Episode 28 - Eddie Leighton - ZS6BNE Transcript
Commissioned by the USA RaDAR Group in honor of Eddie’s birthday, 2018
Eric, 4Z1UG:
QSO Today, episode 28. Eddie Layton ZS6BNE.
Welcome to the QSO Podcast. I am your host Eric Guth 4Z1UG.
My QSO today is with Eddie Layton, ZS6BNE from Lichtenburg, South Africa. Kudos to Greg N4KGL, a future guest on this podcast who recommended that I speak to Eddie about his love and contributions to amateur radio, as well as RaDAR, or rapid deployment amateur radio. We will dig deeper into RaDAR later in this podcast. ZS6BNE this is Eric, 4Z1UG. Are you there Eddie?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Oh 4Z1UG, this is Zulu Sierra 6 Bravo November Echo. Very good evening to you Eric, coming through yeah, and to South Africa pretty well. And looking forward to having a chat with you.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
QSO Today, episode 28. Eddie Layton ZS6BNE.
Welcome to the QSO Podcast. I am your host Eric Guth 4Z1UG.
My QSO today is with Eddie Layton, ZS6BNE from Lichtenburg, South Africa. Kudos to Greg N4KGL, a future guest on this podcast who recommended that I speak to Eddie about his love and contributions to amateur radio, as well as RaDAR, or rapid deployment amateur radio. We will dig deeper into RaDAR later in this podcast. ZS6BNE this is Eric, 4Z1UG. Are you there Eddie?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Oh 4Z1UG, this is Zulu Sierra 6 Bravo November Echo. Very good evening to you Eric, coming through yeah, and to South Africa pretty well. And looking forward to having a chat with you.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Well thanks Eddie. I'm glad that we could make it. Anyway, thanks for joining me. We begin every QSO Today Podcast with your opening story. When and how did you get into amateur radio?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Eric, thinking about amateur radio, I think it started at a very early age, really, when I was very, very young. I bought a crystal set like many radio amateurs did in those days, and I had a very supportive father who would take me into the city to go get some parts. And I remember the very high impedance headphones that he bought.
You probably don't get things like that anymore. And I bought my crystal radio and I could pick up commercial broadcast stations and listen to them, and that was really an introduction to ham radio at a very early age. It wasn't until many, many years later where my uncle had given me an alt valve shortwave radio ...
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Valves or tubes, for people that are from North America, right?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Yes. Absolutely. Tube radio or valve radio. And I had this radio set up in my Dad's garage, and every Sunday morning I'd go there and browse around the bands. And I heard the South African Radio League bulletin being broadcast, and I found this very, very interesting, and they said at the end of the broadcast that if you're interested you must drop them a line. And that was like writing them a letter, those days. There wasn't anything like SMS's or email. It was a straightforward letter that you'd post and it would probably arrive at its destination about two weeks later.
And then I became a listening member. And that was basically my introduction to amateur radio. And then I heard that you had to go to classes in the evenings to write the Radio Amateurs Examination. So my dad took me through to the evening classes which were around about 40 kilometers away from home, and I spend six months every Monday evening, I think it was, to study and learn for the Radio Amateurs Examination.
I was really young then. In fact, that was the first time I ever heard about pi. I'd never heard about pi in the math class at that stage. It was still an advanced concept, I suppose, at that stage. So it was quite interesting, and I was very, very fortunate to have passed the exam.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
How old were you?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
I was around about 15, 16 years old. The minimum age limit in South Africa to become a radio amateur in those days was 16. It's a lot lower now, much like the rest of the world, which is really great to get the young people interested in a hobby.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
The exams in America were multiple-choice. What are the exams like in South Africa?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
The time that I wrote, it was a written exam, where you had to draw pictures and write formulas, and work out the values. The amateur radio exams now are a multiple choice type exam. So it's changed quite a bit. I'm not exactly sure when the multiple choice exams came into being. It was probably around about the 1980's or 1990's, in that vicinity. But in the '70's it was most certainly a written exam.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So you were a teenager when you first got your amateur radio license. How is the licensing set up in South Africa? There are obviously various grades of license. And what was your first grade of license?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
My first grade of license was ZS. What was required then is to pass a class A exam, for technical, and also regulations. And then it was a requirement to do a 12 word per minute Morse code test. Now I must say, my brother helped me a lot here, because I really put him on the spot, he had to ask me what the letters and numbers were in Morse code, and I basically try and say what they were, and that's how I learned the Morse code.
And I could send really, really fast, which is really detrimental to learning Morse code. And it's only many, many years later that I got a little bit better with Morse code. I've never, ever left it. The other license was the ZR license. That was a VHF only license, where you wrote the exam. I can't exactly remember, it was probably the same technical exam that was required for the ZS, the only difference being the Morse code test.
Many years later, a ZU license was introduced, mainly to cater for young people. In fact, my son got his ZU license at a very young age, but they had to do five words per minute on Morse code as well. And he actually surprised me. He learned the five words at Morse code in five days.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
But you still take the same Class A license exam?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
The exam is still ... Things changed a little bit since the Morse code was removed as a requirement to become a radio amateur. Then it was a natural progress that the ZR licenses holders were given access to the HF bands. And in fact many people have chosen to stay with the ZR call sign because it becomes quite a sought after prefix for DX, although nowadays the ZS and the ZR is basically the same license.
