This article was published in The DX Magazine in 1993; later some corrections and additions were made.
   Some of the readers may recall my travelogues published in the early 1970s, in various amateur radio magazines, describing a West African DXpedition through 11 countries, visits and operations in Turkey, Bermuda, Israel, Scandinavia, the Balkan Peninsula, the Caribbean islands, a tour of Western Europe, and others. These travels were made with my wife Eva WA2BAV. From 1975 to 1990 I was completely QRT, and while we were traveling quite a bit, we did not visit any hams and I did not publish any article. In 1990, in order to teach our children about the world, I returned to amateur radio and helped my daughter Diane and my son Tom to get their licenses: KB2KLV and KB2KRN.

PREPARING THE TRIP

   We decided to visit the Soviet Union and as many amateur radio operators as possible. Many years ago in 1956, when I was still living in my native Romania, I traveled through the European part of the Soviet Union and I met a few hams. Now we had bigger plans. Our schedule included Moscow and St. Petersburg in Russia; Kiev in Ukraine; Tbilisi in Georgia; Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bukhara in Uzbekistan; and Irkutsk in Eastern Siberia. I checked the brochures of several travel companies operating tours in the Soviet Union and I chose one offering more or less what I wanted.
   I wrote to ARRL asking if they had any information useful for an amateur traveling to the Soviet Union, and received the addresses of the Ministry of Communications and of the Radio Sport Federation of the USSR. None of them, however, answered my letters. I also received a list of participants to the International Travel Host Exchange that gave a call, name, and address of a ham in Dimitrovgrad, not listed in any Callbook. To my inquiry I received a letter, signed only with a callsign that was different from the one I wrote to, and it didn’t contain any usable information, but mentioned that the writer is interested in rock-n-roll music. I am not.
   The editor of QRV Quarterly supplied me with the name and call of an amateur in Moscow who, however, did not answer my letter; when I met him later he gave me a weak excuse. Useful information I received from Ed Kritsky NT2X, originally from St. Petersburg (Leningrad), with many contacts in the Soviet Union, who gave me some phone numbers to call. I sent my travel itinerary to 2-3 radio clubs and radio amateurs in all the eight cities we planned to visit asking for phone numbers and referrals, but very few answered. The best results I had were with amateurs I met on the air; they gave me their phone numbers and were willing to meet us.

