I upgraded (12 WPM morse) to ZS1KE on 1990-06-18 and made my first contact on 1990-06-19 with OM Vadim RW9HYY in Tomsk, Siberia -- almost 12000 km. (Google tells me RW9HYY is a club station). This was on the 20m band, 14.010 MHz, CW (at the time one had to work CW only the first year or first I think 200 contacts). My log says that he was running 400 W into a monoband Yagi, I was running 50 W into a random wire strung out the window of the Priory in Stellenbosch. An extremely random random wire -- the telephone dudes worked on the lines and left a piece of phone line lying there, I picked it up and ran it from my window to as far up the tree outside as I could get it. Total cost of antenna, zero. A homebrew antenna tuner using a variable capacitor from a valve radio and we were good to go.
Moved to 3.579 and turned the linear off to make contact with my buddy Jacques ZS1PL in Bellville (I seem to remember we used 2M to set up the QSO).
My rig at the time was a Ten-Tec Argonaut 505 with the matching Model 250 power supply and Model 405 linear amplifier. The Argonaut is rated for 5W input / 2W output, while the 405 gives 50W out.
I joined the SARL on 12 February
1988, when they were still in
Orphan Street Cape Town.
At the time the requirement was that you make 200 contacts on CW or operate for a year before moving to SSB. The year ran out before I got to the 200 contacts, primarily because I moved out of the Priory and in with my girlfriend in April 1991. My first SSB contact was with James ZS6BJG (ex ZS1ACA -- we studied together in Stellenbosch before he moved up north, he is now M0HPI) on 1991-08-03. In all fairness the contact was started on CW on 20m / 50W, moved to 15m / 2W CW, and then to 15m / 2W SSB. After that I went back to CW and completed my 200 contacts.
