I became interested in amateur radio when I was ten years old, back in 1983 in my native city of Kharkiv, Ukraine. Like many others, I started my journey as an SWL. Then, when it became clear that this hobby began to fascinate me more and more, my father brought me to the club station UB4LWB (UR4LWB after the ITU assigned Ukraine its own call sign block following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989) of the Regional Station of Young Technicians (Photo A). My first mentor was a great man, retired Colonel Victor Yarosh, RB5LA (later UT3LA, now SK).
It is important to note that I was born into a family of circus artists. Not
