Volgograd: Signals Along the Volga Bend

In Volgograd, a city whose name still resonates from its wartime past, the airwaves carry a quieter but no less enduring signal. The Volgograd Regional Branch of the Union of Radio Amateurs of Russia operates from Bogunskaya Street, its council led by Yuri Malyuk (RA4AR) — a man equally at ease behind a microphone or a committee desk.

A Council with Deep Roots

Malyuk’s deputy, Alexey Surkov (RT4A), and secretary Vladimir Navodchenko (RA4ACS) keep the organisation’s administrative pulse steady, while Nikolai Shelkovichev (RA4AAJ) doubles as head of the QSL bureau. The council’s roster reads like a call sign directory for the lower Volga, with veterans such as Sergey Barakh (R4ACY) and Evgeny Aganin (RC4A) anchoring the region’s amateur scene.

Weekly Rhythm on the Bands

Two nets define the local calendar:

• HF Roundtable — Tuesdays at 19:00 MSK on 3.708 MHz.

• VHF Net — Thursdays at 21:00 MSK on 145.550 MHz.

A single VHF repeater, RR4DA (145.625 MHz, sub-tone 203.5 Hz), covers roughly 50 km around Volgograd, a steady workhorse for mobile operators.

Open Doors and Shared Tables

Every Tuesday evening, from 17:00 to 20:00, the club welcomes visitors at Vershinina Street 22. The QSL desk operates in the same slot, and the qualification commission meets by appointment. These evenings often stretch beyond official hours, as logbooks and stories are exchanged over tea.

Here, on a great bend of the Volga, amateur radio is less about chasing exotic DX than maintaining a web of reliable, human connections — a continuity that outlasts the fading daylight.