 MOSCOW

   Neither the Central Radio Club (Box 88), nor the Moscow City Radio Club answered my letters. As I found out later they were staffed with people with old, pre-glasnost mentalities who were very cautious to meet westerners. Many of them were not even licensed amateurs; they were former army officers trying to keep their bureaucratic jobs by not making any political mistakes. When some local hams invited me to see the Moscow City Radio Club, they were embarrassed by the “nachalnik,” the club’s chief who exercised the most often heard verdict during the old system: “nelzya,” meaning that is not allowed. This prohibition, applied nowadays less often than in the past, is not accompanied with a plausible explanation or with an indication of its source. What was not allowed at one place, was fully acceptable in other places, if you can figure that out.
   For decades, amateur radio in the Soviet Union fell under the jurisdiction of DOSAAF, a paramilitary organization, that did a good job establishing clubs, giving them work spaces, hiring and paying their staff, supplying them with surplus military equipment, organizing courses, contests, printing QSL cards, running the QSL bureaus, etc. Lately, however, more and more amateurs dissatisfied with the old ways, are organizing independent radio clubs or seeking association with other institutional sponsors such as schools, factories, etc. Now DOSAAF does not exist anymore; it was replaced by a new organization but real changes are slow and minimal. The state reduced or eliminated most of the subsidies to amateur radio creating great financial difficulties for the radio clubs, QSL services, etc.
   Most of the amateurs I met in Moscow as well as in other cities were young; a new generation with open mentalities. First to visit was Dmitry (Dima) RA3AQ who is also the chief operator of the UZ3AWC club station. Dima is one of the few amateurs who owns a car, so he was the one who carried me and a few other hams from place to place. Once when four amateur friends were squeezed in the back seat of his small car so that I could sit comfortably in the front seat, a policeman stopped us and gave Dima a 30-ruble fine, which was equivalent to a 3-4 days salary for an engineer.
   Next I visited Igor (Harry) RA3AUU who quit the Moscow Telecommunications Institute at age 19 to organize his own company, in the spirit of free enterprise and perestroika. Later, after we returned home, I worked XY0RR, Myanmar/Burma, and to my great surprise, the operator was my friend Harry RA3AUU.
   Andy UA3AB was my next target; he was the only one in Moscow who answered my letter. He worked for a Soviet-American joint adventure company, and as one can expect, his English is quite good. Recently I worked Malyj Vysotskij 4J1FM, and the operator was Andy UA3AB.
   I also saw the station of Toivo RA3AR. He retired from civil aviation where he worked as a navigator and radio operator. Toivo is from Finland, but he has lived for many years in the Soviet Union. He is collecting photos of amateur radio stations from other countries. His wife Natasha RA3AP is an engineer, but being very busy with her job and housekeeping, she is not active on the bands. Staying on long lines at virtually empty food stores is a full-time job by itself.
   In 1956, when I was still living in Romania (I was YO2BO), I went to the Soviet Union for the first time. Then I met George UA3FM and I visited his home. I asked my friends to get me his phone number because I wished to meet him again. I was told that there are no phone books available in the Soviet Union and the phone company’s information service does not work well, thus it would be impossible to get the number. At the hotel, the clerk on duty at the information desk gave me the same answer; she would not be able to get his phone number. At my insistence she dialed 09, the information number, but it was busy. “See,” she said, “It is not possible.” “Try again,” I asked her, and she evidently got annoyed because she had to do some work, “You try it and you will see that is not possible,” she told me and gave me the phone. I did try it a couple of times until I got through and obtained the number I wanted. The point is that having difficulties in their ways of life and with the many obstacles created by their bureaucratic authorities, many people just give up and don’t even try. My insistence paid off, I could call George UA3FM and I saw him again, 35 years after our first meeting.
   I just happened to have with me a pair of 2-meter FM walkie-talkies and I showed them to my amateur radio friends. I loaned one to one of them for a night and I was able to stay in communications with him while I was driven to my hotel. Operating from a car is a very common activity in the U.S. and in many other countries, but in the Soviet Union where no mobile operation was allowed for many years, this caused quite a sensation. They don't have repeaters, and a very limited activity on 2-meter FM is being done on simplex mode; their equipment is bulky and heavy, not designed for mobile operation. Out of eight cities I visited, only in Moscow and Kiev I heard some 2-meter FM communications. We stayed at Hotel Cosmos, very big and modern, but located almost at the edge of town. From the window of my hotel room I made a few QSOs on 145.600 MHz simplex, with Leo UA3DR, Alex RA3AUP, Musa UV3AM, an astronaut who operated from space as U2MIR, and others.

KIEV

   According to the initial plan, published in the travel brochure, after Moscow we were supposed to go to Irkutsk. However, a month before our departure, Intourist, the Soviet travel organization, in its infinite wisdom changed the itinerary and we went to Kiev instead. This created a problem because after sending out copies of our initial schedule, I had to send out a second set with revised travel plans, and they did not arrive on time to their destinations.
   The Ukrainian Central Radio Club did not answer my letter asking for local contacts; however, one of its officers whom I met 35 years ago wrote me a private letter, asking me to send him an invitation to visit the United States with an affidavit of support. He expressed his desire to meet us, but when we got there and called him up, he got cold feet and did not even come to the phone. I understood his dilemma, on one hand he was anxious to meet us, but on the other hand he was worried of the possible consequences. Belonging to the older generation, he probably went through a great deal of hardship and did not trust the new freedom and openness.
   However, when we arrived at our hotel (named Intourist) three local amateurs were already waiting for us: Yuri (Jerry) UT4UZ, with whom I had many QSOs in the past, Igor UT4UX, and Vlad UT5ULY. Jerry UT4UZ, a young electronics engineer, is the chief operator of UT4UXW (contest call: RT1U), the club station of the Civil Aviation Engineering Institute, which prepares communications and electronics specialists for Aeroflot, the country’s huge national airline. Igor UT4UX is famous for his Tadjikistan DXpedition where he signed UT4UX/RJ5R and UT4UX/RJ5J. Vlad UT5ULY, with whom I had a QSO from New York just before the trip has a second hobby: speleology. They took me to their club station where I met Alex UB4JFJ, who came from Crimea to be part of the team operating during the IARU contest.
   I was invited to operate their club station (also called collective station) and made a few QSOs with U.S. stations and with a Romanian friend of mine, Stefan YO9HT. I promised QSL cards via my home call WB2AQC, and took a couple of blank cards with me.
   Until recently, the official maximum allowable power for Soviet stations was 200 watts. However, most of the military surplus rigs used by club stations, as well as by many individual hams, run 1,000 watts or more.
   When I had a QSO from my home with Jerry operating his club station, he was booming in. I inquired how much power is he using. He said “200 Watts.” When visiting the same station and seeing the big military equipment, I asked him about the power. Jerry said “1000 Watts.” I asked him why he told me on the air that he is using 200 Watts, he just pointed silently to the prominently displayed license.
   In general the Soviet amateurs use homemade receivers and transmitters supplemented sometimes with homemade or surplus linear amplifiers. During my trip I visited several clubs as well as individual stations, but I saw only very few factory-made, imported transceivers. Forced to design and build their own equipment, the technical level of the Soviet amateurs is higher than that of the many appliance operators found in more advanced countries.
   One evening, Yuri UL7ACI with his son Alex, a short-wave listener, UL7-179-190, and operator of UL8AWL club station in Sevchenko, Kazakh Republic, and Jerry UT4UZ came to my hotel. We had a long and interesting amateur radio reminiscence lasting the night.

