3 November 2019
The RaDAR challenge is always fun, it a time to be out and about playing radio in different locations using all the skills which you have learn’t over the years of operation QRP from your home station or Field day or HAMNET This time round we decided to combine RaDAR and SOTA in to one event. Hluku ZS/KN-345 is situated between Port Shepston and Harding, this would be our first RaDAR/SOTA point soon after setting up station we activated the summit and made the required number of contacts 9 in total for the first leg of the RaDAR challenge,
The whole time we were busy with the SOTA/ RaDAR the rugby world cup was on our minds, with this in mind we new we would not get our planned 3 hours in before the start of the final game We broke up station loaded it in my back pack ready for the 1 k/m hike to the next RaDAR point, Adele and my sister Bev move on ahead in the 4X4 To where they thought I could set up the station, while walking a African gentle man stop to ask if I was alright and if I needed a lift, There is still a lot of good people out there.I set up the station using the tail gate of Ute making a total of only 5 contacts After which it was time to break station and move to our next point, for this it would be a 6 k/m drive
Operate from the tail gate of our 4×4
Back on the road again we set off for Harding which would be our next Radar challenge point. Finding a open space to deploy your antenna is sometimes not that easy as you still need to take all safety aspects into account. we set our station up on a forest road which was not to bad, our first contact was at 08.43 UTC with Eddie ZS6BNE, followed by Pieter ZS6XT, Christi ZS4CGR, Marie ZS4MG and lastly Roy ZS3RW at 09.02 UTC as the world cup started, we packed up our station and started for our final SOTA activation which was Klipspruit ZS/KN204 and last RaDAR challenge for the day.
Activating Klipspruit ZS/KN-204
We turned off the dirt road onto a 4×4 track which leads up to the summit, I must say the track was in a good condition I think the main reason is that there is a fire lookout tower on the summit, at this point I put on my back pack on and started the 1,2k/m hick to the summit, arriving at the top the station was deployed, and we started calling CQ, once again our first contact was with Eddie ZS6BNE, in total we made 6 contacts,This meant we activated our second summit and completed our third RaDAR challenge, I must say as soon as Adele had activated the summit Adele and my sister were off to listen to the final 10 minutes of the rugby.
When Adele and I look back at the many SOTA summit we have activated, and see the beauty which surrounding us, we realize just how Blessed we are to be able to go out and enjoy it, this time round I had my sister with us, what a fun filled day we had combining SOTA and RaDAR into one activity, thanks again to our many chases
I just hope that next year we will see more amateurs getting involved in both SOTA and RaDAR, Until next time enjoy the great out doors 73 Sid & Adele