LZ1ID 1949 Bulgaria

Also LZ1XX

There are very few pre WWII QSL cards from Bulgaria. This was the 1st LZ amateur. He was a licensed ham in 1938. Notice that he was running 1 California KW!

On April 24, 1938, Ivan Djakov broadcast the first amateur radio transmission, with his callsign LZ1ID from the territory of Bulgaria.

He was born in 1920 in the town of Svishtov. His father is the architect Stefan Djakov and has two brothers - the artist Krum Djakov and the physicist Emil Djakov.
It was Emil who supplied his brother with the first radio (almost) - he knew one of Hristo Danov's sons, who at that time imported radio lamps (tubes), sockets and other radio parts. Ivan himself constructed his first radio from these parts. When he was only 16 years old, the young man started working as a radio technician in the workshop of the German company "Korting" in the capital city Sofia. Two years later, from the company's calendar for the new year 1938, he understood, that the call signs with the prefix "LZ" were distributed to radio amateurs in Bulgaria.

Ivan began to learn the Morse code and made his first receiver. It is type "0-V-1" and has feedback for receiving radiotelegraphic signals. Later he constructed a homemade Morse key, as well as improved his receiver to type "1-V-1". With it he regularly listens to amateur radio communications on the frequency of 7 MHz.

In 1938, Ivan Djakov combined an oscillator according to the "Clap" scheme and a final stage with a 6L6 lamp to make an amateur radio transmitter with two lamps. With it, on April 24, 1938, he broadcast the first amateur radio call from the territory of Bulgaria, in telegraph mode in the Morse code, on the frequency 7 MHz. It reads "CQ de LZ1ID" and the letters ID are its chosen initials.

Over the next year and a half, he established hundreds of radio connections with amateurs from around the world. LZ1ID is the first and for its time the only amateur radio station with the Bulgarian initial LZ. This makes him a very desirable correspondent for radio amateurs from other countries. Since then, there has been amateur radio in Bulgaria.  It began to develop, making radio clubs throughout Bulgaria.

Now new digital technologies are coming out, which are entering an so many people geting new callsign's. There are currently many radio amateurs in Bulgaria /5600 +/and many people are starting to make amateur radio activities. Amateur radio is back in kind of special fashion.

Ivan Djakov LZ1ID

LZ1XX in 1945

QSL Patrick Rigg Collection
Info, Photo courtesy of LZ1JY