The ZU license has been changed recently as well that you've got to be under the age of 25. If you're over the age of 25 then the ZU license becomes null, which is a pity really, but the ZU license is really for young radio amateurs.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So here you are a teenager, and you have an amateur radio license. Did you have any mentors, or Elmers as we call them in the States, who helped you along?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
You know Eric I browsed on this question for quite a while, and if I look through my life, and the way that I started amateur radio, I didn't know any people that were involved with amateur radio then. So really it was the support of my father, although he was more in the engineering field, the chemical engineering field, he supported me in my interest. It was only after I got my license that I met friends, and what is the same in the 1970's, and I learned a lot from them, and in fact we're still friends today.
We all remember those days. I remember friends who'd come over to my house and they'd help me tune my inverted vees to get them nicely resonant. And having friends like that, they would teach you the right way to tune a dipole, or whatever the case may be. So basically Elmers were friends that I met along the way. And still today, you meet up with new people, and you learn from other people as well.
And I like to share my knowledge as well, what I've gained over the years. In fact I'm going to be celebrating my 40 years as a radio amateur on the 17th of this month, I think. So I've learned a lot from people along the way, and I like to share my knowledge as well.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Hey, yeah, that's a great thing about ham radio. So do you remember what your first rig was?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
My first rig was a transmitter. It was the FLdx-400. In fact my very supportive dad took me into town and he bought me this transmitter, which was brand new from the supplier in Johannesburg, and well I didn't have a receiver, so that makes things a little bit difficult. But I knew a gentleman that I still know today, Danny ZS6 Alpha Whiskey, and I bought a secondhand, in fact I've probably about two or three secondhand receivers from him.
And so I worked with separate transmitter and receivers which makes it a little bit difficult. In fact, my first Morse code contact was with Rhodesia, which is Zimbabwe nowadays. The guy asked me to QSY to a different frequency, and I couldn't really read the transmitter dial, so I lost my first QSA.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
What was the receiver that you were using with [crosstalk 00:11:43] X?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
The receiver, I recall it being an AR-88 was one of the receivers, a very, very big receiver, probably a collector's item nowadays, with beautiful glowing dials and of course tubes inside. And another radio that I had was the KW-77. That was probably the model, I can't really remember what the make was. But it worked well.
It had nice filters. But it was difficult where we stayed. My dad had quite a bit stand, and the second half of the stand was covered with, I think it was 300,000 volt power lines. So I always had noise. So it was difficult.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So a stand is acreage?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
As acreage, yes it was in total about half an acre, which is quite big, and so there was a quarter on each side, and the one quarter, you had these power lines coming over. In fact, I had my inverted vees quite close to these lines, and if you were to go put your finger on the end of line, it would arc over and you'd feel those shocks in your elbow just from induction, so it was pretty high voltage stuff.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Amazing. And what is your current rig? What do you use now?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
I'm very, very fortunate to have found a secondhand FT-847 which I bought, well probably about five years ago. Before that I had the Icom 706 Mark II. And before that it was around about 1977 when I went to the army I bought an FT-101EE. And I had that rig for many, many years until I bought the Icom 706 Mark II. And in fact, going to a more modern rig gave me access to more modern amateur radio as well, and I realized then that you've got the nostalgia of having hybrid rigs or tube rigs, and they really very, very nice to use and so on, but you can't use them for digital modes or meteor scatter, all these lovely things that you can do a radio amateur.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Yes, that's true, but they're beautiful to have.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Absolutely.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Yeah. So what is your favorite mode of operation?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
I actually like many different modes Eric. I must say that I don't like to have long conversations on SSB. If they are SSB contacts I always promote the aircraft style communications. You pass what's necessary and possibly now and then you can have a nice chat with an old friend, but in the modern life, there's no time for that anymore. So quick USOs on SSB. I like CW as well, machine gun style CW contacts. I like the digital modes. In the digital modes, in fact, PSK, you know meteor scatter are using the weak signal modes of WSJT.
But really, if you have a look at my log on QRZcom, you'd find most of the contacts are CW. In fact I didn't work too many DX stations until RaDAR became international. I wasn't too much interested in working DX. But since RaDAR's become international it became a requirement to work DX, and so in the 39th or 40th year of amateur radio I'm working DX, but mostly CW.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I see. Amazing. So here you are a teenager with a ham radio license. How did having an amateur radio license and being interested in amateur radio, how did that affect the decisions you made for your schooling and your future career?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
I think if you look at right at the beginning of school, I was a member of an electronics club as school. And the electronics club was run by one of my friends who's mom and dad were radio amateurs. Pam Bonds, if I remember her name correctly. So that kept me in the scientific subject range, which I would try, like science and math and geography and things like that until I wrote matric. And I still had my ham radio license. And then it was ... All young South Africans in those days had to join the army when they left school.
And I thought, well, you know, I've got all this knowledge of being a radio amateur, and I can send and receive Morse code that I could go into signals in the army, but I wasn't initially sent to the signals unit. It was only a couple of months later where a very good friend of mine, Brian ZS6PKW lives in the UK now, he was an officer in the signals unit, and he kind of within a week got me to the signals unit where I spent the last 18 months of my military career in signals as a radio operator, passing intelligence through and things like that.
After the army I was ... I had to look for a career. And an actual career would be something that would involve electronics or electricity, and I was very fortunate to have been employed as a pupil of technician at the General Post Office then. So we got excellent training through them. So throughout my life amateur radio's really been there for me. It gives you an opportunity to see things from a different view that other people would not normally see.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
You alluded to earlier that your son is also an amateur radio operator. How did ham radio affect your family life?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
I spend quite a bit of time with my son the shack. My shack was in the house then, but it was really more a computer room with a radio. I had my FT-101 there. And we got involved with [Beckett 00:19:32] radio. And my son then having his license, he was ZU1 Alpha India. He got very much involved with Beckett radio which has a lot to do with computers. So in later years, and even still today, he's got his own business in the computer field. He learned programming. So it certainly had a positive effect on him.
