ZS5SAM's Amateur Radio History

I have been a radio ham since 1994 but my interest started in 1975 when I was in BoyScouts and attended a Jamboree on the Air at a Hams Home (The late ZS5OJ Dennis Logan) - After the JOTA I approached him for lessons and all went well but for some reason I never did the Exam and it was only 19 years later, after meeting my wife's Uncle, who turned out to be a ham, that I decided to do the exams. As he is from Florida (USA) he could however not provide me with the details I needed here in South Africa.
At the time I was living in a small Town called Vryheid, and with no local Hams around, had no clue as to who I had to contact to get the relevant information. I eventualy got the number of an Amateur Radio Club about 350km from my QTH and contacted them. They sent me all the relevant details as to exam fees and dates, where to get the study material etc. On receiving my RSGB Study Handbook I got started straight away and wrote my Exam 6 weeks later. I was issued the call ZR5FA and was fortunate enough to receive a gift of a new Kenwood TR751 2m xceiver from my Father.

I set about building a 6 element ZL Special for 2 meters and slowly but surely started to discover 2m activity. The closest Hams to me were 120km away and contacts were very limited. A few weeks later I procured a 14m tower an Mirage 160W linear amp and built a 16 element ZL Special, from then on things became remarkably better as I could now reach repeaters up to 300km away and spoke to a lot of Hams who gave me guidance.
One of my first contacts was Jo - ZR5PO who gave me a lot of guidance and in time became a very close friend.
As I became more involved in the hobby I settled on 6m DX and Satellite communication as my main interests. On the Sat front I had many successes which included many Leo contacts as well as 3 STS contacts and more than 300 MIR QSO's.Sat activity in South Africa was not very active which made for many AOS to LOS contacts with Mir. More recently I have also had a QSO with Susan Helms aboard the ISS.

6m DX has been much more of a challenge as openings are seasonal and also less frequent than in the ZS6 region. Despite that, I have managed to contact over 44 different countries in the last few years and enjoy the challenge, patience and skill it takes to make 6m contacts.

Compare this to HF where it took me only 1 week to achieve the same result. This does not mean that HF DX is easy, but merely that the bands are more active and of course there is more spectrum and associated propegation.
My other interests are experimenting with digital modes like PSK31, SSTV and AX25 packet and homebrew. My Homebrew project are relatively simplistic in nature due to the fact that I like to experiment and make changes and mods etc. thus my "biggest" project to date has been a 440Mhz transverter, with the bulk of my time being spent on simple projects like Vox units, PC to Xceiver interfaces and low end DF equpment.
I have been a memeber of the SARL and the Durban Amateur Radio Club since 1994 and was also a member of SA Amsat until it came unstuck somewere in the 90's. I was a founding member of the Highway Amateur Radio Club, Zululand Amateur Radio Club as well as the Noord Natal Amateur Radio Club.
In February 2002 I finaly got to doing my CW and converted from ZR5FA to ZS5SAM. (Sam is the abreviated form of my eldest daughters nam - Samantha. I should have know better as now most people end up thinking that my name is Sam.

My Station and 50Mhz Contacts.

My station consists of a Yaesu FT726A with 100W amps and preamps on 6m, 2m and 70cm's. I use a Cushcraft 4 element beam for 6, a 16 element ZL Special for 2 and a switchable cross polarised beam for 70cm. This constitutes my 6m DX and Satellite station. Currently the elevation control is lying in my shack as I have not had the opportunity to re-install it since my move to Durban.
The Kenwood TR751-A is my main 2m transceiver, used for 2m SSB DX and general FM and digital coms (MFJ1278 -TNC)- It feeds a 160w Mirage Amplifier, when required, which is not to often these days.
The Kenwood TM733-A is my general 2m/70cm transceiver that gets used for anything from voice, packet, cross band repeating to just scanning the bands. This set was bought for it's cross band repeat ability, as I use to carry my TH-79 hand held around town and then communicate via the TM733 back home to repeaters hundreds of km's away. (this was in my bushveld day's, before my move back to the City) My Icom IC751-A is my trusty HF set and feeds a 3 band vertical dipole and a simple wire antenna.

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