EMRFD Message Archive 10226

Message Date From Subject
10226 2014-08-08 04:05:41 i7swx STEFAN, LZ1OV, SK – 1ST ANNIVERSARY

Hi all,


a few months ago there was a discussion in EMRFD and Stefan Petrov, LZ1OV, was mentioned. I know in the past many members of EMRFD group have been in contact with Stefan.  Stefan became a SK on August 8th, 2013, exactly one year ago. From news collected, after his departure, it looks like he decided to end his staying with us following some life difficulties. Stefan was jobless for several years and he could not find proper employement. 

His latest job was with a company installing photovoltaic panels for electricity generation, but due to bad WX (snow, ice, rain) in Bulgaria, during the autumn-winter seasons, only few months a years were valid for such installations. His income was not too good. During the winter 2012-2013, with a local tempest, a large tree felt over his house damaging the roof and part of the walls. Too much investment was required to fix all these damages and being jobless put him into an overstressed situation. 

He was able to find some PCB design for some italian hams but, as a limited income, it was more like having a tip for a coffee. I am sure he could not stand anymore such a situation and being alone, with no talk with friends, it was easy for him to QRT.


He was a good friend of mine since the year 2000 when he designed and produced the small PCBs for my 2T H-Mode Mixer till the late mods for the K3 mixer.


He studied chemistry at the University of Sofia. Due to the fact he did not enrolled himself in the Bulgarian Communist Party he could not attend to the Electronics courses (elite). One Professor, I forgot his name, was surprised by the interest of this young ham so he spent part of his free personal time to give Stefan a full course in Electrical and Electronics Engineering for free. 


Stefan could speak Russian, very similar to Bulgarian, English and Italian. He learnt italian, while working with a cable TV, watching the italian TVs programs redistributed via cable in LZ.


Stefan was in touch with many Hams world wide and his projects, work and help were very much appreciated. He has been member of the G-QRP also.


Ciao Stefan, RIP and 73 from all of your friends


Gian, I7SWX


10229 2014-08-08 08:20:56 billw77aaz Re: STEFAN , LZ1OV, SK – 1ST ANNIVERSARY
I was stunned to read the news of Stefano, LZ1OV. He loved radio and was a
very clever designer. Very sad.

W7AAZ
10232 2014-08-10 11:35:46 g3wie Re: STEFAN, LZ1OV, SK – 1ST ANNIVERSARY
I was also stunned by this announcement. I was wondering why I had not heard from Stefan for so long. Every few months we would exchange a few emails and each spring he would send me some beautiful photographs of the Bulgarian country and the birds - he loved photographing them as it showed the spring had arrived after their very long and very cold winters. Alas, I have lost these.

I first made contact with him in 2011 when I enquired about a two-terminal oscillator he had published in SPRAT (the journal of G-QRP). He said he had lost the files but would lay out the circuit again and make some PCBs. I bought about 40 from him, tidied up his description and made up some kits of parts, the G-QRP club published the article and sold the kits through their shop.

He seemed to love designing "just because" and he later sent me a circuit for a low level RF amplifier which again is a very different circuit to any I've seen before. I still have the PCBs and in his memory I have published the circuit in the files section in the G3WIE folder. He made some PCBs for this too, which I bought from him for about £1 and I have about 20. If anyone is interested in playing with one, let me know. I haven't made one of these myself.

We have lost a good friend of amateur radio. RIP, Stefan.

Chris
10235 2014-08-12 05:05:12 i7swx Re: STEFAN, LZ1OV, SK – 1ST ANNIVERSARY
Hi Chris,
I was wanting to contact you but I did not remember your callsign or your e-mail address.
Stefan must have suffered very alone his drama and decision. He was designing and producing all my PCBs and buying for me components in LZ as these were cheaper than in Eu or USA.
Thanks for dedicating the amplifier file to Stefan, I had such a circuit but never tried.
It is a big loss for the hamradio homebrewing and people.
73
Gian
I7SWX