Walvis Bay Radio V5W / ZSV

[D.J.J. Ring, Jr.]

On February 1, 2001, I transmitted the last CW message on 500 kHz from V5W, formerly ZSV: Walvis Bay Radio.

"TO ALL UPON THE SEAS ON THEIR LAWFUL OCCASION, GODSPEED AND SAFE SAILING -+"

That was it. A five-second dash that felt like a wail, and End of Transmission. I was in tears...

Walvis Bay Radio moved into town from its location a few miles inland. The building is now the property of the Namibia Defence Force and all equipment had been removed when I visited there in 2013.

Here are a couple of photographs from Walvis Bay Radio:

The quadrant antenna system in the morning fog

MF Antenna 

The old ZSV radio station, 1958-1973. It was housed in a wooden building - the location is now Duneside School.

The 500 kHz transmitter, retuned to 518 kHz

The Radiotelephony console

73

Heinrich Pechtold

[John Davies]

Worked ZSV many times in 1979 on board M/V Frontier/H3VW  which sailed the coast of South Africa, Namibia,  across to Brazil and Argentina and back again. The home port was Durban. ZSV was a good station.

John 9V1VV