TBILISI

      The first to answer my letters sent to several addresses in every city on our itinerary was Murad UF6FDS. In every travel brochure about the Soviet Union it is mentioned that the Georgians are the most agile, enterprising, and hospitable people in that part of the world. Indeed, as soon as our group arrived to Tbilisi airport and we were waiting for two very slow moving organizations to do their jobs: Aeroflot to unload our luggage, and Intourist to load it on the bus, Murad UF6FDS, and his friends Kako UF6FLB, and Misha UF6FLC, were already welcoming us.
   We stayed at Hotel Iveria in the center of the town, and as in every city we visited we took a couple of sightseeing trips. I front of the hotel I noticed some tourists speaking Romanian; they were from YO-land. I asked them if anybody was from Timisoara, my hometown. They told me that there was an old man from that city. The next morning during breakfast I went to the hotel’s restaurant where the Romanians were eating and among a group of young men and women I saw an elderly gentleman. I asked him if he was from Timisoara, he answered in the affirmative and invited me to sit down. I accepted and we talked about 15 minutes before we realized that we were childhood friends who hadn’t seen each other for about 40 years!
   Murad UF6FDS took me to his club station UF7FWA where I made about a dozen QSOs, one of them with YP0A, a special call used by my friend Gabi YO6JN. Later we visited UF7FWR, the club station of the local railroad workers where again I made a few QSOs. The chief operator of this club station is Merab RF6FFT, and we also went to see his home station. Next we saw UF7FWW, the Friendship World Wide Radio Club, which is using the special call UF0FWW in contests. The chief operator of this club is Alick UF6FFF, with whom I had QSOs in the past; thus it was a double pleasure to meet him. At the club I also met Shalva RF6FC, Nick RF6FHY, Mike UF6FAL, and Alim RF6FO, whom I met before, but he could not come with us because he could not find gas for his car. Indeed I saw in Tbilisi long lines of cars waiting to buy gas, which was in short supply. Ironically, Georgia, located right near Azerbaijan with its rich oil fields, does not have enough gas for the small number of cars its inhabitants use. The Georgians claim that besides the chronically bad distribution system, this shortage is due to the fact that Moscow does not allocate enough goods to this independent-minded nation.
   The official rate of exchange was 27.6 rubles for one dollar, and unofficially one could get even more. This was not bad for us considering that the average monthly income in the Soviet Union was about 200 rubles. However, besides a few souvenirs there are very few desirable things one can find and buy. A year later the exchange rate was already 300 rubles to a dollar and climbing.
   One evening Murad invited my family to the wedding of a friend. While there are all kind of food shortages, and even the meals served in first class restaurants reflect this situation, the abundance and variety of food served at this wedding was amazing. All evening, various toast masters stood up and toasted virtually every saint in every calendar, to every host and guest individually, to every nation and religion they could think of. When my turn came there was nothing left to toast but Georgian yogurt, which I had seen referred to on American TV. However, I was misunderstood, and that night, when we were already asleep in our hotel room, Murad’s wife Natasha came with two large jars of this very tasty concoction, believing probably that I am into yogurt worshiping.
   To illustrate the harmony and cooperation between Aeroflot, the giant Soviet airline, and Intourist, the unique Soviet tourist organization, both having the monopoly in their fields, I will describe one of our experiences. Our group was scheduled to leave Tbilisi for Tashkent on a 4 a.m. early morning flight. We packed our luggage the night before, got our wake-up call at 1 a.m., and received little packages with our breakfast, since the hotel’s restaurant was not open that early. We were bused to the airport to find the offices dark and the doors locked. Finally our Intourist guide located a sleepy Aeroflot employee who informed us that our flight was postponed for 24 hours. Intourist hadn’t checked with the airport about our flight, and Aeroflot hadn’t informed Intourist about the delay. We were bused back to our hotel and we stayed one more day in Tbilisi. We were told that such situation are rather common, and flights leaving on time, at least in this part of the country, are quite rare. In the airport’s waiting room we saw hundreds of people sleeping on chairs, tables, store counters, and floors, some waiting for days to catch a plane to their destination. The trouble with these two organizations is symptomatic of many similar corporations and institutions in the Soviet Union; having no competition and because not too much criticism is allowed against state-owned companies, they don’t have any incentive to improve their performances.

