PK1VH 1934 Java

E-mail received after posting the PK1VH card:
Today I was in tears looking at the QSL card of my grand father on your web page. I became a ham operator in 1979. My grandfather deceased many years earlier when I was still a little boy and I never spoke with him about ham radio. My mother always told me that my grandfather was a ham operator in Indonesia when it was still a Dutch colony. The only information I have about him as a ham is an old call book and my mother's memories. My mother would tell me as a little girl she would fall a sleep listening to her dad's Morse code. Amazingly my mother does not know any Morse code but everytime I ask her to make the morse code sound she heard when she fell asleep she would say dih dih dih dah dih dih dih dih. When the Japanese invaded Java he continued for a while his secret skeds with his friend in Australia (I have no idea what his call sign was). My mother told me that when all Europeans were ordered into concentration camps by the Japanese. He destroyed his ham station. After the war when the family moved back to the Netherlands he never became active again. I never spoke with him about ham radio as he died when I was only 8 years old. Despite that, I feel that I became a Ham operator because of my grandfather. Sometimes when the ham band are really magical I feel his spirit around me and I know he is pleased. For years I searched for his QSL card among old ex Dutch Indies hams. But always in vain. To my great surprise when I typed in my grandfathers call sign PK1VH it showed up on Google. I am absolutely thrilled to have found an image of my Opa's QSL card. I would love to have a better copy of this card to frame it for my shack. Please contact me. Thank you so much for keeping the memory of my opa Johan alive.
73 Maarten Broess, N1DZ
ex PA3EFA

Johan was born in 1898 in Holland. He became an electrical engineer after he graduated from the Technische University in Delft. Work was hard to find during the depression in Holland. For a better future Johan moved with his wife to Indonesia in 1926. In Indonesia Johan became the director of the electrical utility company in Bandoeng (GEBO) and became licensed as PK1VH. Both his children, my mother and my uncle, were born in Indonesia. During the thirties he was active as PK1VH and had regular skeds with ham friends in Australia. One of the Australian hams send him a stuffed bear as a gift when my mother was born. For a while he also was QSL manager for Java (according to an old call book). During WWII, after the Japanese invaded Java, all Europeans including PK1VH and his family were interned in Japanese concentration camps. Many died of malnutrition and diseases. My mothers uncle PK1RS, Rob Sauter perished in one of these Japanese camps. After the war Johan and his family stayed in Indonesia to rebuilt the electrical grid around Bandoeng. This was a very dangerous and violent period as Indonesia was fighting for its independence from Holland. Johan and his family left Indonesia in 1950. Back in Holland he never became active as a ham. I will ask my mother if she can send me some old pictures of him from the 30's when he was active as PK1VH. Last time when I visited my mother in Holland I did not find anything useful. My mother does not have many photos from that time because most of it was destroyed during WWII when she and her family were put in Japanese concentration camps. This was a very brutal time and when they returned to their house in Bandung after the war, everything was destroyed and looted. After the war her family stayed in Indonesia but my grandfather was not active as a Ham. During the struggle of the Indonesian people for their independence my mothers family was forced to leave with very little of their possessions. When they arrived in Holland they were poor and dependent on help and housing from family. The few items my mother had from before WWII were destroyed a few years later in a house fire. Her beloved bear she carried with her as a child when she was in the Japanese concentration camp was also lost in this fire. My mother believes that her brother has photos from their time in Indonesia. Unfortunately my uncle passed away last year.

Thank you again for putting my grandfathers card on your web page. I do not think I would have ever found his card if it wasn't for you. It is amazing what happened in a span of 70 years. I do not think that Johan could have envisioned that his QSL card from a QSO made in CW in 1934 with simple tube equipment would be on display on the web for the whole world to be seen 70 years later. Happily what has not changed in all those years is the ham spirit.

A few weeks ago I also received a letter from Herbert ex W6FMU (now W7BE). He is a remarkable man and he send me some information about himself and the station he was running during that time. Due to this all, I am putting together a 1934 vintage station with the similar RS241 tube as Johan had. The radio hobby has changed significantly for me since I found my grandfathers card. I am now much more interested in going back in time and learning how ham radio used to be. Over the past 25 years I have always explored the cutting edge of hamradio. VHF/UHF DX, Moonbounce, Meteor scatter, building advanced receivers and high power amplifiers, etc. Now I am starting to enjoy the contributions of the first ham operators. Fascinating.
73 Maarten N1DZ

QSL Courtesy of W6FMU / W7BE
Info courtesy of N1DZ