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| ZS6P |
When radio amateurs hear "PAPA" on the airways it can only be none other than Tjerk Lammers, ZS6P. Tjerk, often known to overseas hams as Jack or Chuck (easier to convey over the air) has been an enthusiastic amateur for 18 years. He has always played an active role in the affairs of the Pretoria Amateur Radio Club and served as chairman in the years 1990/91/92/94 and 1997.
His home is just east of Pretoria, the Capital city of South Africa, is situated on a 5 acre property large enough to farm with Proteas, our national flower but more important it can accommodate with ease his 110-ft tower topped with a KT34-XA 5el. tri-bander and a 3el. 40M beam. The tower is linearly loaded for 160M. His very professional shack is equipped with-an IC-781 and other goodies. It is from here that he has qualified for many Amateur Radio Achievements, amongst others DXCC (276),WAS and WAZ. He is at present working on a his 5B DXCC and the country totals are at present:-
10m 240, 15m 172, 20m 229, 40m 216, 80m 111 with a country total DXCC of 307.
Tjerk is the owner of Lammers Garage, a motor company now specializing in automobile air conditioning and is the SA. distributor of Spectronics, Tracer and Frigette products.
Tjerk is married to Sylvia and they share an interest in traveling to "off the beaten track" destinations, working mobile from 3DA0, A22, Z2 and 9J2. He has also in the past participated in WPX and CQWW contests under the call A25/ZS6P from Botswana.
He has recently become interested in the Internet and his e-mail address is: tjerk@iafrica.com
Compiled by Kevin ZS6KPN.
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Hans ZS6KR is of Dutch origin and an enthusiastic Club member. His QRA is approximately 6 km N-E from the Pretoria city centre from which he runs a small company called QRV Technology as an electronic design consultant as well as doing small-scale production work and also a considerable number of TV repairs. Between 1963 and 1991 he was employed at a large research establishment in Pretoria and has experience in a very wide field of theoretical and applied electronic engineering.
His rig is always QRV on CW and regularly creates pile-ups. He is always game for a CW competition though lately time and stamina have let him down a bit. Some achievements since obtaining his licence in 1979 were six CQWW CW competition certificates, 5BDXCC, AAA, WAS, WAZ, WAJA and SARL awards.
His antenna mast support is probably the only one in the country mounted
inside the top of the house chimney filled with concrete as the SW was
not keen on the idea of a tower in the garden. His shack/office/lab is
right below the mast and sports a Kenwood TS940S, TL922 linear as well
as various other gadgets. He is also not averse to making his own peripheral
equipment.
As a PARC committee member he manages the PARC flea market activities
and conducts swap-shop every Sunday morning after the Club bulletin. He
is also a regular contributor of technical articles for the Club monthly
publication 'Watts'.
He is married to Bertha and has a son and daughter both now married and on their own. So far he has not been able to persuade any other family members to become amateurs. His son is a successful mechanical engineer and his daughter recently qualified for her MSc in genetic engineering. Hans considers himself 'semi retired' and regularly gives himself a half-day off. Much of his DXing occurs during the late evenings and way past midnight. Roughly 16000 CW QSO's are in the log since obtaining his licence.
| ZS6CRT |
Don Blackburn, originally from the North East of England has had an interest in radio/ TV and electronics (mainly mercenary) since commencing his apprenticeship in 1957 and was a student at South Shields Marine and Technical College Co. Durham, before moving to work in London and the West Country.
In 1974, Don arrived in South Africa with the advent of the SABC TV broadcasts, on contract as a service manager with a large TV Rental company in Johannesburg. In 1988 he decided to become self employed. Since then along with his SW Sue ZS6SUE they have run Teldon TV and Video Services CC in Garsfontein, servicing and repairing TV's, video machines and microwave ovens.
Ham Radio reared its long time dormant head in the 1980's when Don met some "Hams" and finally put down some roots at his present QRA, he became a member of the Pretoria Amateur Radio Club, then the Pretoria Branch of SARL and obtained his licence in 1987. On becoming a member of the committee he was appointed Awards Custodian and re-vitalised this activity in the Club. He wrestled the "Dessert Island Award" from his friend ZS6KO once and was awarded the "Piet Roos Award" for contributions to WATTS (trophys are in pic. above).
Don was elected to the Chairmanship in 1995 at a crucial time in the history of the SARL when Branches were to become independant Clubs. Pretoria Amateur Radio Club had its inaugural meeting on July 11th 1996 and Don was re-elected as Chairman.
As a keen 10m operator he was a founder member of the Springbok Chapter which was founded in Pretoria in March 1992 and was the certificate manager of the Chapter. In the shack Don runs a TS-450S/AT (100w only) into a Long John 5 element 10m beam or a homebrew 3 element tribander on 10-15-20m.
Don and Sue were married in 1977 and have two children, Samantha 20yrs and Jonathan 16yrs now ZR6JON. Sue ZS6SUE obtained her licence in 1989 and likes Dx-ing and ragchewing on HF from the QRA in Garsfontein East which is approx. 20kms due east from the centre of Pretoria.
| ZS6AQS |
Don Milner ZS6AQS became interested in amateur radio in his teens when the Mozambique music station L.M. Radio broadcast on short wave. While tuning around the band he would come across these guys (Hams) talking to each other and found himself to listening to them more and more, he then found out that one of these men stayed near to him, namely OM Andrew Mauchan ZS6CC, a Scotsman who would not go on SBB as he said it made him sound funny with his Scots accent.
Don contacted Andrew and asked if he could pay him a visit, he said yes, Don had never seen an amateur station before and was impressed and very interested. OM Andrew became his mentor and gave Don a great deal of help over the years.
Amateur radio took a back seat for a while, then a few years later Don moved from Vereeninging to Pretoria and passed the RAE. That first QSO was just the begining. Andrew is now silent key now but Don says he still thinks of that lovely Scots accent.
Some of the Awards Don has received are: WAZS, All Africa Award, Worked All States, Worked All Italian Provinces, WA-VK-CA, Golden Jubilee of DXCC. Also some 10-10 International awards. At the moment he is working on the 5BDXCC and needs to increase the country count on 40 and 80M.
Don is a keen 10m operator and is a founder member of Springbok Chapter Int. Net and Chapter Head of Springbok Chapter Int. an affiliated chapter of 10-10 International Net Inc. the only 10-10 Chapter on the African continent.
Since 1994 Don has been on the Club committee and holds the potfolio of software library manager. There are not many programmes that he does not know and he has assisted many members in this direction. Don is looking forward to work much more DX with his rig which is an Icom IC-781 and the antenna is a home-brew 6el log periodic for 28 to 14Mhz and for 7 and 3.7 Mhz due to space limitations he uses the HF2V a Butternut vertical.