It even went further. Well, he's not a radio amateur anymore, let's put this way, because he ... You know, young people discover the Internet and fancy modes of communication, and amateur radio looks outdated to them. If you haven't got really a passion for amateur radio and what it is in the modern world, then you can lose interest. But even later, I've got a little grandson, he's nine now.
And in some of the Youth Day contests I got him involved with as well. In fact to date he's won two book prizes for his involvement in the Youth Day activities. So I try and keep the interest at home there, but you've got to keep a nice balance between family life and amateur radio.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
What does the amateur radio community look like in South Africa? In North America I keep thinking that it's Hurricane Katrina that caused this explosion in amateur radio interest. When all of the infrastructure of the area blows away and the only thing that works is amateur radio. What's happening in South Africa? Is the amateur radio population growing? Is it stagnant? What do you see happening there?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
It's quite a difficult question to answer Eric. I talk to radio amateurs on a daily basis via Facebook and by the South African Radio League's forum. And we try to generate interest there. But it's difficult to say how many active radio amateurs there are in South Africa. I think members of the radio league are probably in the vicinity of 1500. For a country like South Africa, which is ... It's a small country, but there are a lot of people that 1500 members aren’t very much. But if you take those 1500 members, how many of them are active?
Many might work DX. Many might not take part in social media or forums. So if I can really count on my hands how many active people there are, I'd probably say there's around about 150, which is really not very much. There's quite an initiative on an ongoing basis from the South African Radio League to get youth involved. And I've got friends that are ... My friend Zulu Sugar 6 Victor, Lima, for example, he's very involved with the youth and Scout camps, and what they call a scout Trekkers here in South Africa it's very much like a Scout group, and try and promote interest amongst the youth there.
And they get it right. But still, it's difficult to get people interested in a technology that seems old. We don't get magazines on our news outlet racks at all. We don't see CQ magazine here, we don't see ... In the old days used the have 73 Magazine. I don't know if that is still ongoing. But you probably get a magazine that might discuss mechanical things, but anything involved with radio as such, you don't see. So it's difficult to get the message through to people. I think, for example, he tries to get the young people involved in activities like RaDAR. It must always be exciting to the young people. There's always something, what's in it for me.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Right, there's a lot of competition for their attention.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Yeah. They've got cellphones, and you've email, and you've got SMS's, and you've got Facebook and things like that. And that's very, very fast communication between young people. It's actually fantastic to post movies like the comparison between sending Morse code at high speed and somebody sending me an SMS. I'm sure that's many people who have seen that video, and it gives you a nice chuckle sometimes.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Yeah, I think I ... It was on Tonight Show or something like that, I think yeah. Yeah, no, I remember it. Well that's interesting. You write a very nice blog for ham radio. How did that start?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
The latest blog is really my second attempt Eric. I had my own website many, many years ago and it was northwestinternet.za.org, I think it was. The facilities to have databases in your own blog system. But you get spammed quite easily on your own blogs, so then I shut down those systems and I went to WordPress, where you've got protection. You've got exactly the same facilities.
It's very, very easy to add pictures and to write articles, share articles. It's basically a copy and paste from forums and things like that. So I used it basically to promote RaDAR as well. That's the prime purpose of the blog is because that is my passion, and yeah, it's a way to spread the word really.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So let's dive into RaDAR, and that was the reason that Greg told me about you and about RaDAR. Well, what is RaDAR and what are you doing with it?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Eric, RaDAR became something from something else many years ago. Here in South Africa we had ideas of working from the field. And we came up with a name, Shack in a Sack. And that doesn't sound very appealing.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Right. Yes. A go-kit.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Yeah. Essentially a go-kit, yes. And a friend of mine, a very good friend of mine, Hans ZS6 Alpha Kilo Victor. He's spent very much of his life involved in amateur radio and promoting amateur radio for many, many years. And a few years ago I took part in, or I was doing some presentations at our Radio and Technology in Action promotions which we hold in different parts of the country, and the last one was down in the Cape. And that afternoon when we ... No, let's put it this way. The previous evening we were having dinner, and he said, "Eddie, you know this Shack in a Sack is an incredible concept, but can't you give it a better name?"
This is typically how Hans speaks as well. So that lay on my mind the whole evening. And the next morning we flew back to Johannesburg from Cape Town it was a two hour flight. And as we landed, then we went to go and fetch our bags, I come up to Hans and probably it was the influence of the airport that I said, "Hans, how about calling this concept the RaDAR? Rapid deployment amateur radio." And that where the name started. And it became a buzzword. It's gone through an evolution as well, from the initial idea of Shack in a Sack.
We said, "Okay, well let's start contests. We'll take part in emergency exercises or contests as well. But let's make it a little bit different." We say, "Okay, well before any activity, you've got to carry all of your equipment for at least a kilometer." That basically forces you to carry everything with you. Now another one of my interests comes from jogging, really, long distance jogging. And I was introduced to trail running, which is off road running, and there you have to carry your own water and your own food and your clothing.
And I thought, you know, how about mixing the two of these, mixing radio, adventure type radio, outdoor radio, with trail running, a kind of survival. So those two merged together and made RaDAR even stronger. Then a few years later many of our local contests, our field days and QRP contests, another category was added there, where the QRP operator had to walk one kilometer. So it was basically what RaDAR was all about then.
