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home QRZCQ - The database for radio hams 
 
2024-03-28 09:17:35 UTC
 
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Special Event Call
ES100A

Passive QRZCQ.com data

Republic of Estonia celebrates its 100th birthday!


Estonia

EU
estonia

Call data

Continent:EU
Views:703
Main prefix:ES
Latitude:59.4375000
Longitude:24.7916667
Locator:KO29JK
DXCC Zone:52
ITU Zone:29
CQ Zone:15
Website:es100.eu

QSL data

QSL information may be out of date or inaccurate!

eQSL QSL:YES
Bureau QSL:no
Direct QSL:no
LoTW QSL:YES

Biography

The dawn of amateur radio in Estonia took place in the early 1920s when three schoolboys from
Pärnu - Eugen Tumma, Vitali Suigussaar and Karl Olof Leesment started their experiments.

On August 5th, 1924 K.O. Leesment (on first photo) completed a short-wave receiver to listen to
amateur radio traffic of European hams – and this date is considered as the start for the
short-wave ham radio in the country.

K.O. Leesment V. Suigussaar

In the spring of 1926 V. Suigussaar (photo 2) had his first proven amateur radio contact on air.
As there was no institution existing at that time in Estonia to regulate such activity,
guys invented the call-signs on their own.

The prefix ES in Estonia was introduced since January 1st, 1929.

On March 1st, 1935 the Estonian Radio Amateurs Union (ERAU) was officially registered by
the Ministry of Internal Affairs as an organization uniting amateur radio activity of the
country. This fact marks the official birth of the organized amateur radio in Estonia.
On September 1st, 1938 ERAU became a member of IARU.

By 1941 ERAU had 76 members. And then there was World War II. Once the war settled,
only 14 members were left in Estonia. For 45 years we lost our ES prefix .. and our country.

You can invade a country but you can never invade the Ham-spirit.
For the next 45 years we were operating under prefix UR2.

The first post-war amateur radio club station UR2KAA (on photo) started in 1947 in Tallinn.



The main organizers here had also roots in the hobby back in 1930-ies – like A.Isotamm (ex ES5F)
and A.Jätmar (ex ES4F), but they never restored their individual licenses.
Soon other regional club-stations were founded – UR2KAE in Tartu and UR2KAC in Rakvere were the firsts.
Usually home built transmitters were used, receivers originated from the Red Army mainly.

The beginning of 1950s brought several limitations to the hobby in the Soviet Union.
Since 1950 it was allowed to have contacts only with radio amateurs from the other Soviet republics
or socialist countries. Almost no new amateurs were licensed and practically nothing happened in ham
radio during several years. New "fresh" air was let in only after 1956 when many of those limitations
were taken off or loosened and the hobby got a chance to develop further.
In 1960 the total number of licensed radio amateurs in Soviet Estonia was 92.

While the traditional transmit modes so far had been CW and AM, then 1960 saw a breakthrough
of SSB in phone communication. Enn Lohk (then UR2AR) had the first two-way SSB contact from Estonia
on January 7, 1960 and quickly became the leader in implementing this mode in the whole Soviet Union.
He was also the first in the USSR to get the "WAZ TWO-WAY SSB" award.

An international recognition came when Enn Lohk (UR2AR) and Tõnu Elhi (then UR2DW) organized an expedition
to Franz Joseph Land in 1972, which was awarded as the best amateur radio expedition of the year!



Even though Soviet time was devastating for the country, our hobby was doing pretty great.
Most people built their own rigs (because USSR decided to live in isolation) and were really
good with soldering irons and electronics. Many good relationships with UA hams were formed.


Luckily, there is justice in the Universe. In the early 1990-s USSR collapsed.
We got back our very own prefix ES .. and our country!

As of today, ERAU has 380 members.
We have our annual summer days (since 1964) that usually brings together up to 200 active hams.





New century brought along also a new leader in the Estonian HF contesting.
An active and talented young guy - Tõnno Vähk (ES5TV) started to invest seriously into his
contest-station near Jõgeva and by now has clearly built up a world-class contest site.
The flagship antenna there is an enormous double H-frame tower for 15 meters (8x5 elements).
Multi-operations from his station usually take place under ES9C callsign and frequently
makes it to the very top positions in most major contests.





So, here we are. From three schoolboys soldering together their first tube receivers back in 1924 to
ES9C impressive antenna farm and contest station we have today. During its 94 years of history,
Estonian amateur radio has seen many devoted people.

There's no way I could end this story without mentioning few, who gave enormous amount of energy
(probably their entire life) to our hobby, driving and shaping it over the decades (60+ years):

Arvo Kallaste ES1CW, Enn Lohk ES1AR, Teolan Tomson ES1AO.

In the name of amateur radio community, I take the liberty to say a big THANK YOU to those 3 legends.
We promise to keep our hobby in good shape for years to come.


Story compiled by ES1TU

We will use two online QSL platforms – LotW and eQSL.
We are happy to send out paper QSL cards. All paper QSL card requests must be done before 31st of May.
Requests made after 1st of June will be replied if QSL cards are still available.

Please be noted – We don't need your QSL cards.

Source:http://es100.eu/

Added by DO7FOX

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