TASHKENT

    Our group had two stays in Tashkent, the capital city of Uzbekistan; first when we came from Tbilisi, and then we left for Samarkand and Bukhara, and the second when we returned from Bukhara, before taking off for Irkutsk. Both times we stayed at Hotel Uzbekistan.
   During our first journey I called up Valera (Larry) UI9ACP, but he was out of town. He was the only one from this republic to answer my letter; I got his address from the Callbook. Through the hotel’s information desk I got the phone number of the DOSAAF radio club and talked with the “nachalnik,” who was not a licensed radio amateur. I told him that I would like to meet with local hams and visit their stations. He was very suspicious and asked many questions. Finally he agreed to meet me in front of my hotel. When he did not show up, I went back to my room trying to figure out how could I meet some amateurs. I received a phone call from Mike UI8AFA, who said that he was the chief operator of UI8AWY club station. He called for the DOSAAF boss and asked more questions about why I wanted to visit their clubs, why I wanted to photograph their equipment, etc. He declined my invitation to meet him and said that I could not visit their club station. Later the DOSAAF boss called again and agreed to meet me on the street, in front of the hotel. He came, and I showed him my scrapbook with photos of amateurs I visited around the world, and articles I published in QST, CQ, and even in the Japanese CQ Magazine. He seemed convinced that I had honorable intentions and promised to organize a meeting with local amateurs and a visit to their club station when I was to return to Tashkent in a couple of days. Needles to say, he never called again, and because our second stay fell on a weekend, I could not reach him.
   Fortunately for me, I called Larry UI9ACP again, and he was home this time. He came to pick me up right away. He took me to UI9AWX, the club station of an airplane factory. There I met Lev UI8ACI, (contest call: RI7A), who is one of the best-known Soviet champions in high-speed telegraphy. Lev showed us a great number of medals he won at various national and international championships. Later I went to see Larry’s station UI9ACP, and to meet his family.
   Tashkent has the most beautiful subway stations in what was called the Soviet Union (now called the Commonwealth of Independent States), and perhaps in the world. Some of them are much prettier than most of those in Moscow, Kiev, or St. Petersburg (Leningrad), which are much older. While photographing the stations in other cities is allowed, in Tashkent is prohibited. What is the reason for it? Don’t even try to figure it out; I tried and got nowhere. I asked the clerk at the hotel’s information desk if it is true that photo taking is not allowed in the subway (called Metro in the Soviet Union) stations. She seemed troubled by my query and answered with another question: “With what group are you?” “What is the difference?” I asked her, “It should be one single answer, regardless to which group I belong to.” I continued trying to get a reply. “Go, and ask your guide,” was her final word and this was a typical case; many people in official capacities often tried to deflect questions directed to them to somebody else. Ironically, this happened at the information desk set up to answer questions.
   Getting a taxi in Tashkent is perhaps more difficult than in many other Soviet cities, and nowhere is it easy except in front of the big international hotels, where the drivers hope to get paid in hard currency. The technique is to try to stop an empty taxi, tell the driver where you want to go, and he will tell you if he wants to go there or not.  With Larry we stopped about 10 taxis but none of them wanted anything to do with us. There are many private cars that sometimes double as taxis, but the routine is the same: the traveler is at the mercy of the driver. A pack of Marlboros or a dollar bill will work miracles; a taxi driver may kick out the local passengers he already has to accommodate one with a pack of American cigarettes.

