More John Haycox History!

[Michael Alexander]

Here's a few bit's of history sent onto me by John Haycox.

A Permit from 1955 for the Diamond Mines and a radio Tag of sorts. I am not sure about the tag and would appreciate it if somebody can add more light to exactly what it is..... "handsome"

[Andre Coetzee]

The radio slip shown is what radio amateurs call a QSL Card - it is a confirmation of a contact that was made via radio. A radio amateur that wish to take part in a competition etc must produce the QSL Cards received as proof of the contacts he claims.

[John Haycox]

You've got it right Andre, I have hundreds of those of my own and also for my father sent from other hams all over the world.

When South West Africa became Namibia, all the radio hams in SWA got new call signs.  ZS is the prefix for South Africa, Namibia is now V5.  As an example old Oranjemunder Kosie Du Buison  was ZS3E and became V51E.  My call sign is ZS1AGH, when we toured Namibia a while ago, my call sign was V51/ZS1AGH.

[Michael Alexander]

If I am not mistaken, I noticed V5 on the tails of Namibian aircraft.... any relation.?

[toonfandangl]

According to Aircraft Registration Prefixes V5-NME is the Namibian airline

                                 

[Andre Coetzee]

Yes, you would have seen V5 on airplanes and ships and at amateur radio stations.
Every country in the world have a 2 letter sign to identify it. Namibia has the letters V5 followed by one letter for coastal stations, 2 letters for vessels and 3 letters for airplanes.
Example :
V5W - Walvis Bay Radio
V5ww - R/V Welwitchia
V5SPE - Etosha Boing 747 from Air Namibia
V51LZ - ( Namibia Amateur radio call sign) V5 indicate Namibia, the "1" indicate it is an open amateur license and the LZ identifies myself as the operator.

In South Africa my amateur call sign is ZS1LZ - but they also have ZU and ZR. In short Zu indicated a novice amateur license, the ZR indicated a restricted license and ZS was the open license.(it has since changed a bit but is still used) The "1" indicates the station is situated in the Western Cape and the LZ again identifies myself as the licensed operator for that station. The "1" in other call signs will be changed depending on in which province  you are in SA, "2" eastern Cape , 3 for North Cape, 4 for Free State, 5 Natal and 6 the old Transvaal.