ZS6BNE's Blog

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ZS6BNE - My Morse Code (CW) Journey

Posted: 17 Jul 2020 08:18 AM PDT
https://zs6bne.wordpress.com/2020/07...de-cw-journey/



My good friend Mike ZS6MSW, promoter for CW in South Africa, asked for
stories like this. This is my story, a forty six year old story.




I was in high school and discovered ham radio through listening on a valve
shortwave radio to the South African Radio Leagues weekly bulletin
transmitted on Sunday mornings using the AM mode.




I joined the SARL, did a nighttime RAE course and wrote the written
technical and regulatory exam in November 1974. Morse code was compulsory
then for a ZS licence. My younger brother helped me by drilling me
constantly on the letters and numbers and their dot / dash equivalents. I
bought a hand key but cant recall what I used as a tone generator. I could
send well and pretty fast too BUT the method of learning was not as it
should be. I had no mentor. I took the 12 words per minute test at the post
office in Johannesburg. I battled with the receiving side but passed.
Having passed the RAE and the Morse code test I applied for my ZS licence
and got it after swearing an oath of secrecy in February 1975. By then I
was in standard nine.








My dad helped my buy my first transmitter, the Yaesu FL-DX400 and I had a
second hand KW77 communications receiver. I actually lost my first CW QSO
with a Rhodesian ham after he asked me to QSY to a different frequency, I
wasnt sure how to read the dial exactly! Working with a separate TX and RX
made it even more difficult.




I had to complete a whole year on CW before being allowed to use SSB. That
was a good thing of course. I had met up with a friend, John Smith ZS6BNS
and we had regular QSOs. John was at Wits university at the time. We became
such good friends that we alternated having Sunday lunch at each others
house most weekends.




I even had my station set up in the cupboard while in matric to make a
hidden QSO now and then. I used my bedroom window frame as an antenna but
of course the transmitter wasnt happy with that and I destroyed the finals.
I eventually gave the transmitter to Norman, ZS6ASL a technician that
worked for the SABC if I recall correctly. Norman home brewed the most
beautiful valve equipment. We lost touch over the years but John is still a
good friend of mine and we still occasionally communicate via Facebook.




All school leavers in South Africa then had to do compulsory military
training. I filled in the questionnaire and was glad to see questions like
your ability to send and receive Morse code. I was convinced that my
abilities would be used by the SADF when called up. I was called up to
Kimberley One maintenance unit, nothing at all to do with radio or the
Morse code. After basic training I was sent away to an ammunition depot and
spent my days there packing ammunition boxes into storerooms the size of
halls! Consignments to support the border war also needed to be packed
regularly and sent off secretly.




Sometime I had purchased a FT101EE and was paying it off with my monthly
army pay which wasnt much at all. I took it with me to the depot and set up
station there for weekends off time. I sometimes used the FT-101EEs mic PTT
button as a Morse code key and this impressed another soldier there who was
a doggy. They stood guard at night walking with their dogs and R1 rifles.
This soldier was Vincent who later became a ham and got the call sign
ZS6BTY.




I happened to have a QSO with Brian Austin, ZS6BKW, famous for his BKW open
wire fed antenna. Brian was a captain in the citizen force. Within a week
he had me out of the ammunition depot and I became a signaler, a radio
operator. Initially being called up for a year gave me six months being in
signals, that six months became another eighteen months as legislation
changed and everyone had to do two years national service.




After the army I went into the post office and trained as a telecom
technician. I took my station to the Post Office college at Olifantsfontein
where I stayed for three months at a time doing practical in between. I met
up with a ham and his wife who lived close by and was often invited for
supper. Hostel food was good but something different is always better.




In 1980 I met my wife and we were married later that year. I couldnt get a
transfer after qualifying as a technician so had to resign and in 1981
started work in Lichtenburg where I still stay now, with a cement company
as an instrument technician. The workshop was well equipped for building
PCBs and it was here where I built an electronic keyer and a paddle using a
hacksaw blade with perspex handle. I cant recall whether I used a proven
design or designed it myself. Logics (TTL / CMOS Gates) at tech was one of
my main subjects. The keyer and paddle lasted me till way after 1995
fifteen years later, together with the FT101EE I bought while in the army!
I sold the keyer after buying an Icom IC-706mkiig which changed my ham
radio world drastically. It of course had a built in keyer.








By the mid 1990s I had done a career change away from a technical field and
into computers doing systems programming and database administration on a
mainframe system.








Many of our local ham radio club members wanted to upgrade to a ZS so I
started giving Morse code lessons and after a few months many passed their
morse code test. A few are my good friends Gert ZS6SMI, Dave ZS6DDU and
Kobus ZS6RPJ. We lost some of our friends along the way R.I.P.




To be continued