SAMARKAND

   From Tashkent we flew to Samarkand where we stayed two days. The only hotel in town for foreigners, also named Samarkand, is very big. It has 11 floors, and like many of the hotels in this country, it has bad plumbing, often without hot water, and either inadequate flushing or water running continuously.
   The architecture of the old city with its madrashas, mosques, and minarets is picturesque, but I am not convinced that it is worth coming to Central Asia for it. I would prefer to see them on TV, on a National Geographic Special.
   The Intourist guide, who accompanied us during the entire trip, obtained the phone number of the local DOSAAF radio club from the phone company information service. I called them up, and soon three amateurs came to the hotel: Igor UI8IAY, Vlad UI8IAQ, and Oleg ES1RA/UI8I. Igor has operated from rare oblasts as UI8IAY/UI1C, /UI1T, and /UI8V. Oleg, formerly UR2RCU and UR3RA, from Tallin, Estonia, is also a DXpeditioner who in 1990 operated from exotic places like UM1M, UM2Q, UM3N, UI4O, and UI5F, and now he just finished his operation from UM6A, UM7P, and UI8I. For March 1992, Oleg was planning to work as JT1/ES1RA, but I don’t know if he has succeeded. We all went to see UI9IWA, the Central Radio Club Station in Samarkand where I was invited to make a few QSOs. With all the bad propagation I managed to work a couple of European and Japanese stations. The crew of this club station operated UM3Q/UI9IWA from oblast 033 in Kyrgyzstan.
   My wife Eva WA2BAV, and our children Diane KB2KLV, and Tom KB2KRN, took all the sightseeing tours organized by Intourist, while I missed some of them in order to meet with local hams and visit their homes and club stations. In some instances, while driving to my amateur radio destinations, I saw some of the more interesting sights. However, I missed all the shows our group was taken to, such as the Moscow Circus, a French ballet at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, the opera La Traviata in Kiev (sung in Russian), I did not mind missing that one, an Uzbek folk show in Tashkent, and the Kalinka song and dance show in St. Petersburg. I will always gladly give up one hundred dancing bears for a chance to operate from Uzbekistan or from Siberia. The group also saw the Swan Lake ballet with canned music instead of a live orchestra; one more budget cut and they will only show slides of the dancers.
   I have to mention that glasnost or openness is not equally perceived everywhere and by everybody. The younger generation is more progressive than the older people who have experienced more repression and therefore are more cautious in dealing with new issues such as meeting with foreigners and inviting them to their homes. Generally speaking, those in official positions, such as the people working for DOSAAF, the organization supervising most of the amateur radio activities, are much more conservative than those working in other professions. Many of the DOSAAF employees are former career officers who lack initiative, and they are always waiting for instructions from their superiors.

 BUKHARA

   From Samarkand we took a bus to Bukhara, and in about five hours we arrived. We were housed in a big hotel bearing the name of the city. The ham in this town to whom I wrote did not answer my letter so again I obtained the phone number of the local DOSAAF radio club. From the club I got the number of Karim UI8LA, the president of the Bukhara Radio Club, who was recuperating at home after an accident. I talked with Karim and he sent Igor RI8LBV to my hotel. Igor was running the club station of the Pioneers’ Palace. This is an educational institution, with after-school programs, where children learn subjects usually not included in their regular curriculum, such as amateur radio, computers, woodworking, model making, playing various musical instruments, chemistry, painting, and other crafts and hobbies. Almost every town or city has at least one Pioneers’ Palace or Pioneers’ House. I am familiar with this kind of activity because in the 1950s I taught amateur radio and was the chief operator of YO2KAC, the club station of the Pioneers’ Palace in my hometown of Timisoara.
   Igor RI8LBV had a friend, the second secretary of the Regional Committee of Komsomol, the Communist Youth Organization, whose offices were directly in front of hotel Bukhara. We paid him a visit and he loaned us a car and a driver to take us on our ham visiting tour. It was quite amazing to me to see such understanding of glasnost in the heart of the leading political machinery.
   First, we went to see UI9LWC, the club station of the Pioneers’ Palace. It was in good working order, but the propagation was very bad. Near the radio room was the computer room were we saw children playing video games on about a dozen IBM-type computers made in Taiwan. Then we drove to Igor’s house to photograph his station RI8LBV which weeks before was used by two American hams on a DXpedition. The next stop was Rakhmat UI8LB, who despite being an invalid and confined to a wheelchair, had built a professional-looking and excellent station. The last stop was at Karim’s house to meet him and see his station UI8LA. All the stations I saw were homemade and worked very well. Some amateurs had simple wire antennas; others had built big Yagis or Quads.

