The arrival of Christ's messenger, John Paul II. to Slovakia was a big event not only in the church world, but also among the laity. We knew about the announcement that the Holy Father would come to us from the media (press, radio and television). Well, the fact that the whole world learned about this upcoming event and its progress in a different way than from public media, only a few insiders - enthusiasts know. Even in our parish, there are those who realized that the information about the visit of the Holy Father should have reached beyond the borders of the Slovak Republic.
In the Blumentál parish, there is a church electrical engineering school P.G. Frassati, which also includes a radio club with the OM3RMS brand. Radio amateurs establish connections with literally the whole world. They got inspiration from Polish and Ukrainian radio amateurs and asked to be assigned a special brand- OM9JP (John Paul). The point is that the person behind the transmitter is talking to other people with similar interests all over the world - that is, he is doing a mission, in this case the Mission about the coming of Christ's messenger.
To date, they have established over six hundred connections in less than three weeks - that is, with six hundred radio stations in more than fifty countries of the world (these are, for example, Jamaica, Mexico, the USA, Brazil, Argentina, but of course also the countries of Europe).
Connections are confirmed by sending the so-called QSL card, on which, in addition to the necessary technical data about the connection, there are also photographs characterizing the relevant event and the broadcasting radio station.
The radio club from our school will also send such cards with the likeness of the Holy Father to the whole world. There was only one radio station in Slovakia that worked from Bratislava under the brand name - OM9 JP.
The event met with great interest and response in amateur radio circles around the world. The radio club will broadcast under this brand until the end of September 2003, in order to announce to the world that Slovakia was home to one of the greatest personalities of the 20th and 21st centuries - Pope John Paul II, the messenger of Christ.
Ing. Jozef Štefík