
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the club in 1986, Polikraishte hosted the 4th national meeting of amateur radio families.
Milko Pendov /LZ2UC/
