One of the League’s premier operating awards is Worked All ZS (WAZS). The award, as the name implies, is given for working a large number of South African stations. The entry level is 100 different callsigns, but the programme has recently been expanded to include higher level endorsements. The new awards are known as WAZS-200, WAZS-300 and so on. There is no upper limit, but no-one has thus far applied for anything higher than WAZS-400.

The entry-level award rules specify a minimum number of callsigns from each call area. The requirements are based on the number of amateurs in each call area, as indicated by the Callbook. The least populous call area is the Northern Cape. Only 1% of amateurs in South Africa live in this province. Accordingly, only one ZS3 station is required for the award. The ZS6 call area, on the other hand, has a requirement of 56 callsigns. In principle, working and confirming 56 ZS6 stations should be roughly as difficult as working a single ZS3!

Chasing WAZS is fun. One simply has to sit around and contact different ZS stations, until the required 100 cards / SA-QSL eQSLs are in hand. In the process, one will become acquainted with many new operators, and perhaps form lasting friendships. One can also learn a lot about the country’s geography, as many of these operators are bound to be in unknown and interesting places.

For a South African, the low frequencies (perhaps 14 MHz and below) would be the best choice for chasing ZS stations. On weekends and evenings, one can often hear dozens of stations on 7 MHz, and in winter much of the activity moves down to 3,5 or even 1,8 MHz. With a relatively simple antenna, it is not hard to find 100 stations.

The serious WAZS chaser will probably want to pursue different endorsements beyond the basic entry level. The operator can request an endorsement for any mode or band at the time of application, and the astute all-mode and all-band operator might want to apply on SSB, CW and perhaps several single band endorsements. For a South African, a 7 MHz endorsement is probably the easiest single band endorsement to obtain, perhaps followed by 14 MHz and 3,5 MHz. The higher bands (21 and 28 MHz) are much harder, as one would be dependent on weak back-scatter signals, often in competition with much louder signals from the northern hemisphere. ZS stations are just not that easy to work on the high bands! Short skip only happens occasionally, and often there is no activity at the other end.

WAZS is not only for South Africans, though. Perhaps the most active chaser of ZS stations from overseas is Harald Pfeffer, OE6HPD. Harald is actively pursuing the WAZS-500 trophy that is on offer for the first operator to claim this endorsement level. Harald has worked around 800 ZS stations, but still lacks some cards for the 500 level. Another DXer currently chasing WAZS is N1RR, who has worked something over half the required stations.

Past winners from outside of southern Africa are SM5WI (1961), VE3BWY (1962), W2GFF (1962), G4CP (1963), W6USG (1963), 9Q5JW (1964), LA8WF (1970), FR7ZG, PY5ASN, I1SF, ZL4BO (all 1971), OK2QR, SP9-649 (1973), OK1FF (both 1974), DL1QT (1978), F3DE (1983), W1IHS (1984), VK5RX (1986) and WDX2CY (1993). Anyone with a working knowledge of propagation will concede that if ZL4BO could do it, it can be done from anywhere on earth!

Activity periods

To assist those chasing the various WAZS programmes, the Awards Manager is organising a number of activity periods for ZS stations. As from January 2002, these activity periods will run for an hour, from 16:00 UTC on the first Saturday and Sunday of every month. Note that these days fall on different weekends in September!

As the higher bands (14 MHz and up) will involve mainly back-scatter signals, it is suggested that all stations beam north-west. The following frequencies will be used as centres of activity: 28290, 21190, 14140 and 7090 kHz. Obviously, activity will spread a few kHz on either side of these frequencies. Hopefully, the choice of frequencies will minimise unwanted attention, and South Africans should be able to work one another, even with weak backscatter signals.

Operators pursuing other bands and modes (perhaps the WARC bands or CW) can obviously request others to move to those modes or bands, or even make schedules at times more appropriate for those bands.

QSLing / eQSLing

Working 100 ZS stations is relatively easy. In years past, it was possible to work the requisite 100 callsigns in the SARL HF Phone contest. However, working them is only half the battle. The other half is getting the QSL cards.

Unfortunately, South Africans are often not the most reliable QSLers. This factor makes WAZS challenging. Anyone who has obtained WAZS will confirm that it is substantially harder than DXCC!

To make QSLing easyier and more cost effective the SARL now provides an electronic QSLing option called SA-QSL. QSO's confirmed on this fully electronic system as accepted by the SARL for its awards and for licence upgrade.

If you decide to pursue WAZS, here are some QSLing tips:

• Make use of the SARL's electronic QSL system, SA-QSL. This system currently yields over 55% return on QSO's submitted and is your best bet to quickly get your QSOs confirmed.

• As the other operator during the contact what the best way would be to get a QSL. Explain why the card is so desirable, and make sure you understand what the other operator will and will not do. Also make sure that you obtain a direct address if the operator is not listed in the Callbook.

• Understand that non-members of the League are barred from using the QSL bureau. For non-members, direct QSLing is the only way.

• Allow several months for bureau cards. The bureau nominally sends cards to members every three months, so if the other operator responds immediately, the card might still take six months to get to you. In practice, not everyone responds immediately!

• If you request a direct card, enclose sufficient return postage. The best way to do this is to enclose an SASE (self-addressed, stamped envelope). The other amateur can them simply fill in the card, and place the reply in the provided envelope. This technique not only ensures the minimum of effort for the respondent, but also minimises the probability of error, as the address is written by someone intimately familiar with it.

• Realise that you will have to work a few more stations than the minimum requirement. Some operators will promise a card when asked, but will not get around to it within a reasonable amount of time, or may not even respond, ever. That’s the breaks; I’m sure anyone who has tried to get service in South Africa is aware that not everyone places a high premium on reliability!

If you are not in the fray, please play the game, though. There are many others chasing this award, and your QSL is very important to them. Even if you don’t think that it makes sense to send several QSLs for different modes and bands, please humour them; if they regard it as important enough to send you a request, clearly they are hoping for a reply!