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 (b. 1994) ZU6KB, Adrian (b. 1996) ZR6O (ex-ZU6A) & Wynand (b. 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 an 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.

I am a member of the SA Radio League (since 1976). Also member of EPC (#4654), DMC (#1564) , FH (#644).I was a member of the SA Police Reservists for 20 years and the XYL Lizelle ZS6LZL was a police officer for about 20 years as well until she joined me as a fulltime partner in our business.

If you want to QSL direct you are most welcome. A SASE and 1 or 2 of those famous US green stamps helps a lot to counter the postage and printing cost but I'll leave that up to you! BUT PLEASE NO IRC's! Our Post Office simply does not understand about IRC's and it's a waste of time to try and convince them. All you get is that star like someone looking for firewood in an desert

I am also on eQSL.cc, LoTW and HRDlog.net and log almost all the QSO's in real time. I do not QSL each and every QSO via the bureau but try and reply to all the QSL cards received via the bureau

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).

I am QRV on top band and 6m and spend a lot of time on JT65-HF.

73 de ZS6WN Karel

Polokwane Limpopo, RSA KG46sc

WE HOSTED ZS55PSG DURING THE JOTA 2012 WEEKEND FOR THE 1ST POLOKWANE SCOUT GROUP