Meet Ivan - LZ2LP
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| Ivan and his XYL Ivanichka.
Photo was taken in Ivan's garden during the summer of 2007. |
Peter, Ivan's brother. This
photo was taken on the Bulgarian sea coast on the Black Sea. |
Ivan has been licensed since 1969. He enjoys talking to his many amateur radio friends and working DX. In addition to his native language, Ivan speaks fluent Russian, English, and some Italian, French, and Spanish. Ivan can be found daily around 14.182 MHz +/- QRM from 0200 to 0300 UTC and on 14.182 +/- QRM around 1200 to 1300 UTC. He uses a Kenwood TS-820 transceiver and a homebrew linear amplifier. He has a Force-12 EF-320 monoband 3 element 20 meter yagi 8 meters above ground and dipoles for 40 and 30 meters. Over the years, Ivan has made many friends via amateur radio and enjoys corresponding with them. He does not have a home computer but is very interested in the internet. I have provided this page for Ivan so his friends can learn about him and his family. If you hear LZ2LP on the air please give him a call, he will be glad to speak to you. He will be happy to QSL direct if you include funds for return postage. The post office does not accept IRCs.
Here's some photos of Ivan's shack taken over the years. Ivan's QTH - Lovetch is located in northern central Bulgaria about 128 kilometers north and east of Sofia.
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| Ivan's shack in 1976. All of his equipment
was home made. |
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| 1995: Ivan's shack with his TS-820, TR-2500 homebrew 500w linear amplifier and MFJ keyer. | |
1999: Ivan's shack with one of his oil paintings in the background. |
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| 2005: Ivan in his shack with his second grandson Ivelin. Maybe Ivelin will grow up to be an amateur radio operator. | 2008: Ivan's shack with some of his oil paintings in the background. | 2009: Ivan in his shack with his second grandson Ivelin, now 5 years old. |
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| Ivan's 20M yagi, a Force-12 EF-320
three element mono- bander mounted on an 8 meter pole. The antenna is rotated by the armstrong method. |
Ivan's home is about 3 miles from
Lovetch in a small community between two large hills. Ivan
says his location is good for working DX. |
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| The city of Lovetch is located in
north-central Bulgaria. Shown is the Lovetch Hotel and the famous covered bridge over the Ossam River. The bridge contains small shops for shopping and souvenirs. The small white building in the upper left corner is the post office where Ivan receives his mail. |
A large cave about 2 miles from Ivan's
home. To appreciate it's size, notice on the right side of the
photo the path winding to
the left. About two
thirds of the way down the path is Ivan's son Stan standing along the
path. He looks very small in relation to the cave! Ivan
tells me the cave entrance is 60 meters high and it was used by the
military during the communist regime. |
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| Another photo of Ivan's home taken
from a distance of about 100 meters. |
Ivan's home after a heavy snow in
December 2007. There is 60 cm (2 feet) of snow on the ground. |
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| During the winter Ivan heats his home with a fireplace. Here he is cutting wood for the 2003 winter season with his homemade saw made from a motor acquired from a local factory. |
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| Some of Ivan's QSL cards. |
This card was printed by Tony - LZ1JZ
for Ivan |
The text that follows is Ivan's amateur radio history as written in his own words.
I was born on May 29, 1942 in a progressive family without political interests. My native village is 12 miles from my current QTH of Lovetch. On the same day in May John Kennedy was born. A large number of my family are certified engineers graduated from western schools in Germany and France. I have a brother whose name is Peter. He is a design engineer and lives in Sofia. He is married with 3 daughters. My late mother finished an American College in Bulgaria for education of children with teacher Mrs. Haskel from the USA. My mother lived to be 93 years old. My father died suddenly in 1976.
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| Ivan and his brother Peter in
2002.
Peter is an engineer who works for an international marketing
company. Peter likes to fly ultra-light aircraft. |
A similar photo of Ivan and Peter taken in 1997. |
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| 1968: An old photo of Ivan with the parts to build his first amateur radio rig. | 1960: Ivan in the Army training with a Kalashnikov rifle. |
The town is famous for its covered bridge on the river Ossam, connecting the old and the new town. There are small shops for souvenirs. Lovetch is known as the place where the first Bulgarian astronaut was born.
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| Ivan (on the motor bike) with his
brother Peter (on the right) and some friends on an ultra-light
named Blue Bird. |
Peter taking his ultra-light aircraft
Blue Bird out for a spin at sun rise in October 2003. |
As a student in high school in 1958 I saw a homebrew amateur radio station for the first time. It belonged to my friend Ivan LZ2CX who worked only CW. Then I said to myself that some day I should have one. But at that time it was very difficult to have a station for several reasons. First, my personal profile had to be checked by state security services. For the building of the transmitter I had to find such books that weren't available then. Instead of all difficulties my wish prevailed. For the preparation of the transmitter I had to give an application to the Ministry of Communications. After that I got the permission and a period of several months to build the radio station. After the end of this term I had to inform them in written form that I was ready. Then an order from Sofia followed to the post office in Lovetch a committee to be assigned so they could legalize the transmitter. A long story...
As a start for the build of my homebrew transmitter, I used the local club LZ2KEF. My colleagues and I used radio parts from old military appliances. I should mention that our club station had quite an image on the air and won many times the first awards in contests. The main purpose of the club at that time was to give a preliminary education in CW to the lads before military service. There were two halls well equipped for education in conventional Morse keys. I got class "C" from the local club. With class "C" I could work at 3.5 and 7 MHz only with 50 watts of ower.
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| A 1992 photo of Ivan and his XYL in
front of their home |
Ivan and his XYL in their garden -
summer 2001 |
The components in the club were delivered by the army very often. This was a joy for us. Everything was distributed among us. Then we were given an old receiver, BERTHA from the time of Adolf Hitler, a 2-V-1 linear receiver which belonged to the German army. I worked with it and I was listening to the amateur stations at 3.5 and 7 MHz very clearly because it was powered by direct current. Now I am sorry because after I used it for two years in 1969, I disassembled it for parts. There are two BERTHAs in my region. They belong to LZ2GY and LZ2IU. I suppose that they would replace them with an old receiver - second or third hand. LZ2TX and LZ2JW also dream of something old. Unfortunately here in Bulgaria the standard of living is low, the lowest profit per month is 5 to 60 US dollars. It is very hard for a radio amateur to buy something modern. Most radio amateurs design transceivers by the Russian model UW3DI, 1st and 2nd variant, i.e. lamp and transistor.
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| A 1979 photo of Ivan's XYL, Ivanichka during a visit to Moscow. | A 1979 photo of Ivan and Ivanichka during a visit to Moscow. |
Till my 50th anniversary, I worked with a transmitter 7AB. This was a Russian tank brew given to me as a gift by the local station LZ2KEF. With big efforts I reworked it to operate at 3.5, 7 and 14 MHZ CW. I used measurement units dip meter and signal generator from the club as well. A Russian receiver VOLNA was given to me for use on the amateur bands. At that time I was "B" class, I could work at all frequencies with great power at 250W.
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| Ivan with his homebrew radio, the 7AB, a Russian design that operated on 7 MHz only | |
One of Ivan's prize possessions, a Hristov family heirloom clock made in 1912. | A 1980 photo of Ivan with some of his
specialty cucumbers grown in one of his many gardens. |
Unfortunately in 1999 the club was closed because of financial reasons. I should note that my PA, after receiving class "B", I constructed by myself and it works well at all frequencies. I used Russian lamp GK71. Those could be easily found in Bulgaria and they are very cheap.
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