The first stanza of the Slovak national anthem goes,
There is lightning over the Tatras,
thunderclaps wildly beat.
Let us stop them, brothers,
for all that, they will disappear,
the Slovaks will revive.
I’m a Slovak-American, so I always look forward to getting QSL cards from the old country. In the latest package from the QSL bureau, I got four of them. None of the callsigns spell words, but they’re still pretty cool.
This card commemorates the 150th anniversary of the birth of Jozef Murgas, one of the early pioneers of radio.
The caption on this card reads, “Sunrise of the hill Klak.”
This card reads, “This castle built in 1340.” The castle that Pavel is referring to is Likavský hrad (hrad is Slovak for castle). It is situated in the north-western part of Liptov, which, we believe, is the province that my ancestors lived in. According to Slovakia Travel, “the Castle was referred to for the first time in 1315. Its construction started with the intention to have a guarding point over the passage across the river Váh and the trade route from the Váh Basin to Orava and further to Poland.”
The castle on this QSL card is Bratislava Castle. It stands 85m over the Danube River.
Bob VE3MPG says
Hi Dan, I was licensed as OK8AIO in 1990 in Kosice, Slovakia. I was posted there teaching at the university just after the Velvet Revolution. The gov’t issued my license and also allowed me to set up a digital packet station – the first time packet was used on the ham bands there. It was an exciting time to see democracy being established while the Soviets were still inside Slovakia. I watched the remnants of the Soviet army slowly wind its way out of the country via western Ukraine.
Dan KB6NU says
Thanks, Bob. That’s a great story. My wife and I visited Slovakia in the late 90s. We stayed for a few days in Bratislava, then took the train up to Zilina and spent a day there, returning to Bratislava via Piestany. I’d like to go back and spend more time there.