Hi, some info about me: I was born on 26 July 1958 in a town called Middelburg, South Africa. My parents moved to the capital city, Pretoria in 1963, where I grew up and spent my childhood and up to my early adult life.

I became interested in ham radio at the age of 12 listening to shortwave on my old National Panasonic transistor radio which was given to me by my parents as a birthday present. This lead to me to becoming an active SWL. Some local hams (such as ZS6BDM(SK), ZS6KO, ZS6AZN(SK), ZS6BGX(SK), ZS6OH(SK), ZS6OG(SK), ZS6BAS (SK), ZS6WAS(SK), ZS6BLD, ZS6ZA(SK), ZS6ATK and many others) operated a regular net on 3600kHz AM (this net is still QRV on SSB). I spent hours listening to them. But SSB and CW were a problem. By accident I discovered that I could use another radio (I hijacked my sister's radio) close to the mine as a BFO to resolve SSB and CW, which opened a whole new world on SW.

Eventually I landed up writing the RAE at the end of 1975 at the age of 17. After passing the RAE I received my first callsign ZR6GP in January 1976. As this only allowed me VHF/UHF privileges I quikcly proceeded doing the morse code test, which I passed in April 1976 with the aid of Mannie ZS6AK. I was then issued with my previous callsign - ZS6BPJ.

As it was required to do one year CW only on HF before obtaining full privileges, I became hooked on morse code.

In 1986 I moved to Pietersburg, now called Polokwane, the capital of the Limpopo Province - the northern most province of South Africa.

I am married to Lizelle ZS6LZL. I have 4 children: 1 daughter Carné (born 1985), married to Gerrit, and my 3 sons - Karel (1994) ZU6KB, Adrian (1996) ZU6A & Wynand (2002).

Interests (other than ham radio): Outdoors/camping, wildlife, computers, DIY, sports (rugby, cricket, motorsport, golf- not active in sports other than as a spectator), labour law/trade unionism, geneology and a lot of other thing that tickles my interests.

During July 2004 I decided to apply for a shorter callsign and was allocated (by mistake) ZS6CN for a few days, but finally ZS6WN (the call belonged to a old friend, Christo, who wrote the radio amateur exam with me in 1975 and who now lives in Denmark (still without a OZ-call!!!)

Hpe to cu sn, either on the bands (CW or digital) or (sometimes) via the internet on Echolink.

73 Karel ZS6WN Member of the SA Radio League (since 1976). I was a member of the SA Police Reservists for 20 years and the XYL Lizelle ZS6LZL was a police officer until recently.

If you want to QSL direct you are most welcome. An IRC (new) or 2 green stamps helps a lot to counter the postage and printing cost but I'll leave that up to you!

I am also on eQSL.cc, LoTW (pse be patient here as I have a software problem), QRZ.COM qsl and HRDloget

BTW: I became hooked, purely by accident on Top Band since July 2006 and has since worked over 80 countries.

If you need to get hold of me for a sked, my mobile telephone number is +27 84 212 0733 (send SMS text message) or via email or try Skype (karelzs6wn) or MSN Messenger (Karel ZS6WN) or via ECHOLINK (ZS6WN).

(PS:

We have started our own labour law consultancy business in 2010 and due to this I'm not always as active as I wish to be.

My two eldest sons have also recently written the entry level radio amateur exam and are on the air with their new ZU (Class B) calls

At last I am QRV on 6m and worked about 44 DXCC's till 19 May 2012).

73 de ZS6WN Karel

Polokwane Limpopo, RSA KG46sc

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