The 2003 SARL HF Contest was held on Sunday 03 August 2003 and it was quite a busy afternoon on the bands. The contest started a half hour earlier and ended a half hour later than in previous years. Forty metres was jam-packed and Gary ZS5NK commented that he had never heard 40 metres so busy. Looking at the various logs it would seem that there were in the vicinity of 97 different stations on the air during the contest, the contest committee received 36 logs made up of 2 multi-operator stations and 34 single operator stations. Apart from the local South African stations on the air, and that included Okkie ZS3OC, there was activity from out neighboring countries as well. Some of the stations worked were Martin 7P8MS and Mat 7P8MP from Lesotho, C93JL from Mozambique, Dudley Z22JE from Zimbabwe, Brian 9J2BO from Zambia, Hein V51EK and Heather ZS6YE/V51 from Namibia and Willy 3DA0BD, 3DA0BM, Andy 3DA0TM and 3DA0AA from Swaziland.

Taking top honors in the Multi-operator category is the 3DA0DX DX'pedition of Cliff ZS6BOX, Ron ZS5ABD and Willie ZS5WI with 210 points. In second position is ZS6SRC, the club station of the Secunda Amateur Radio Club with 117 points.

In the Single Operator category the top honors go to Bernie ZS4TX of the Bloemfontein RAC with 298 points. In the second place is Rudi ZS6DX of the Buckshee ARC with 220 points and following him is Mickey ZS5QB of the Midlands ARC with 216 points.

The Best Score on a single band goes to the man on the Bluff, Louis ZS5LP of the Durban ARC. Louis made 113 points on the 40-metre band. It was a close competition on 40 meters with Bernie ZS4TX making 107 points, Donovan ZS2DL making 103 points and Rudi ZS6DX making 101 points. Looking at 20 metres the results were Bernie ZS4TX and Allan ZS1AAX both on 57 points and Vidi ZS1EL and 3DA0DX on 55 points. On 80-meters it was Rudi ZS6DX tops with 75 points, Bernie ZS4TX with 70 points and Emil ZS6EGB and Frikkie ZS6MF with 65 points each.

The club/branch competition is always interesting. The top three scores are used to calculate the results for the club competition and the Phone and CW results determine the top club. Well at this stage the Pretoria ARC heads the list with 613 points (Hans ZS6KR and Frikkie ZS6MF in 5^th place with 206 points each and Emil ZS6EGB in 7^th place with 201 points), second in the Bloemfontein RAC with 560 points followed by the Midlands ARC with 405 points.

How did it go in the call areas?

Three logs were received from the Western Cape with Vidi ZS1EL in the top spot there. The Eastern Cape also produced three logs and Garth ZS2AAR takes the first place. The Free State had five logs with Bernie ZS4TX top of the list. From Kwazulu-Natal nine logs were received and Mickey ZS5QB was the top man there. From the four provinces making up ZS6 fourteen logs were received and Rudi ZS6DX takes top honors.

Comments

"The stations was run as a finalé to our mini DXpedition to Swaziland." 3DA0DX. "Great contest my first HF contest." ZS6KEV. "Enjoyable contest with good activity. 80M let me down." ZS5NK. "Could only operate for the last hour on 80M. 4 hours is too long, should be 3 hours." ZS6UT. "Found 40m portion very small and congested but still had a great time, the change of time a BIG PLUS." ZS5QB. "Thanks for a great contest and the hard work!" ZS6DX. "This contest was fun." ZS4NS. "Te veel tyd, te min deelnemers…." ZS4TX. "The extra time at the end helped a lot in working ZS6 and other distant stations from the Western Cape - I appreciate it. Please do not change it." ZS1EL

Overall Results

a. Single Operator

b. Multi-Operator

c. Best Single Band Score: 40 Metres

d. Club Competition