Or if you take part in a field day competition, you're an on foot field day operator. They're totally different to what they were previously. So then RaDAR had to be different once again, and I thought, what can we do to more RaDAR even more special? And then I started doing experiments with one contact per kilometer moved. So on foot you'd have to make a contact, pack up your stuff, pull down your antennas, move one kilometer and erect everything again, and make another contact.
And that was a little bit strenuous, so for many people suffered. Well, let's make it five contacts for every kilometer move. And that idea picked up a little bit, but you've got a lot of people that like sitting in shacks and they don't want to running around. They practice radio, not running or jogging or anything like that. So it's difficult to promote that idea, but now the latest contest is not really a contest. For 2015 we've changed it to a challenge.
That was also to make worldwide contacts possible. If you look at propagation, different times of the day, and people all over the world. If you had a two hour, or four hour, or six hour contest, it's not going to be appropriate for everybody. So from this year it's a 24 hour challenge. And you can use all gains. The movement we expanded as well, that different types of movement come into play, where you've got portable stations in the field, include people at home, we call them fixed stations, or fixed RaDAR stations.
They might even set up their station in a different building or in somebody else's house, but it's not portable. Portable is away from home in the field. Now the moving stations are those on foot, and then you might get somebody who might like to ride in a mountain bike, or on a road bike, or on a motorcycle, or a quad, or even on a canoe or motorboat, or even in an aircraft. So RaDAR expanded now to these different types of movements. Now to make it fair we had to make the distance that you had to move fair.
And we took the on foot operator as one kilometer. And then in order to ride a bicycle, to be fair, from experience I found well, that if an on foot operator has to walk one kilometer, then a bicycle has the travel two kilometers. And if it's a motorcycle or a vehicle then they have to travel six kilometers. And if you want to travel in a canoe it's also a kilometer. And then we thought, now we're excluding the guys in wheelchairs, and we want to include them as well. So people in wheelchairs are very welcome to join in the RaDAR exercises and we say, okay, well move 500 meters that they also feel part of the excitement of practicing RaDAR.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I see. So RaDAR is an activity that has its basis in a portable station that you can carry on your back, some kind of movement. I mean it's involved right to any kind of movement, but movement of a considerable distance, setting up, packing it up and moving it again. So it seems to me that around this there's about a whole bunch of technology that comes out of this.
You've got to build small stations that are portable. You have to have antenna systems that you can erect, good antenna systems because you're also working contacts, so you have to have good antenna systems that you can easily erect and take down and move and do it again. Do you create a whole system around this?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Yes. It promotes experimentation, really with different antennas. And some antennas might not be very efficient, but they might fit in with the rapid deployment idea. When RaDAR was only local it was quite easy that around 40 meters you could put up an end-fed for example, that is really not all that efficient, but it works. You can get the message through. Now that RaDAR has become international, you might have to put up a wire beam, but now you have to go and experiment on a continuous basis.
It doesn't make sense to wait until the challenge is there. So it promotes continuous experimentation with amateur radio, rapid deployment antennas, battery systems, because to keep the kit down its incredible how quickly the weight of a backpack increases when you start putting in wire antennas, batteries, a radio mic, Morse code key, water. I normally carry at least two liters of water with me. And high energy food, or maybe sandwiches that you ... Because you might be out there for a few hours. You might be in the blistering sun.
You might be out there for 24 hours. That's the latest challenge. So you've got to be able to look after yourself, and you might even have to carry a raincoat, for example, because you might be caught in the rain. You've got to protect your equipment. So a lot of the dynamics come together and survival starts being part of RaDAR as well. You've got to think of everything. And you've got [crosstalk 00:37:02] a good communicator.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
That's amazing. So this has become a nationwide activity, in South Africa? And you say it's become international as well?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Yes. I think ... I had a friend Jack Victor Kilo 4 Juliet Romeo Kilo. He belonged to a radio club in Australia, and the acronym for the radio club was RADAR. So he discovered the word RaDAR through the Internet as well. And when he was in South Africa he come to visit me, and we're still very, very good friends. So RaDAR went to Australia, and Jack promotes it there amongst his friends. And then Marcus Kessler, from the USA, NX5, I can't 100% remember his call sign on hand. And through Marcus Kessler, Greg Lanes in N4KGL learned about RaDAR and he's done a lot of promotion in the USA on RaDAR.
And then we've got friends, Tom Robinson in the UK. G0 Sierra Bravo Whiskey. Also he's quite an elderly ham now, and what he gets right, and his passion for RaDAR and for pedestrian mobile is really quite phenomenal. He even does the bicycle thing and “balls kits” backpacking on a daily basis. In fact, it's amazing to see Tom and also Greg what they do on a regular basis, and experimentation, sharing ideas through the Google Plus RaDAR group.
Anybody really interested in RaDAR should really join that group, it's also international. People, friendly people, a lot of guys there that have done promotional work, promotional videos, really awesome. Another friend of ours from Finland, Survival Tech Nord, Julia, really awesome videos that these guys make on the RaDAR group on Google Plus. So certainly to find out some more information where to really see the excitement of RaDAR, it's certainly worthwhile joining up.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Wow, yeah, that's amazing. I never thought of this until you mentioned this. This is really quite interesting. So you've combined survivalism, exercise, that's something that everybody needs now, obviously packing the right radio. And that obviously creates then a whole industry of portable radios. People need to make them smaller, because the less you can carry, the more other stuff you can carry. This is quite remarkable Eddie, what you've done.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Thank you.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So okay, I see that ... And every year the contest then can evolve. So it can evolve in terms of different locations, or different bands that are operated on. Maybe you do a single band contest one year or something like that. So you're always having to come up with some new activity for the RaDAR group.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
RaDAR has evolved quite a bit over the years, but I think it's started to become refined now. In fact, during the challenge, we us any band that's available to amateur radio, any mode. It could be digital modes, it could be SSB, and it could be FM. Even on VHF and UHF channels, although we don't promote the use of repeaters. We like to get the guys to get optimum antennas and work simplex on VHF or UHF. But you mustn't forget the satellites. For many, many years I was, even with the FT-847 that I got, I get very much involved with satellites, in the time of AO-51.
