Republic of Kosovo is Re-Establishing a Ham Radio Presence

Republic of Kosovo is Re-Establishing a Ham Radio Presence:
Well-known DXer Martti Laine, OH2BH, reports that the first Amateur Radio licensing course in the Republic of Kosovo is nearing its end; passing the license exam will pave the way for 10 Technical University of Pristina http://www.uni-pr.edu/ students to become licensed Amateur Radio operators. The course was supported by the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU http://www.iaru.org/) Region 1, and it used both Croatian and UK course material. Radio equipment is in place for students and local amateurs at the Amateur Radio Association of Kosovo (SHRAK), currently located on the university. The Yasme Foundation http://www.yasme.org helped the new association to get started.

"We had a superb field day with the students up at the mountain with generators and more," Laine told ARRL. "We also set up few new stations with locals. Great bunch!"

Amateur Radio in the former Serbian province fell victim to civil unrest and war during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, and hams were forced to go dark for more than 20 years. It's been a year since any substantive operation from Kosovo, which is not a DXCC entity, although Laine, operating as Z68BH, was active this month during the Worked All Europe DX Contest, for which Kosovo counts as a multiplier, and he reported making more than 100 contacts.

The equipment Laine used was given September 16 to Vjollca Belegu, Z61VB (ex-YU8AW), and she is expected to be the first female licensee active from the fledgling republic. Other licensees who had been active years ago using YU8 prefixes when Kosovo was still a part of Yugoslavia, have adopted Z6 prefix call signs, often using their former YU8 suffixes. Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008.....

Z6 Back On The Air