1998 HF SSB Contest Results

SARL HF SSB Contest 1998 Results

[Click here for the CW and final combined results for 1998]

The contest attracted lots of activity, and many participants commented about the high activity. Accordingly, the winning score was more than 10% up on last year’s.

Log checking included the construction of a database with over 1300 QSOs, and cross checking of the callsigns in competitors’ logs against this database. Several discrepancies were noted, and a number of "friends-only" contacts were removed from logs. By all means get your friends to come up and give you a call, but sportsmanship dictates that the other participants should also have a crack at working them.

Once again, the same three operators filled the top three spots. This time, Hans Kappetijn ZS6KR of Pretoria avenged his loss of last year by beating Gary Potgieter ZS5NK of Highway into second spot. Apart from outdoing the rest of the field by over 7%, Hans also had an error-free log. Only one callsign was unique to his log, and investigation revealed that this unique callsign was legitimate. Tjerk Lammers ZS6P of Pretoria repeated last year’s third place finish. These operators are all DX contesters, and maintained a high rate while not sacrificing their accuracy.

Bud Voortman ZS1B also deserves mention. He took fourth place with another error-free log.

Despite a significant score reduction, Izak van Aarde ZS2I of Garden Route repeated his Single Band Trophy win from last year on 40 m.

The club participation category cannot be finalised before the CW contest results are out. However, after the Phone contest Pretoria’s 1705 commands a healthy lead over Midlands’s 1079. Over half the entries originated from these two clubs.

Accuracy

There was a noticeable improvement in accuracy in some of the logs. While the winners manage to keep their logs clean, some of the also-rans don’t seem to take the accuracy as seriously. As the winner’s error-free log shows, it is possible to maintain accuracy without sacrificing the rate at which contacts are made.

Remember: If you are not absolutely certain of information, ask the other operator again. If you really, absolutely cannot copy both the callsign and the exchange without any shadow of a doubt, explain to the other station that you cannot complete the QSO and remove the contact from the log or claim no points for that contact.

If we all work together, the contest results will accurately reflect the operators’ abilities.