A bit of history of the ham radio in Poznan

Polish ham radio originates in the amateur radio movement, which began shortly after the First World War.
Development of this movement was delayed by the lack of adequte law regulations. Radio amateurs were constantly being watched by the police, they often visited police-stations and even prisons. Based on the regulation issued in 1924 The Ministery of Post and Telecommunication made obtaining ham license an extremely difficult task with an illegal development of the ham radio as a result.
On December 12, 1925 Heftman (TPAX) as the first Polish amateur succeeded in getting a HF contact with the Netherlands and that day has now been recognized as the official beginning of the Polish ham radio movement.

At that time radio amateurs registered at the "RadjoAmator" - periodical, their callsigns started with TP (originally there was a letter e to distinguish the continent {Europe}) Afterwards some clubs started to assign new callsigns (SP3-callsigns) on their own. This had a negative influence on the whole ham radio movement, because there was always a threat of the illegal amateur stations being closed down by the authorities, while there were only few legal ones (SP1-callsigns).
All those problems were finally solved in September 1932.

The origins of the ham radio in Poznan are equal to those in the whole country.
In the summer of 1927 establishing of the Poznan Ham Radio Club takes place and in 1929 Zygmunt Bresinski, eTPKX (SP3KX) , gets first WAC-award in Poland. In the following year next two WAC awards were won by SP1YL and SP1AK, also from Poznan.

A quote from "Krótkofalowiec Polski" ("Polish Radioamateur") from 1930: "It is noteworthy that Sp1yl and Sp1ak are a unique couple in the history of the Polish ham radio, gloriously representing our hams abroad. One should praise the merits of SP1YL, which is owned by Mrs. Burchard, an "YL" popular in whole Europe and elsewhere."

In 1930 the QSL-office in Poznan transferred almost 8.000 QSL cards.

In that periode of time Poznan was the second largest ham radio center in Poland. In the autumn'29 edition of "Radio Amateur Call Book Magazine" there were 110 callsigns from Poland, 20 thereof from Poznan and its neighbourhood.
However, in June of 1933 the Administration of the Ham Radio Association in Poznan reported that after dissmissing 59 members due to contributions unpaid for more than 6 months, there were still 61 normal members ...

Ham radio amateurs from Szamotuly: SP1DJ , SP1CY who put some attempts to get 80m band contacts in the 30-ties are also worth mentioning here.

The most famous amateurs active at that time were: SP1AE, cpt.pil. Mickiewicz, SP1AK cpt.pil. Burchard, SP3KS col. T. Karolczak, p.R.Jungerman, SP1CL p.M.Szczodrowski, Cezary Niziołek, SP3KL p.O.Loga, SP1KM p.J.Klewenhagen ...

During the Second World War a ham radio amateur from Poznan, prof. Rajewski contributed to deciphering the German coding machine ENIGMA.
The situation of ham radio amateurs after the war was very difficult, only after the reactivation of the Polish Ham Radio Association ham activities became possible. In December of 1948 first club license was issued for SP5ZPZ - Soldiers Friendship Society, SP3KAU later became its successor.
Several individual licenses were issued at the beginning of 50-ties. That periode was characterized by an expansion to VHF-bands.
In June of 1954 Bernard Mielcarski, SP3PD got the first 144 MHz connection with a foreign country (DL7FS from Berlin) in Poland.

In the 60-ties and 70-ties the ham radio movement was mainly concentrated at the ham radio clubs in Poznan (SP3PKK, SP3KAU , SP3KTC ). Numerous meetings, courses and youth activities (SP3AK, SP3AWF, SP3PK, SP3HC, SP3CMO) resulted in a huge increase of the ham radio amateurs number. Some new clubs were also established in the neighbourhood of Poznan: Wrzesnia, Gniezno, Wolsztyn.

Our colleagues have always been well in front with new emission types (SSB-SP3PL, SSTV-SP3PJ, RTTY-SP3CCT). They have actively participated in the congresses of SP-DXC, PK-UKF... Teamwork has resulted in top places for SP3KAU and SP3KTC in the Polish club competition.

The State of War (since 1981) stopped our HF and VHF activities only for a short periode of time.
Many of our colleagues used that time to improve their skills and shortly after regaining their licences they were active on all bands.
We have participated in all contests, among others in the particularly exciting country-station contests..
During various events in Poznan such as John Paul's the Second visite or, International Poznan Fair special event stations are on the air.

In December of 1986 SR3P became the first 144 MHz repeater and in 1994 SR0PO the first one on a 70 cm band.
They have now become so common that many of our colleagues have no idea how to contact without repeaters...

Late 80-ties were the time of the first contacts using digital techniques, initially RTTY, SSTV and later Packet Radio. 1990 was a year of the first PR contacts on the HF bands (special licences were issued for this purpose) by SP3CJW, SP3FMF. On May 2, 1991 first VHF QSO takes place and three days later on May 5, 1991, at 5:43 a call from SP3UQS is responded by U2MIR.
In April of 1991 a first meeting of PGPR (Packet Radio Group of Poznan) takes place and the idea of setting a BBS is being put forward. In the autumn of the same year first attempts to get SR3BBS working take place and from then on it's been continously present on the amateur bands.
In 1992 one starts the assigning of the IP numbers and this results in a development of the ampr-net-gateway SR3KWX.

Today there are nearly 400 individual licences in Poznan.

There are also club activities:

Ham radio markethas been organized once a month for a couple of years, this offers a possiblity of meetings friends from the bands...

This text isn't a historical description, its purpose is to present a piece of the Poznan inhabitants' life.
If you find this incomplete or inconsistent please let me know...

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