Earlier this year, a lot of research was put in to find more about the history regarding call signs in Norway. One of several mail-threads led to talking with LB6AJ in LA4O, who recommended checking out the national archives in Oslo. The archives has a vast collection of documents from several governmental agencies, with “Teledirektoratet”, the precursor to today’s “NKOM”, being the most relevant for this purpose.
Photo: Store Norske Leksikon / snl.no
While visiting family in the area this summer, the post’s author decided to have a trip and see if there was anything interesting to be found. The national archives are located directly at the end of metro line 5, “Sognsvann”, so it’s not very hard to get lost. Before visiting one need to make a reservation the day prior of the dedicated boxes, so it’s ready when you arrive. For first time visitors, you’d also need to register in the lobby to receive a visitors pass.
folders gives a clue of how thick they were. Why yes, LA1K was the thickest by far.
Photo: LB5PI
When you arrive they bring out the little trolley of all the archival boxes you booked and are given a seat in the reading hall. To avoid you messing up the contents, you’re only allowed to bring one box down to the seat at the time. There are a few scanning machines avaliable for use, but for easier access I utilized the document scanner included with Google Drive on my phone. It is free, doesn’t watermark your pages and has a autoscan feature which hurries up the process. The only problematic part was when documents came stapled together, where manual pictures had to be taken and cropped, to not crease the original paper.
For the visit I booked several folders regarding everything that could be related to LA1K. This includes general correspondence, beacon permits, student radio permits etc. By general curiosity, the liberty was also taken to scan the folders of the closer affiliated clubs like LA2T, and more notable calls like LA1A, LA4YL (look for LA1Y and LA1YL). Unfortunately LA8PV wasn’t there, and as many calls have been reissued over the years, (especially the LA1x-series which have been very desirable for the NRRL-groups) some of the original proprietors of the calls were missing.
The original purpose of the trip was to hopefully discover a list of licenses issued, as there has been a rumour that LA1K was issued third in the country, while our permit clearly says 12th. If we are 12, and LA1A reissue is 737, there has to be a list somewhere right? No such list was found during this visit, (actually a very flawed one with obvious errors from the 60’s was) but no time was wasted in scanning the complete folders of LA1K and the several other call signs while visiting.
(Disappointingly it was actually “ARKO”)
Photo: LB5PI
We hope you found this little “radio-expedition” interesting, and as always – thanks for reading. A lot of the photos used were found online, as taking photos was an afterthought. None of the folders reserved were classified, so all interested are very welcome to visit at their own leisure.
Featured image details:
Entrance at the national archives in Sognsvann
Photo: Arete23 – Wikimedia Commons
Jeg sitter på en rekke interessante dokumenter etter LA4R. Dette kan altså være rette sted for å deponere disse….
Heisann Hans Arne, så hyggelig du leser innleggene!
Hmm godt poeng, jeg er ikke sikker på om de tar imot dokumenter, men det er vel bare å høre! Hvis ikke er det vel en mulighet å scanne dem selv og distribuere på egne nettsider evt.
– Sondre