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 This phenomenon separates the active stations from those that are no longer active.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 In each category, the first stations to reach that level are often no longer active, and have fallen off the list.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

Phone

CW

Key: