Last updated: 2015-05-26
Notice: © 2001 to 2015, 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 requires express prior written permission from the author.
Chris R. Burger ZS6EZ
Box 4485
Pretoria
0001 South Africa
Southern Africa is no low band operating haven. There is no concentration of amateurs to work this side of Europe, and the closest Europeans are 7000 km away. In addition, lightning activity is unusually high, especially in the northeastern part of the country. Finally, we're out of synch with the Upper Half. When we have reasonably quiet conditions in winter, amateurs in the northern hemisphere keep their radios firmly turned off, and it is difficult to find anyone to work. If you really want to work DX, you have to endure the massive static of mid and late summer. You strain to hear signals, even the loud ones, and only sunrise presents a temporary respite.
It is no wonder, then, that low band DXing is not commonplace in South Africa. As of 2015, only five individuals hold DXCC on 1,8 MHz, and just over a dozen Five Band DXCC certificates have been earned. Most moderately serious DXers have completed the first four bands, but 3,5 MHz remains a challenge.
For more than three decades, from the late Sixties to the mid-Nineties, here was one shining exception. Bert Lausecker ZS5LB was one of the early users of 1,8 MHz, and some of his correspondence in the Sixties with low band pioneers like W1BB has been published in the low band literature. Bert grew up in Austria, where he was drafted into the German Wehrmacht at the outbreak of WW II. Bert was involved in training communications personnel, as he already had the necessary Morse and radio skills at the age of 18. He ended the war in a POW camp in France. He sat there until more than a year after the war's end, before being allowed to return to his wife and young daughter in Austria.
On his return to his home town, Bert was instrumental in founding the Ortsgruppe Steyr. In 1996, he received a diploma from the group to recognise his efforts as founder, something that pleased him greatly.
The family moved to South Africa not long after the war, and Bert set up an electronics repair shop in northern Natal. He retired in Durban in the late Eighties, and has recently moved into a retirement home in that city.
Bert's amateur radio career went through several phases. Although he joined the SARL as ZS5-052 in 1954, he was confined to listening until 1967. During this period, Bert was a keen shortwave listener, mainly on 1,8 MHz. His listener reports were met with great excitement, as many of the low band pioneers were surprised to hear that their signals were making it into the Dark Continent. When he was finally licenced, he continued to emphasise the low bands. He once told your scribe in a a telephone conversation: "Eighty is no challenge; it's so easy!". Given that most hams shun Eighty because of the challenges of high noise, weak signals and big antennas, his statement speaks of a very determined individual, who's obviously spent too much time on 160!
Bert had great DXing success over the years. He was the first South African to earn each of the major low band and five band awards, including 5BDXCC, 5BWAZ, 5BWAS and 160-DXCC. He was also the first amateur to have earned the All Africa Award on 1,8 MHz. Here is a chronological record of his achievements:
WAZ-SSB SSB Worked all Zones 1969-09-05 #710 DXCC Mixed Mixed DX Century Club 1969-10-06 #10 782 DXCC Phone Phone DX Century Club 1969-10-06 #4711 WAS Worked all States 1969-11-05 #20 287 WAC-80 3,5 MHz Worked all Continents *1970-01-27 A1 Op A1 Operator's Club 1971-02-17 5BDXCC 5 band DX Century Club *1972-03-13 #153 AAA-80 3,5 MHz All Africa Award *1978-05-30 First on 80 WAZ Worked all Zones 1978-10-22 #4387 5BWAS 5 band Worked all States *1978-12-07 #483 5BWAZ 5 band Worked all Zones *1983-09-08 #67 DXCC-160 1,8 MHz DX Century Club *1987-02-06 #199 WAZ-160 1,8 MHz Worked all Zones (36 zones) *1987-03-01 #21 (date perhaps 05-01) AAA-160 1,8 MHz All Africa Award *1995-05-29 #1445 First on 160 WAS-160 1,8 MHz Worked all States *1997-03-20 #641 (date perhaps 05-20)
As you can see, in some cases he was in the first handful of operators world-wide to get the award. The "*"s indicate that he was the first South African to earn that particular award.
Bert's modus operandi, as explained to me, was to have a receiver by his bedside. He would listen every morning around 04:00 local time, and if there was any sign of propagation, he would get up and turn on the big radio. This strategy certainly yielded results, as I noticed in the Eighties and Nineties that he would always show up when we had good sunrise conditions, almost without exception.
As can be seen from his strategy, an indispensable ingredient in the life of a low band DXer is a very understanding wife! Gristl was certainly that. She died around 2014. Within a year, Bert followed her on Tuesday 2015-05-26, at the age of 94. They had been living with their daughter for some years. Bert was unable to get on the air for the last decade of his life.
Nevertheless, his scores have stood the test of time. Bert was the first to achieve 5BDXCC from southern Africa in 1972. He lead the all-band DXing scores for southern Africa until 1998, with a score of over 2000 band-countries, or an average of over 200 per HF band. Only one station had surpassed his score by 2010. When the SA Band Countries Survey was discontinued in 2013, Bert was still fourth on both the five-band and ten-band scores. He was also still second on both 3,5 and 1,8 MHz. As of 2015, Bert still holds the second-highest score on the 1,8 MHz DXCC in southern Africa. His score of 161 is a very tough target for any would-be low band DXer.
Fortunately, where Bert led, others have followed. In particular, fellow Durbanites Bill Smith ZS5BK and Franz Taschl ZS5MY became very active on the low bands in the early Eighties. They were among the first South Africans to earn the Five Band awards, and their presence on the bands got several other South Africans into the low band DXing game. Bill has subsequently died, and Franz has relocated to Swaziland and Mpumalanga. With Bert's death in 2015, the three big guns are all now silent, but the momentum they helped to create continues on 1,8 MHz. Greg Smith ZS5K was very active for some years before relocating to New Zealand as ZL3IX. ZS6UT is still very active, and attributes his interest in 1,8 MHz to an article that Bert had written in RadioZS, titled How to work 100 countries on 160. ZS4TX and ZS6EZ show up occasionally, especially in contests. ZS1C (formerly ZS1REC) has been active for more than a decade. ZS2DL, ZS6WB and ZS6WN prowl the band at times.
Times have changed. Radios are better. Most countries are now authorised to operate 1,8 MHz. Most major DXpeditions carry good low band antennas and spend lots of time on the band. FT5ZM made over 4000 QSOs on the band! There is now a greater variety of DX with workable signals than ever before.
Perhaps a good measure of the growth of low band operating over time is the growth of the scores in the southern Africa Band Country Survey. When the first Survey was published in 1994, only Bert had over 100 countries on 1,8 MHz, and the sixth station on the list had less than a dozen. As of May 2001, the same list showed four stations over 100, and the entry level for the Top Six was 56. When the list was discontinued at the end of 2013, five stations were over 100, with the leader over 200.
The picture shows Bert and Gristl during August 2007, when ZS6EU and ZS6EZ visited them for a 5BDXCC reunion party. Both Bert and Gristl were still in reasonable health in their late Eighties.
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