Lelia Constanța Băjenescu ( born 21 May 1908, Corlate,

Dolj Dolj County (; originally meant ''Dol(no)- Jiu'', "lower Jiu", as opposed to '' Gorj'' (''upper Jiu'')) is a county (județ) of Romania on the border with Bulgaria, in Oltenia, with the capital city at Craiova. Demographics In 2011, the coun ...

Kingdom of Romania The Kingdom of Romania () was a constitutional monarchy that existed from with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King of Romania, King Carol I of Romania, Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian royal family), until 1947 wit ...

― died 15 December 1980,

Craiova Craiova (, also , ) is the largest city in southwestern Romania, List of Romanian cities, the seventh largest city in the country and the capital of Dolj County, situated near the east bank of the river Jiu River, Jiu in central Oltenia. It i ...

, Dolj,

Socialist Republic of Romania The Socialist Republic of Romania (, RSR) was a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist One-party state, one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989 (see Revolutions of 1989). From 1947 to 1965, the state was ...

) was the first female

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency radio spectrum, spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emer ...

operator in Romania.

Biography

Born on May 21, 1908, in Corlate (

Oltenia Oltenia (), also called Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions – with the alternative Latin names , , and between 1718 and 1739 – is a historical province and geographical region of Romania in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Da ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

), daughter of Gheorghe and Smaranda Petrescu. In 1926 she passed her bacalaureat at the "Elena Cuza" high school in

. In 1929 she married Telecommunication officer Ioan Titu Băjenescu. He, being quite interested by radio technology, produced, in collaboration with dr. Alexandru Savopol of Craiova, the first Romanian amateur radio show on

short waves Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the High frequency, high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30& ...

on September 26, 1926. Together, they built the first

short-wave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (appr ...

transmission-reception radio station in Romania and laid the foundations of the CV5 radio club of Craiova in 1928. Lelia Băjenescu was intrigued by her husband's radio activities. With her solid education, ability able to speak

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

and

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

fluently, and well rounded culture, she quickly joined him. She learned the radio essentials and

Morse alphabet Morse code is a telecommunications method which encodes text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of th ...

by participating in the construction and commissioning of radio transmitter-receivers and mastered all of the key aspects of amateur radio. Soon she became the first female amateur radio operator of Romania, using her husband's

call-sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assig ...

, CV5BI. She contacted other radio amateurs from all over

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and even

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

from 1931 to 1933. She gave birth to Titu-Marius on the 2nd of April, 1933. He would later speak about his parents in an interview and an extended CV as the intro to his life's story.

Notes

References

* George Marcu, ”Băjenescu Lelia-Constantza (Lilly)”, in ''Femei de seamă din România de ieri și de azi'' (Notable women from the Romania of yesterday and today), Ed. Meronia,

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, 2017, p. 45-46, ; * George Marcu; Rodica Ilinca, ”Băjenescu Lelia-Constantza (Lilly)”, in ''Enciclopedia personalităţilor feminine din România'' (Encyclopedia of female personalities from Romania), Ed. Meronia,

, 2012, p. 45, ; {{DEFAULTSORT:Băjenescu, Lelia-Constantza 1908 births 1980 deaths Romanian radio people Radio pioneers Amateur radio women People from Dolj County