IRKUTSK

   From Bukhara we flew back to Tashkent for our second stay which I already described. From Tashkent, according to our schedule, we were supposed to fly on a certain day to Irkutsk, in Eastern Siberia. Then we found out that our tickets were for the next day’s flight so we extended our stay in Uzbekistan’s capital. Fortunately we did not go to the airport in vain as we did in Tbilisi. Even the flight to Irkutsk has some uncertainties, it was not clear if were going to refuel in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan, or fly non-stop. This was one of the many clues revealing that Aeroflot flies in mysterious ways.
   I was worried that I would not be able to meet amateurs in Irkutsk. From New York I wrote to a club station and two individual hams whose addresses I found in the Callbook, but I received no answer. Later when I met one of those hams he said that he still hadn’t received my letter. At the Intourist hotel where we stayed I found an old phone book listing only institutions. There were about five DOSAAF radio clubs listed but none of the numbers proved to be good. Finally, with the assistance of a helpful hotel employee, I located a DOSAAF secretary who called some local amateurs. The first one she called told her frankly that he would very much like to meet with the American amateurs but was afraid that he might be punished for it. So much for glasnost. The second one, Serge UA0SR, ex UA0SGL, the president of the Irkutsk Amateur Radio Club, agreed to come to the hotel but, I suppose, just to be on the safe side, instead sent Leonid UA0SU, the vice-president of the same club. Leonid took me to Serge UA0SR to see and photograph his station, and then we drove to Leonid’s father, Arsen RA0SK. Arsen is short for his last name Arsentjew; his first name is Innok. Arsen, whose father was Russian and mother Chinese, lived for many years in Mongolia, were he taught physics at the University of Ulan Bator. From 1963 to 1983 he was active as JT1AN.
   We often hear complaints that the Soviet amateurs don’t QSL or they QSL with great delay. But let’s first look at our backyard; we Americans have much better financial situations and a better-organized system for outgoing and incoming QSLs than the Soviets do, and still we are not very reliable in QSLing unless we need a card in return. A heavy bureaucracy burdens the Soviet QSL system. For decades all their incoming and outgoing QSLs had to go through Box 88 in Moscow where every envelope was opened, and according to consensus, IRCs and green stamps were removed. In later years many Soviet amateurs dared to send QSLs directly and asked that cards be sent to their own post office boxes or home addresses. The majority, however, relied on the old system, which is cheaper but much slower. Imagine the perils your cards are going through by traveling first through the ARRL outgoing QSL bureau, where are sorted, packed, and sent the cheapest way to Moscow. There they are sorted again, packed, and mailed to the capitals of various republics, and the process continues to the regional, county, and the city centers before they reach their final destinations. Then the amateurs have to go to their clubs to pick up their cards. If they have cards printed privately, which is very difficult, or if they have some standard cards received from their radio club on which they have to add their own callsigns, they can answer your cards and mail them to you through the same long and complicated process. At the Moscow City Radio Club I saw amateurs searching through thousands of cards to find theirs. The lady employed to do that job was busy doing nothing. Once they decentralize their QSL traffic, the exchange of QSLs with Soviet hams will be much faster. Nowadays most of the independent republics are organizing their own QSL bureaus.
   From the tourist point of view I could not get excited about Irkutsk. Intourist took us on a hydrofoil cruise on Lake Baikal, but during my travels I was taken on so many cruises, on so many lakes that I am really tired of them. If you’ve seen one lake, you’ve seen them all. The only good part of these cruises is getting on the boat and finding a comfortable seat to have a quiet siesta, and the getting off the boat. I was disappointed because I felt that a guided tour at one of the Siberian Gulags should have been included in our sightseeing trip, because that’s what Siberia is famous for, but Intourist gave us a lake instead.