Not very many are left out there nowadays, but the SSB satellites like FA-29 and AO-7 are still up there. AO-7 has been up there since 1974 and it's still working. And in fact, right in the first stages of radar, during the contests, I was able to make satellite contacts with the stations. And we give extra points for any satellite or digital contacts, the initial, the first one, just to promote the use of satellites and digital radio.
So certainly we mustn't forget the satellites. So, in fact, even the international space station, if there's what they call a SAT Gate, it's very like an APRS IGATE. And when people listen out for the space station. And I did an experiment once, running a mountain race, and I had this backpack. I still had an old walkie talkie and a Garmin Legend GPS, and a home bought APRS tracker. And I could digipeat my position through the space station as it came over. So that was something quite exciting.
So we've got to use technology. RaDAR uses anything at its disposal. It might use a smartphone for applications that are written for amateur radio. It could be used for digital communications like RTTY, or even slow scan TV, you might want to send somebody a picture from the field for example. So anything that's available to amateur radio, radio operators tend to use in every way. So we must be practicing every method of communication. We like to promote that.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Do you use APRS? I mean, how do people track their locations? Are they using electronic maps and when they set down and set up their stations they take their coordinates? I mean obviously you guys are going to use GPS and stuff like that now, how do you keep track of that?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
APRS is especially here in South Africa, and especially in the area where I live, where they're aren't very many radio amateurs or infrastructure. You need an internet backbone infrastructure with IGATE’s listening for APRS signals. Now in the city you might get that, but certainly not here. There are applications that you can use using a cell phone, and using a cell phone's GPS functionality, you can parse your coordinates via the cell network to the APRS network.
That kind of moves away from amateur radio as such, but it's another facility that you might want to use. There's other applications where your GPS coordinates can be converted to a Morse code signal, and while you're on the move you might have a beacon being sent out in Morse code, and people can decipher your position and plot that on a map. So there's very many options where infrastructure isn't there. So it's all up the innovative operator to use technology to achieve his purposes.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So there are RaDAR activities that are coordinated. But you're referring to yourself and others as RaDAR operators, even though there's no planned competition or something like that happening. This is the way you operate now, is that right?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Absolutely. You know Eric, it becomes a lifestyle that ... I think many radio hams might have the problem there's no place at home for ... Not everybody has got the facilities to have a whole room for his own radio station and to have antennas up in the air at home. I kind of move away from that nowadays, that your shack as such is different every time you go out. And your shack window, I often say this, your shack window could be overlooking a beautiful river, or a mountain in the distance, or a beautiful forest, or wherever you might be deploying.
If we look at SOTA and the German Mountain Activity Group, which is very much adventure radio orientated, and climbing mountains. As RaDAR fills the gap there as well, because not everybody's got a mountain to climb nearby. Certainly a mountain that we were to climb here last year, I had to drive 400 to 500 kilometers just to get to a decent mountain to climb. So we can't all do SOTA. We can't all join in the GMA activities, but we can take part in RaDAR.
And we can all take part in the excitement of RaDAR. And RaDAR generates professional interest in radio amateurs that are able to communicate in any way. You might have a problem and you might be full of ways in which to solve that problem in different ways. But if you practiced and you can make the right decision and communicate. The thing's got spin offs to emergency communications and emergency radio support and things like that, which is quite a good thing.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I had Dennis Blanchard K1YPP on the show. Dennis wrote a book about traveling the Appalachian Trail. And the Appalachian Trail in North America runs from ... It runs along the East Coast of North America, I think from South Carolina all the way up to Maine. Its 2100 miles, which is I guess, oh I don't know, that's almost more than 4000 kilometers. And he did a very similar thing. He operated ham radio along the way with a transceiver that was about the size of an Altoids can. He did this ... It was an event and it's done, but it sounds to me like RaDAR means that you can do this every weekend.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Yes.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Any time you feel like you want to just park the car and start hiking, you have an opportunity to operate.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Yeah. Greg Lane is a typical guy that does that. He often promotes his activities and he calls it RaDAR lunch. So during his lunch periods he goes and plays RaDAR, puts up antennas quickly, makes a few contacts, testing antenna systems, and things like that. And the people that constantly practice the concept, those are the guys that come out on top during the challenges as well. It's really amazing to see what some of these RaDAR operators achieve.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
It's an amateur radio lifestyle.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Yes. Absolutely.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Oh, that's so crazy. Wow. And do radio operators work in the national parks there in South Africa? Can you go on safari and do radar?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
We promote Parks on the air, I think that's P-O-T-A. Anywhere that's available we're going to do some activities from there. I'm very fortunate in a way is where I live in Lichtenburg, we used to have a game breeding farm very, very close to my home. There's no animals there anymore, unfortunately. We used to have rhino and buck and all the wild animals that you would hope to see. But fortunately I can go into the field there with my dinners. I can go on a bicycle or jog there or walk there and just go and spend the afternoon in the wide open spaces underneath the tree and put a few antennas and experiment and communicate.
