ZS6EZ Comments: 2001 South African DXCC Member List

Originally published: 2002

Reformatted: 2012-08-04

Notice: © 2002 to 2012, Chris R. Burger. This document may be reproduced as required for personal use, and may be freely referenced from other Web sites. However, publication elsewhere, in full or in part, requires express prior written permission from the compiler.



Explanation

These notes were originally published with the list of South African stations extracted from the list described above. During 2012, a single integrated South African DXCC annual list extract and a South African DXCC Honour Roll extract were published. Because these lists do not have room for comments, and because some of the comments provide useful context, the comments have been extracted into this separate file.

Original Comments

The Clinton B. DeSoto Challenge Cup

This Cup is offered to the station with the highest band-country score. This year, eight bands were included. The new 25 MHz band DXCC was only instituted some months before the deadline, making it unfair to include those scores in the totals. In future, both the 25 and the 10 MHz band will probably also be included.

With the inclusion of 50 MHz in the totals, many old-time DXers have had to learn some new tricks. Once 10 MHz starts featuring, many DXers will suddenly find that they are having to learn other new tricks too. Who knows, perhaps some of them will even dust off those old CW keys!

The table shows the world leaders, and all southern African stations on the list. The scores include current countries only (no deleted countries). The entry level is 1000 band-countries, and 824 stations are listed. The closing date for the Yearbook list was 2001-12-31, although the DeSoto Cup was based on the standings at 2001-09-30.

Rank  Callsign   Score
====  ========   =====
   1  W4DR        2718   Bob Eshleman
   2  N4WW        2670   Austin Regal
   3  W9ZR        2659   Randy Schaaf
  75  ZS6EZ       1989   Chris R. Burger
 357  ZS6IR       1336   Uli von Aswegen
 550  ZS4TX       1155   Bernie van der Walt
 550  ZS6WB       1155   Hal Lund
 655  Z22JE       1086   Dudley Kaye-Eddie
 739  ZS6KR       1046   Hans Kappetijn

About DXCC

Starting in 2001, cards no longer have to be sent to the USA. We're hoping that this concession will result in increased participation from South Africans! Tjerk Lammers ZS6P can now check most QSL cards for DXCC. You can find full instructions for submitting cards to Tjerk elsewhere on this Web site [link originally provided].

You might still want to send cards to the USA occasionally, because of special circumstances described in the instructions. In this case, you must include sufficient return postage for all the QSL cards.

This list was manually extracted from The 2001 DXCC Yearbook. The extract lists world leaders and every ZS station on each of the DXCC lists. Members who submitted cards between 1 October 2000 and 30 September 2001 are shown, as are all Honour Roll members (those needing less than 10 current countries). Honour Roll members are indicated by a "*" behind the call sign. South Africans who did not submit during this year, and who are not Honor Roll members, are now shown. Records for these stations can be seen in the previous years' listings, or in the South African DXCC Gallery.

Stations holding 5 Band DXCC are not listed annually in the Yearbook; this list of ZS stations was compiled from previous announcements in QST and direct correspondence with the individuals concerned and with the ARRL. Stations are listed in chronological order, i.e. ZS5LB was the first ZS, and ZS6IR the most recent. Over 4000 5BDXCC certificates have been issued. 5BDXCC is a very worth-while project. Single- operator stations have worked 5BDXCC in a single contest weekend, but from South Africa it is definitely not a trivial undertaking!

The listed scores include credit granted for countries that have subsequently been deleted.

New countries

The number of countries for this list is 334, including Chesterfield (FK) and East Timor (4W6), both of which were added to the list in the preceding year. Ducie Island VP6 has since been added, but will not be listed until the 2003 Yearbook. With the large-scale operation by VP6DI during 2002, most serious DXers have had a crack at this one. From South Africa, they were hard to work, but virtually everyone got them on at least one band.

New developments

28 MHz continues to be the most-favoured DX band in South Africa, followed closely by 7 MHz. Participation is down in most categories, with the exception of the bands on which single-band awards have just been introduced (14, 18 and 25 MHz). This reduction in participation is a surprise, as this Yearbook was the first for which submissions could be made directly to the local checkpoint. The next two years will see the introduction of electronic submissions and electronic QSLing. Will these developments finally provide the impetus South Africans need to submit DXCC applications in larger numbers?

The 144 MHz award remains the only existing one not yet claimed by a South African.

If you want to apply for a new single band award, you can request an updated copy of your DXCC records from the ARRL. You can then clearly see which credits are in the computer, to avoid expensive duplication. The easiest way to obtain your records is by email [link originally provided]. They generally respond within a day with a pair of PDF files that you can print with the free Adobe Acrobat reader [link originally provided].

The lists have been manually extracted from almost 20 pages of fine print in the Yearbook. Although everything was double-checked, it is not inconceivable that something could have been overlooked or incorrectly re-typed. If you notice errors or omissions, please let me know so that I can fix them.

The closing date for DXCC submissions, as in every year, is on 30 September. Applications should be air mailed several weeks in advance to ensure that they get there before the closing date. Perhaps it's time to get in touch with Tjerk [email link originally provided]


Thanks to Tjerk Lammers ZS6P and Bushy Roode ZS6YQ for help with extracting the information from the Yearbook!

Back to the 2001 annual list.