ST. PETERSBURG (Leningrad)

   From Irkutsk we flew to Moscow, waited for our luggage to be loaded onto a bus, and then drove almost two hours to another airport where the luggage was unloaded from the bus and loaded on another plane going to St. Petersburg, formerly called Leningrad. The whole day was wasted with flights and transfers. Here is a chance to make another plug for Aeroflot; they served a meal, which was average for their standards, but they did not give us any forks, just knives. When we asked the stewardess for forks to handle the sardines, they thought that we were too spoiled and refused. The Russians ate everything without any fuss, using their knives, their fingers, or just licking their plates.
   I had a few phone numbers of amateurs living in St. Petersburg, and as soon as we got to our hotel rooms, I started to make calls. Some of the numbers were not good; many people were not at home; perhaps they were at work or on vacation. Finally I reached Vladimir UA1AKC, who uses the name of Axi, short for his last name Axeonov, and Arno RV1AW, whose real first name is Andrew. Axi is a young electronics and communications engineer and Arno will soon graduate from the Institute of Communications. They took me to their club station, UZ1AWT, which uses RZ1A as a special contest call. This club belongs to the Leningrad Institute of Aircraft Instrumentation; the chief operator is Alexandr UA1ALZ, a professor of electronics. First, we all went up to the roof to have a close-up view of their very impressive antenna farm. Then we went to the radio station where a couple of operators were working: Sergey and Alexey who are short-wave listeners, and Dmitry UA1CFL, who also has an American call KA1WPO, obtained during his visit to the U.S.
   In 1990, the UZ1AWT club station teamed up with W1AF, the Harvard Wireless Club of Cambridge, Massachusetts, for a joint Soviet-U.S. amateur radio venture. Twenty operators from these two countries (one was Ognyan LZ2PO) operated this station for ten days in May as US1A, making about 21,000 QSOs. Later in the fall of 1990, a team of this St. Petersburg (Leningrad) club visited and guest operated W1AF, the radio club of Harvard University. If this is not “glasnost” amateur radio style, then what is it?
   With Alexandr, Axi, and Arno we went to see Victor UV1AA, ex UA1AFZ. Victor’s last name is Stroganov, but he denied any connection with the awful meal called Beef Stroganov. His equipment is also homemade and excellent. It is virtually impossible to obtain factory-made equipment from abroad because the ruble is not convertible, and it is also very difficult to find parts to build a homemade rig. In Victor’s radio room it was quite dark and I had difficulty focusing my camera. I asked him if he could put a stronger bulb in the light fixture, and he answered that the only bulbs, which can be found in stores, are the 25-watt type. If they can not find a 100-watt light bulb, how can they get a crystal filter or a power transistor? Nevertheless, with all these limitations they seem to manage quite well.
   Next evening I went to see Yuri UA1LE. On the air he uses the name George. Yuri/George is an electronic engineer and he built a very professional-looking transceiver. From 1948 to 1953 he operated in Vladivostok as UA0LE.
   Now a word about those individuals some people call black marketeers, while others call them elements of the free-market system. I cannot call them black marketeers because this name has a connotation of some illegal activity. Everybody can see them around the big hotels with foreign guests and near points of interest for tourist, within plain view of the authorities who tolerate them. They are mostly men, young, energetic, and very pushy, and they offer the tourists all kinds of souvenirs at prices much higher than in the regular state-owned stores, but lower than at the special Beriozka hard-currency stores. I saw on Nevsky Prospect, in St. Petersburg, such an entrepreneur buying Matrushka dolls for 30 rubles a set in a state owned-store, then walking one block to a square where foreigners bus souvenirs, and selling the same dolls for US$10, about 300 rubles. They also peddle lacquered boxes, T-shirts, cans of caviar, watches, army and navy caps, etc. and they make good money. These are the people who soon will open private stores, then factories to make the products for those stores. They are the pioneers of the free-market system in the Soviet Union.
   The work of some of these free entrepreneurs, although illegal, is common knowledge, and is performed even better than of some of their American counterparts. They come right to the hotel lobbies and restaurant dining rooms and peddle tickets for theater and sporting events. They ask for hard currency and the prices could be 30 times the original cost. Do American scalpers make house calls?
   At the airport in St. Petersburg we checked our luggage through a connecting flight to Helsinki, all the way to our destination: New York City. We were lucky and found it at our arrival. As I heard later, a few suitcases belonging to people in our group were sent on extended trips to London, Toronto, etc. Other baggage came to New York on a later plane, inconveniencing the passengers who had to continue their journeys. I suspect that many of them will mention Aeroflot in their prayers for a long time.

