During the 1980s, the radio operator known as VS6UW was well acquainted with the Soviet Union. Using the high-frequency band (3–30 MHz), he maintained daily contact with all fifteen Soviet republics, freely exchanging messages across the vast expanse of the USSR. Long before the republics declared independence in 1990, he had already earned a Morse code communication confirmation certificate. This document was adorned with the flags of all fifteen republics, alongside the iconic hammer-and-sickle emblem that symbolized Soviet unity.
The republics represented on that certificate were Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.