In fact many of the times I go out into the field I don't make many contacts, but I enjoy putting up the antennas. I enjoy working at mechanical things, so possibly that's what I got from my dad as well. Ideas, funny I have good ideas to put up an antenna quickly, and go try them out in the field. And then maybe make a contact or two to see that everything's working and it's really a lot of fun. But to get out into the open is really ... Every different deployment you do you've got a different shack window. And memories that you can carry forever.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Wow. I'm going to put a link to your website in the show notes page. Wow, this is new to me. I'm blown away. Eddie, what advice would you give to a new or returning ham radio operators?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
I think what I discovered late in my ham radio career is that things aren't as critical as what they seem. In fact, when I got my Icom 706 Mark II, I went to one of the first Radio and Technology in Action shows that the South African Radio League Presented. And there was somebody talking about working the AO-51 Satellite. And throughout my whole career, from the 1970's, I always thought working satellites is rocket science.
Don't think things are all that difficult. In fact, I started working satellites using a wooden boom and a couple of brazing rods for the elements, and I effectively worked satellites that way. In fact I worked DX satellites even into Brazil. I think I've got the unofficial record, distance record via FI29 between myself and Luciano BY5 Libra Foxtrot 4CW on FI29. And it wasn't that I had to have fancy rotator systems for SMS at elevation and high gain cross Yagis of 15 or 20 elements and you need 200 watts.
It's all these stories that make people think that things are too complicated. I'd say anybody coming back into amateur radio is at least invest in a good, synthesized HF radio that can handle shortwave or the HF bands, six meters, two meters, and seventy centimeters. And that'll be an investment in your radio career where you get access to many different types of communication. And you don't have to go very high power as well. I was quite amazed ... I've never used in my life more than 100 watts, but the sense of satisfaction that you get using 5 watts is 10 things that of using 100 watts.
100 watts makes it simply too easy. You can pull up a piece of wire and you can work anyone in the world on 100 watts. It's a little bit of a challenge on 5 watts, but once you get it right, and you build your antenna and you see it works and you can communicate, that's what gives you kicks. Sometimes if things come too easy, then the rewards isn't all that great. But if you battle to get to a point, even walking five kilometers to get to a tree that you want to sit under, putting up your antenna, maybe working one or two stations on five watts, it's absolutely worthwhile.
So I'd say you know, get out of the shack and get into nature and enjoy what the world has to offer, and in so doing, enjoy your ham radio career as well.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
That's a lovely way to end our QSO today. Eddie, I really appreciate very much that you’re coming on. I'm with you a hundred percent. I had no idea this is what RaDAR was about, and now that I understand it better I'm going to deep dive into your website and start at the very beginning and learn more about it. It makes an awful lot of sense, and it doesn't have to be expensive to be fun.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Absolutely.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So with that 73.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Thank you very much Eric and thank you for inviting me to QSA today, and very nice to meet you as well. I hope we can keep in touch. Keep well Eric.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
That concludes this episode of QSO today. I hope that you enjoyed my QSO with Eddie, ZS6BNE as much as I did. Be sure to check out the show notes page as www.qsotoday.com and put in ZS6BNE in the search bar at the top of the page where I will post links to the references that Eddie made in the podcast. I'll also deep dive and make sure that Eddie's RaDAR website is in the podcast show notes as well.
QSO Today is available in the iTunes store and in the Stitcher podcast app for both iPhone and Android. I'm always on the lookout for interesting guests for the podcast, please send me your suggestions on the comments page at www.qsotoday.com. Please take time to join the QSO Today community. I promise not to spam you or share your email address with anyone. There are buttons for this on the show notes page. Until next time this is Eric 4Z1UG. 73.
Well thanks Eddie. I'm glad that we could make it. Anyway, thanks for joining me. We begin every QSO Today Podcast with your opening story. When and how did you get into amateur radio?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Eric, thinking about amateur radio, I think it started at a very early age, really, when I was very, very young. I bought a crystal set like many radio amateurs did in those days, and I had a very supportive father who would take me into the city to go get some parts. And I remember the very high impedance headphones that he bought.
You probably don't get things like that anymore. And I bought my crystal radio and I could pick up commercial broadcast stations and listen to them, and that was really an introduction to ham radio at a very early age. It wasn't until many, many years later where my uncle had given me an alt valve shortwave radio ...
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Valves or tubes, for people that are from North America, right?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Yes. Absolutely. Tube radio or valve radio. And I had this radio set up in my Dad's garage, and every Sunday morning I'd go there and browse around the bands. And I heard the South African Radio League bulletin being broadcast, and I found this very, very interesting, and they said at the end of the broadcast that if you're interested you must drop them a line. And that was like writing them a letter, those days. There wasn't anything like SMS's or email. It was a straightforward letter that you'd post and it would probably arrive at its destination about two weeks later.
And then I became a listening member. And that was basically my introduction to amateur radio. And then I heard that you had to go to classes in the evenings to write the Radio Amateurs Examination. So my dad took me through to the evening classes which were around about 40 kilometers away from home, and I spend six months every Monday evening, I think it was, to study and learn for the Radio Amateurs Examination.
