South African DXCC Honour Roll Members: Cumulative List

Last updated: 2010-07-26

Notice: © 1994 to 2010, 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.



Chris R. Burger ZS6EZ
Box 4485
Pretoria
0001 South Africa
chris@zs6ez.za.org


The ARRL has never published a cumulative list of DXCC Honor Roll members. This situation is unfortunate, as the stalwarts of the past have slid down the listings with the gradual addition of new countries.

This list is an attempt to assemble a record of all past and current DXCC-HR members in South Africa. It may not be (and probably isn't) comprehensive. Please let me know if you have more information or stumble across something, so that we can include the information in a future list.

DXCC Honour Roll membership is restricted to those DXCC members that need less than ten countries confirmed. Totals do not include credit for deleted countries. In the early Eighties, the total number of countries was around 305. As DXCC country criteria have been rewritten, a plethora of new countries emerged over the following two decades. The collapse of the Iron Curtain also created several new countries and erased others, all of which meant that the DXCC list of today contains numbers that were unheard of a few decades ago. Consequently, the top stations of that era probably need several dozen countries today. Most of them have thus dropped off the Honour Roll list. To provide a basis for comparison with today's leading DXers, the score for each station is listed in terms of countries needed, as well as the actual scores and the number of countries at the time. Finally, each entry carries a year. This year is the best approximation of when the station in question achieved the listed level. Where several stations reached the same level, they are listed chronologically by the date on which they reached that level.

The Honour Roll is reshaped on an ongoing basis by the addition of new DXCC entities. Most recently, three entities were added around 2007, causing several ZS stations to slide down the list. This phenomenon separates the active stations from those that are no longer active. The effect is clear on the list. In each category, the first stations to reach that level are often no longer active, and have fallen off the list. The last stations to have been added are often still there, having lost no ground due to the addition of new entities.

Another major shakeup happened in July 2009, when ARRL suddenly deleted credits for a Glorioso Island expedition which had been granted more than 20 years before. ZS4TX, who had been at the Top of the HR, and ZS6EZ, who had needed two countries, suddenly found themselves sliding down one notch. A few weeks later, the ARRL suddenly granted credit for the 7O1YGF operation in April 2000. This addition opened the door for ZS6P to get his last missing country. A few weeks later, FT5GA opened up from Glorioso, allowing ZS4TX and ZS6EZ to get back onto their respective Honour Roll positions.

Finally, there are several stations that are known to have reached the Honour Roll, but exact dates and scores are not known. These have been listed with whatever information is available, and question marks as appropriate.


Known South African members of the DXCC Honour Roll are:

Mixed

Needed Callsign Score Max Year Name Latest Status
0 ZS6LW
ZS6EZ
ZS4TX
ZS6P
315
335
335
338
315
335
335
338
1985
2002
2005
2009
Van van der Watt
Chris R. Burger
Bernie van der Walt
Tjerk Lammers
Off
1
0
0
SK around 2000
Semi-active
Active
Active
1 ZS6RM
ZS6YQ
ZS5NK
314
334
334
315
335
335
1985
2004
2005
Dick Matthews
Bushy Roode
Gary Potgieter
Off
Off
1
SK pre-2000
SK in 2005
Active
2 ZS6IW
ZS1FJ
313
333
315
335
1985
2005
Mike Sherman
Barry Fletcher
Off
5
SK pre-1985
Now 9V1FJ
5 ZS4MG
ZS6BBP
310
329
315
334
1985
2001
Sid Coosner
Hans Behrens
Off
9
Inactive (in Pretoria)
Now VK2FTZ
?? ZS6BW
ZS6AOO
ZS6WB
?
?
?
?
?
?
ca. 1959
1999
ca. 1999
Bert Sachs
Jim de Almeida
Hal Lund (reappeared at 329/338 in 2008)
Off
Off
9
SK pre-1980
Now CT1HGS
Active on VHF

Phone

Needed Callsign Score Max Year Name Latest Status
0 ZS6LW
ZS6P
315
338
315
338
1985
2009
Van van der Watt
Tjerk Lammers
Off
0
SK around 2000
Active
1 ZS6YQ
ZS5NK
334
334
335
335
2004
2005
Bushy Roode
Gary Potgieter
Off
1
SK in 2005
Active
2 ZS6RM
ZS6EZ
313
333
315
335
1985
2002
Dick Matthews
Chris R. Burger
Off
2
SK pre-2000
Semi-active
3 ZS6JM 312 315 1985 John McCoy Off SK pre-1985
5 ZS6BBP
ZS1FJ
329
330
334
335
2001
2005
Hans Behrens
Barry Fletcher
Off
8
Now VK2FTZ
Now 9V1FJ
?? ZS6AOO
ZS6WB
?
?
?
?
1998
ca. 1999
Jim de Almeida
Hal Lund
Off
Off
Now CT1HGS
Active on VHF

CW

Needed Callsign Score Max Year Name Latest Status
4 ZS6EZ 331 335 2002 Chris R. Burger 4 Semi-active

Key:

  • Needed: Lowest number of credits this DXCC member ever needed. 9 is the entry level. 0 means the member had credit for all DXCC entities, and achieved Top of the Honour Roll.
  • Callsign: Last callsign for this station that appeared on a DXCC Honour Roll list.
  • Score: Actual number of current entities credited to the station at the time of the lowest number needed.
  • Max: Actual number of entities that existed at the time of the lowest number needed.
  • Year: First year in which highest score was achieved.
  • Name: Name of the certificate holder.
  • Latest: Number of entities needed at the last update (maximum 9). "Off" means that the station is no longer listed. Clearly, stations that peaked most recently are most likely to still be close to their highest score, while those that peaked long ago are likely to have slid down by a wide margin.

    Looking into the future

  • Active: ZS4TX, ZS5NK and ZS6P are regularly active. ZS6P and ZS4TX can be expected to retain their spots at the top, and ZS5NK can be expected to keep climbing.
  • Intermittently active: ZS6EZ is basically inactive, with sporadic bursts of activity, while ZS6WB is active mainly on VHF. Both stations can be expected to move slowly if at all.
  • Emigrated: ZS1FJ, ZS6AOO and ZS6BBP live outside South Africa (in Singapore, Portugal and Australia respectively), and are no longer active with their ZS callsigns.
  • Inactive: ZS4MG is no longer active. He lives near Pretoria in retirement.
  • Deceased: ZS6BW, ZS6IW, ZS6LW, ZS6RM and ZS6YQ have died.
  • Looking in: Many ZS stations actively pursue DXCC. Some of the more likely arrivals on the HR in the next few years include ZS2DL (Mixed) and ZS6KR (CW), while ZS4TX is knocking on the Phone and CW doors.

    Historic Records

    This list is a cumulative one, showing all past Honor Roll members. Some members have subsequently slid down the list, or even left the HR altogether. To see the annual lists as they were, follow the following links:

  • Year 2000.
  • Year 2001.
  • Year 2002.
  • Year 2003.
  • Year 2005.
  • Year 2008.
  • Year 2009 (to August).

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