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Dear OM, There is still much to do on these homepages but it is a start. I "Grabbed" the images out of my video camera and then compressed them to save download time. For a panoramic view of the station click HERE) My brother Roy Larsen (ZS6QU) and I, David Larsen (ZS6DN) are amateur radio experimenters and operators. We are both in our sixties and retired. It all started on July 19th 1879 when, after the untimely death of their father, Sivert Andersen, the three grandchildren of Anders Tollevsen Salbu left Bergen (Norway) on the Sailing Ship Debora and settled in Port Natal. An important part of the mission of the Debora members was that "all would endeavour to create new economic activities" - amateur radio was to become one of the significant "stepping-stones" towards meeting this objective. The Larsen family finally settled south of Durban where they purchased a 1030 acre farm - lot 8 of Oribi Flats. In the early 1900s three of Anders Tollevsen Salbu's great-grandchildren - the cousins Johan Thorvaldsen (ZS5B), Gustav Larsen (ZS5DN) and Sivert "Wireless Windy" Larsen (ZS5BE) - became dedicated radio amateurs and established experimental "ham" radio stations in Natal. Windy's receiving station was licensed in 1924 and the transmitting station on April 13, 1926. Windy's first callsign was A7Q later to become 3BE and then ZT5S. Gustav Larsen (ZS5DN) : Gustav died on the 22nd of August 1947 and his station callsign, and equipment, passed to myself David Larsen. In 1952 I moved the ZS5DN Experimental Radio Station to Pinetown. The station was again moved in 1965 to the Transvaal and the callsign changed to ZS6DN. The Natal callsign ZS5DN is still held by my brother Roy Larsen. Today the amateur radio station ZS6DN is located on a sixty hectare
portion of the Farm Doornkloof between the cities of Pretoria, Centurion
and Johannesburg in the province of Gauteng.
The station is close to these large cities yet is "in the country" as the
farm adjoins a game reserve. (Rhino, buck, Zebra and lots of birds on the
two lakes - no lions or elephants). David Larsen (ZS6DN) : In 1952 my hobby was to became my profession when I joined Horace Dainty's (ZS5HT/ZS5C) electronics company SMD in Pinetown Natal. In 1963 Horace and I become founder members of RACAL-SMD in Pretoria. Horace Dainty was the Chief Executive Officer and I was the Chief Technical Officer of this new company. After Horace retired in 1972 I, in turn, became the Chief Executive Officer of Racal Electronics South Africa (RESA) and retired in 1978 when the controlling interest of the business was sold to the Grinaker Group. The late Ola Grinaker, like myself, was a South African of Norwegian descent. Between 1978 and 1993, I upgraded the ZS6DN Experimental Radio Station and ran the co-located Salbu Research and Development Establishment (SRDE). Today my sons James, Gernot and Mark run the Salbu business operations. Apart from looking after the livestock on the property the "farming" activities include maintaining the rhombic, yagi and the many other types of antenna systems situated on the property. My brother Roy (ZS6QU) retired in August 1993. Roy spends a lot of time on the ham bands using Morse code to talk to his friends around the world. Marconi Day Award: On the Sunday following World Marconi Day it has become customary for the SARL's weekly Radio Programme "Amateur Radio Mirror International" to feature a different person who, in his own right, has made a major contribution to the development of Radio. I was very honoured to have been featured on the Sunday following Marconi Day 1996. My interest in wireless communications was initiated by dedicated amateur radio pioneers. My contribution was made possible by the dedicated support of the many radio amateurs and professionals who share my fascination for wireless communications. 73, David Larsen (ZS6DN) December 1998
A Brief History - Amateur Radio and the South African Electronics Industry In 1952 David Larsen's (ZS5DN/ZS6DN) hobby was to became his profession when he joined Horace Dainty's (ZS5HT/ZS5C) electronics company SMD in Pinetown Natal. In 1963 Horace Dainty and David Larsen become founder members of RACAL-SMD in Pretoria. Circa 1972 RACAL-SMD became Racal Electronics South Africa (RESA) Ltd. In September 1978 Racal Electronics South Africa (RESA) became Grinaker Electronics and is today listed on the Johannesburg stock exchanged under the name GRINTEK. GRINTEK remains a front runner in the South African electronics industry and it today part of the Kunene Brothers Holdings (KBH) group of companies.
Kunene Brothers Holdings (Proprietary) Limited (KBH) was incorporated on 21 July 1994 as an "active ownership" business with diversified interests. All five brothers have joined the full time employment of the company as active owners enabling KBH to provide a range of well defined services to group companies since its inception, KBH has rapidly grown its investment portfolio and today sits at the helm of one of South Africa's most successful Black business groups. On 28 August 1994 Kunene Finance Company (KFC) was established for the purpose of raising medium to long term finance to fund the Group's investment program. KFC is now 50,1% owned by KBH and 49,9% by six financial institutions.
World Distance Record on 144 MHz - February 1979
Transequatorial PropagationGeorge Vernardakis SV1AB describes how the first signals were heard via transequatorial propagation."First we heard the beacon on 144.160 MHz set up by Ray Cracknell ZE2JV in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). The date was April 12th 1978 at 18.00 G.M.T. Ten months later I heard ZS6DN's automatic beacon with a colossal signal, but he was not at home! I went to 20 metres and put out a frantic CQ for any station in South Africa but got no reply. I returned to the cross-band frequency on 10 metres which we used regularly for 28/50 MHz QSOs and managed to contact a station in South Africa who was very far away from ZS6DN but who kindly offered to QSP a message by telephone. He was told that ZS6DN had gone out but would be back soon. I was terrified that the opening would not last long enough. But in a few minutes I heard ZS6DN calling me slowly on CW and we exchanged reports at 17.20 G.M.T on February 16th 1979. This was a new world record for the longest distance contact on 2 metres. "Three days earlier, however, when I was not at home, Costas SV1DH had established the first TEP contact between Greece and South Africa when he contacted ZS6DN. As you know, my location is a mere 10 kilometres north of SV1DH's. I have a tape recording of my QSO with ZS6DN as well as with ZS6PW whose signals came through a few minutes later at 17.34 G.M.T. on that historic evening.(The local time in Athens was 7.34 p.m.). Of course the distance record was broken again on September 17th 1981 when I contacted ZS4BU who is 110 kilometres further south than ZS6DN". Summary of first TEP contacts between Greece and South Africa: In South Africa, at the request of Dr Fred Anderson ZS6PW, Dave Larsen ZS6DN had set up a beacon which was first heard in Athens by SV1AB in February 1979. Within a few days ZS6DN had QSOs with SV1DH and SV1AB. The latter contact was a world distance record via the F-regions of the ionosphere because of the extra distance involved owing to the locations of the two Greek stations, as mentioned in the previous paragraph.For anyone who may be interested very comprehensive reports of the work done in transequatorial propagation during cycle 21 and earlier appeared in articles written by Ray Cracknell ZE2JV/G2AHU and Roland Whiting 5B4WR/G3UYO in the June/July/August 1980 issues of Radio Communication, the journal of the R.S.G.B. and in the November/December 1980 issues of QST. For further details :- Amateur Radio - World Record (Africa/Greece) and The Dawn of Amateur Radio: A Personal View by Norman F. Joly. Ham Radio Links Ham Radio Email Address Lists - further
lists would be appreciated
Buckmaster's World
Wide HamCall(tm) Server
Ham Radio Websites I have visited:-
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It was on the instigation of Zoli Kunene, in August 1995 that KBH acquired
a 