I was really young then. In fact, that was the first time I ever heard about pi. I'd never heard about pi in the math class at that stage. It was still an advanced concept, I suppose, at that stage. So it was quite interesting, and I was very, very fortunate to have passed the exam.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
How old were you?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
I was around about 15, 16 years old. The minimum age limit in South Africa to become a radio amateur in those days was 16. It's a lot lower now, much like the rest of the world, which is really great to get the young people interested in a hobby.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
The exams in America were multiple-choice. What are the exams like in South Africa?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
The time that I wrote, it was a written exam, where you had to draw pictures and write formulas, and work out the values. The amateur radio exams now are a multiple choice type exam. So it's changed quite a bit. I'm not exactly sure when the multiple choice exams came into being. It was probably around about the 1980's or 1990's, in that vicinity. But in the '70's it was most certainly a written exam.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So you were a teenager when you first got your amateur radio license. How is the licensing set up in South Africa? There are obviously various grades of license. And what was your first grade of license?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
My first grade of license was ZS. What was required then is to pass a class A exam, for technical, and also regulations. And then it was a requirement to do a 12 word per minute Morse code test. Now I must say, my brother helped me a lot here, because I really put him on the spot, he had to ask me what the letters and numbers were in Morse code, and I basically try and say what they were, and that's how I learned the Morse code.
And I could send really, really fast, which is really detrimental to learning Morse code. And it's only many, many years later that I got a little bit better with Morse code. I've never, ever left it. The other license was the ZR license. That was a VHF only license, where you wrote the exam. I can't exactly remember, it was probably the same technical exam that was required for the ZS, the only difference being the Morse code test.
Many years later, a ZU license was introduced, mainly to cater for young people. In fact, my son got his ZU license at a very young age, but they had to do five words per minute on Morse code as well. And he actually surprised me. He learned the five words at Morse code in five days.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
But you still take the same Class A license exam?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
The exam is still ... Things changed a little bit since the Morse code was removed as a requirement to become a radio amateur. Then it was a natural progress that the ZR licenses holders were given access to the HF bands. And in fact many people have chosen to stay with the ZR call sign because it becomes quite a sought after prefix for DX, although nowadays the ZS and the ZR is basically the same license.
The ZU license has been changed recently as well that you've got to be under the age of 25. If you're over the age of 25 then the ZU license becomes null, which is a pity really, but the ZU license is really for young radio amateurs.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So here you are a teenager, and you have an amateur radio license. Did you have any mentors, or Elmers as we call them in the States, who helped you along?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
You know Eric I browsed on this question for quite a while, and if I look through my life, and the way that I started amateur radio, I didn't know any people that were involved with amateur radio then. So really it was the support of my father, although he was more in the engineering field, the chemical engineering field, he supported me in my interest. It was only after I got my license that I met friends, and what is the same in the 1970's, and I learned a lot from them, and in fact we're still friends today.
We all remember those days. I remember friends who'd come over to my house and they'd help me tune my inverted vees to get them nicely resonant. And having friends like that, they would teach you the right way to tune a dipole, or whatever the case may be. So basically Elmers were friends that I met along the way. And still today, you meet up with new people, and you learn from other people as well.
And I like to share my knowledge as well, what I've gained over the years. In fact I'm going to be celebrating my 40 years as a radio amateur on the 17th of this month, I think. So I've learned a lot from people along the way, and I like to share my knowledge as well.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Hey, yeah, that's a great thing about ham radio. So do you remember what your first rig was?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
My first rig was a transmitter. It was the FLdx-400. In fact my very supportive dad took me into town and he bought me this transmitter, which was brand new from the supplier in Johannesburg, and well I didn't have a receiver, so that makes things a little bit difficult. But I knew a gentleman that I still know today, Danny ZS6 Alpha Whiskey, and I bought a secondhand, in fact I've probably about two or three secondhand receivers from him.
And so I worked with separate transmitter and receivers which makes it a little bit difficult. In fact, my first Morse code contact was with Rhodesia, which is Zimbabwe nowadays. The guy asked me to QSY to a different frequency, and I couldn't really read the transmitter dial, so I lost my first QSA.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
What was the receiver that you were using with [crosstalk 00:11:43] X?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
The receiver, I recall it being an AR-88 was one of the receivers, a very, very big receiver, probably a collector's item nowadays, with beautiful glowing dials and of course tubes inside. And another radio that I had was the KW-77. That was probably the model, I can't really remember what the make was. But it worked well.
It had nice filters. But it was difficult where we stayed. My dad had quite a bit stand, and the second half of the stand was covered with, I think it was 300,000 volt power lines. So I always had noise. So it was difficult.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So a stand is acreage?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
As acreage, yes it was in total about half an acre, which is quite big, and so there was a quarter on each side, and the one quarter, you had these power lines coming over. In fact, I had my inverted vees quite close to these lines, and if you were to go put your finger on the end of line, it would arc over and you'd feel those shocks in your elbow just from induction, so it was pretty high voltage stuff.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Amazing. And what is your current rig? What do you use now?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
I'm very, very fortunate to have found a secondhand FT-847 which I bought, well probably about five years ago. Before that I had the Icom 706 Mark II. And before that it was around about 1977 when I went to the army I bought an FT-101EE. And I had that rig for many, many years until I bought the Icom 706 Mark II. And in fact, going to a more modern rig gave me access to more modern amateur radio as well, and I realized then that you've got the nostalgia of having hybrid rigs or tube rigs, and they really very, very nice to use and so on, but you can't use them for digital modes or meteor scatter, all these lovely things that you can do a radio amateur.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Yes, that's true, but they're beautiful to have.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Absolutely.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Yeah. So what is your favorite mode of operation?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
I actually like many different modes Eric. I must say that I don't like to have long conversations on SSB. If they are SSB contacts I always promote the aircraft style communications. You pass what's necessary and possibly now and then you can have a nice chat with an old friend, but in the modern life, there's no time for that anymore. So quick USOs on SSB. I like CW as well, machine gun style CW contacts. I like the digital modes. In the digital modes, in fact, PSK, you know meteor scatter are using the weak signal modes of WSJT.
