Bill Gunshannon wrote:
In article ,
Rob writes:
Bill Gunshannon wrote:
I think you mean PIxVRZ (PI1VRZ/PI8VRZ etc).
They have remained active very long but I think they are off the air.

Or you mean PA0VRC, a local amateur that has moved to another part
of the country but is still alive and kicking.
He built the local 2M repeater PI3PYR in 1977 or 1978 with some friends.

Nope, PA0VRZ from Apeldoorn. Bulletin station for "vereniging van
radio-zend-amateurs". I used to copy the bulletins on RTTY and
even talk with them once in a while.

Ok the VRZA clubstation. It is now called PI4VRZ.

I wonder why the callsign change?

At some point it was decided that all club stations would have a
PI4 prefix, and the existing PA0 calls were changed to PI4.

PI prefixes with other digits are/were used for repeaters, nodes, bbses
and other special applications.

Later a vanity callsign system was introduced and now all prefixes
from PA to PH are used by radio amateurs, and PI for special stations.

I used to do satellites, too. Might get back into that as well, but
it takes a lot more gear and a lot more money today. I worked mostly
the HF satellites inb those days especially the russian ones.

Not having a HF license, I set up a azimuth/elevation controlled set
of crossed yagis and later added computer control. Convenient for
the low orbiting packet satellites (that no longer exist). My
station could completely automatically find the next satellite that
would pass (out of 6 or so that were active), turn the yagis, set
the frequencies of the transceivers, watch for the corresponding
callsign to appear on packet, and upload/download the files that
were queued. It was like satellite UUCP :-)
Neat to build it and to watch when it was all running... but boring
after a while.

Great nostalgia. Talking with you brings back a lot of memories.

All the best.

bill
KB3YV

Yes, great! It was a nice time and good memories remain.

73/55,
Rob