CONCLUSION

   A trip to what was called the Soviet Union can be costly, depending on the chosen itinerary and length of stay. The best deal is to go with a group and have everything prepaid and prearranged. When we arrived at the Moscow airport, an officer checked our passports and visas, which were given on, separate pieces of paper and said “Oh, Amerikanski tourist!” “Da, da.” I answered. “Yankee imperialist, do you remember?” Oh, da, Yankee imperialist,” he said, then he quickly corrected himself “Nyet, nyet, now Amerikanski friend.” On a positive note, not one single piece of luggage was opened at customs, neither upon arrival, nor at departure.
   The Intourist restaurants are fun places to see, not necessarily to eat in. Courses are served so far apart I could take short sightseeing trips in between. During meals some waiters peddle caviar (called ikra), vodka, amber necklaces, or they even offer to exchange dollars at free market rates. Sometimes they make supplemental income for themselves by charging extra for various food or beverage items normally included in any meal. For example, one morning in Moscow we were sitting six to a table. Some of us were neither coffee nor tea drinkers so we declined the waiter’s offer. For those who accepted, he poured a half a cup of coffee, but when one of our tour members asked him to fill up his cup, the waiter asked to be paid for a second cup. The tour member tried to argue that it was not a second cup, it was just a full cup, and asked how can one pour two cups of coffee in a single cup. “No rubles, no coffee,” was the authoritative answer. He did not even consider giving the coffee drinker the coffee prepaid, but declined by the non-drinkers.
   In St. Petersburg, one morning they served a very skimpy breakfast, without any water. I asked the waiter if I could get some water. “Certainly,” he said, “Just give me a ruble.” So I gave him the ruble; who am I to argue with the law of the land? He brought the water after we finished our meal and we were on our way out. Some of the meals served were not edible, some of the drinks were not drinkable, but we did not go to the Soviet Union to get fat.
   It’s not only the little guy who is trying to make a buck. Intourist as an organization, and many of its employees, are really taking advantage of foreign tourists. In Moscow, when we visited the Kremlin, we were offered an option to see the Armory, one of its museums, supposedly not included in our prepaid package. Our Intourist guide collected $3.00 per person, more then 80 rubles at the official rate of exchange, and gave us tickets showing the entrance fee of 1 ruble.
   The ladies of the evening, which is a misnomer because they work all kinds of shifts, are another reality whose existence was denied for a long time by the authorities. They hang around big hotels and approach foreign-looking men. They are quite aggressive trying to drum up business, but I found a foolproof method to get rid of them. I would tell them that I was from Romania and I have Romanian currency; they would drop me in a second; they want only hard currency, and the Romanian money is as good as their ruble.
   While in the hotel in Moscow, I received a few phone calls from a girl asking for Ibrahim. At the beginning I denied that I am Ibrahim, but later to get rid of her tempting offers, I agreed to meet her next day at the Embassy of Saudi Arabia. “Just ask for Ibrahim” I told her being convinced that there will be plenty of Ibrahims there.
   Visiting local amateurs is easy, but one has to be prepared with lots of phone numbers. Guest operating club stations is generally allowed without any written permission. Getting a formal license can be done through the Central Radio Club in Moscow, but a local sponsor can speed things up. In some remote or independent-minded republics operating permits can be obtained locally.
   There are two radio magazines published: Radio, published since 1924 by the Ministry of Communications and the Central Committee of DOSAAF, and Radio Ljubitel  (Radio Amateur), started just a couple of years ago by INFOTEH, a cooperative publishing house in Minsk, Belarus. In 1991, INFOTEH also published the first comprehensive Soviet Callbook, in English and Russian, listing about 50,000 amateurs and their calls and addresses.
   Big Social, political, and even cultural changes are taking place in the Commonwealth of Independent States, and while the transition period is long and difficult, the situation will be improving.
   Traveling through various republics of this huge conglomerate was a tiring, but pleasant and enriching experience, what, however, I don’t desire to repeat too soon.