Saturday 7 November
2015. As planned, Hennie (ZS2HC) had driven through from East London the day before and we had spent the evening planning every last detail. We had great plans, really great plans.
RADAR 2015 Bay West Mall.
Saturday morning, we started out at the Bay West Mall roof parking. An interesting photo of the two of us in front of the entrance with trolleys supporting a dipole for 6m (which proved fruitless, but makes a great photo). We eventually switched to trusty 40m and at 04:47 had a somewhat scratchy QSO with Allan (ZS2BO) who was, as usual, out and about. The signal was very low, but for a portable to portable we were very happy. It also meant we had opened the scoring! After chatting to the Bundu Operator we had contacts with ZS6HA, ZS6SID, ZS2EC, and then Bill came up – ZS2ABZ. Now the rules for RADAR are really quite simple: any sort of QSO (other than terrestrial repeaters) on any sort of band, but after 5 you must move.
We packed up and left the mall. Our next spot had to be 6km away (because we were in a car).
Operating in the park behind Greenacres.
Just behind the Greenacres mall is a nice park and we set up there. While I rolled out the 40m dipole in a record time, Hennie configured the “Radar Rack” – his Icom-7000 built into a nice sturdy rack with batteries, solar panel, and the works. You can pick up the entire “station” with one hand – a bit of a gym workout, but definitely possible.
Then we worked the pileup 🙂 ZS2ABF – Peter Tottle from East London, ZS6BU, ZS1VDP, ZS2ZA, ZS4N, ZS6PM, ZS2ACP, and finally ZS2ABF again. Remember the rules – only 5 and we must move, so three of these did not count for points, but hey there is more to life than just points. Several of the callers were people we chat to on our SOTA expeditions. QSOs in the bag and we got to move again.
Our next stop was near the reservoir on Melsetter road. Here we setup the dipole again and got quite a bit of interest from the ladies jogging by. Naturally, we reciprocated the interest.
Opearting from Melsetter Reservoir.
Not long after setting up we started getting visitors. Donovan (ZS2DL) and John (ZS2GB) stopped by for a chat. Not over the radio, so no, not a QSO. The bands were quiet – very quiet. Finally we got Glen – ZS2GV up on the air. ZS2ZA popped in for a visit and decided to hang around with us for the rest of the day – even buying us lunch!
We chatted to ZS2EC (Theunis) again, but this time on 2m. Other contacts included Max (ZS6MAX) from Pretoria.
Five more QSOs in the bag and time to move – this time with “Zulu Alpha” in tow.
We moved to a park in the Lorraine area – a point at which I regularly string a dipole from one of the tall pine trees. Andre was not very impressed and said he knew of a better spot, but needed to check if the people were home and if we could move there. While he went off, we managed to get Peter Tottle up again on 40m. We had just set the Hustler antenna up and not the normal dipole arrangement. Peter was now listening out for us. As we move we are allowed to make contact with previous stations, so this was now one in the bag from now on. Great!
Opearting from ZS2ZA’s spot.
Andre (aka the Zulu) returns with a broad smile and says “Follow me!”. And so we did. Was the spot a better one? YES! A beautiful spot high up at the back of Lovemore heights.
Here we worked 2m, 70cm, and 40m. We got into the Free State (ZS4AZ – Johan) for the second time – previously chatting to Nico (ZS4N). It was great and we were having fun.
Five QSOs and the inevitable Pack Up An Move.
“Ham can not live by QSO alone”, and so the Zulu offered to buy us lunch.
Good company!
We agreed the next stop would be the water reservoir on top of the hill. We met up with “GV” (Glen, ZS2GV) who was also keen to see the “Radar Rack” and get some fresh air. We set the dipole antenna up from my normal (4m) SOTA mast. In no way did we feel inadequate next to the 50m mast or the reservoir up in the air. We were ruling the world from the top of the hill!
Zulu Alpha was quite taken with the “Radar Rack” and often was caught looking at it. Here we have tried to capture the sentiment.
Don’t touch!
An Icom fan at the foot of the Radar Rack.
After some lunch and a bunch of laughs we got down to business. A great signal into the Western Cape and QSOs with ZS1AN, ZS1RM and ZS1NM. We also found Max (ZS6MAX) still playing radio!
The Stadium as seen from Cunningham Road.
Time for one more station. Well, there was enough time, but the energy levels were a taking a knock.
We set up a station just off Cunningham Road, overlooking the stadium and the bay. The sun was starting to dip and the solar panel could no longer keep pace with us. The Zulu was still with us and he chatted to Phil (ZS2PP) as only the Zulu can. We had contacts again from all over, reaching as far as ZS6XT in the East Rand.
The “Radar Rack”
So what did we use?
The batteries (a 17 ah slab and a 7ah slab) with input from a small solar panel had kept us going nicely through the day. The radios used were ICOM IC-7000, Baofeng hand helds for 2m and 70cm. Our output was anything from 3w on 70cm up to 100W on the Icom. Admittedly we ran the Icom on lower power when we could.
And in closing…
We generated quite a bit of interest in the RADAR exercise – even dragging some of the local hams out of bed early! Next year the RADAR exercise is scheduled for 2 April and 5 November – so keep the dates clear. We are already planning to include some digital modes and possibly even some satellite contacts.