But really, if you have a look at my log on QRZcom, you'd find most of the contacts are CW. In fact I didn't work too many DX stations until RaDAR became international. I wasn't too much interested in working DX. But since RaDAR's become international it became a requirement to work DX, and so in the 39th or 40th year of amateur radio I'm working DX, but mostly CW.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I see. Amazing. So here you are a teenager with a ham radio license. How did having an amateur radio license and being interested in amateur radio, how did that affect the decisions you made for your schooling and your future career?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
I think if you look at right at the beginning of school, I was a member of an electronics club as school. And the electronics club was run by one of my friends who's mom and dad were radio amateurs. Pam Bonds, if I remember her name correctly. So that kept me in the scientific subject range, which I would try, like science and math and geography and things like that until I wrote matric. And I still had my ham radio license. And then it was ... All young South Africans in those days had to join the army when they left school.
And I thought, well, you know, I've got all this knowledge of being a radio amateur, and I can send and receive Morse code that I could go into signals in the army, but I wasn't initially sent to the signals unit. It was only a couple of months later where a very good friend of mine, Brian ZS6PKW lives in the UK now, he was an officer in the signals unit, and he kind of within a week got me to the signals unit where I spent the last 18 months of my military career in signals as a radio operator, passing intelligence through and things like that.
After the army I was ... I had to look for a career. And an actual career would be something that would involve electronics or electricity, and I was very fortunate to have been employed as a pupil of technician at the General Post Office then. So we got excellent training through them. So throughout my life amateur radio's really been there for me. It gives you an opportunity to see things from a different view that other people would not normally see.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
You alluded to earlier that your son is also an amateur radio operator. How did ham radio affect your family life?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
I spend quite a bit of time with my son the shack. My shack was in the house then, but it was really more a computer room with a radio. I had my FT-101 there. And we got involved with [Beckett 00:19:32] radio. And my son then having his license, he was ZU1 Alpha India. He got very much involved with Beckett radio which has a lot to do with computers. So in later years, and even still today, he's got his own business in the computer field. He learned programming. So it certainly had a positive effect on him.
It even went further. Well, he's not a radio amateur anymore, let's put this way, because he ... You know, young people discover the Internet and fancy modes of communication, and amateur radio looks outdated to them. If you haven't got really a passion for amateur radio and what it is in the modern world, then you can lose interest. But even later, I've got a little grandson, he's nine now.
And in some of the Youth Day contests I got him involved with as well. In fact to date he's won two book prizes for his involvement in the Youth Day activities. So I try and keep the interest at home there, but you've got to keep a nice balance between family life and amateur radio.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
What does the amateur radio community look like in South Africa? In North America I keep thinking that it's Hurricane Katrina that caused this explosion in amateur radio interest. When all of the infrastructure of the area blows away and the only thing that works is amateur radio. What's happening in South Africa? Is the amateur radio population growing? Is it stagnant? What do you see happening there?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
It's quite a difficult question to answer Eric. I talk to radio amateurs on a daily basis via Facebook and by the South African Radio League's forum. And we try to generate interest there. But it's difficult to say how many active radio amateurs there are in South Africa. I think members of the radio league are probably in the vicinity of 1500. For a country like South Africa, which is ... It's a small country, but there are a lot of people that 1500 members aren’t very much. But if you take those 1500 members, how many of them are active?
Many might work DX. Many might not take part in social media or forums. So if I can really count on my hands how many active people there are, I'd probably say there's around about 150, which is really not very much. There's quite an initiative on an ongoing basis from the South African Radio League to get youth involved. And I've got friends that are ... My friend Zulu Sugar 6 Victor, Lima, for example, he's very involved with the youth and Scout camps, and what they call a scout Trekkers here in South Africa it's very much like a Scout group, and try and promote interest amongst the youth there.
And they get it right. But still, it's difficult to get people interested in a technology that seems old. We don't get magazines on our news outlet racks at all. We don't see CQ magazine here, we don't see ... In the old days used the have 73 Magazine. I don't know if that is still ongoing. But you probably get a magazine that might discuss mechanical things, but anything involved with radio as such, you don't see. So it's difficult to get the message through to people. I think, for example, he tries to get the young people involved in activities like RaDAR. It must always be exciting to the young people. There's always something, what's in it for me.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Right, there's a lot of competition for their attention.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Yeah. They've got cellphones, and you've email, and you've got SMS's, and you've got Facebook and things like that. And that's very, very fast communication between young people. It's actually fantastic to post movies like the comparison between sending Morse code at high speed and somebody sending me an SMS. I'm sure that's many people who have seen that video, and it gives you a nice chuckle sometimes.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Yeah, I think I ... It was on Tonight Show or something like that, I think yeah. Yeah, no, I remember it. Well that's interesting. You write a very nice blog for ham radio. How did that start?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
The latest blog is really my second attempt Eric. I had my own website many, many years ago and it was northwestinternet.za.org, I think it was. The facilities to have databases in your own blog system. But you get spammed quite easily on your own blogs, so then I shut down those systems and I went to WordPress, where you've got protection. You've got exactly the same facilities.
It's very, very easy to add pictures and to write articles, share articles. It's basically a copy and paste from forums and things like that. So I used it basically to promote RaDAR as well. That's the prime purpose of the blog is because that is my passion, and yeah, it's a way to spread the word really.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So let's dive into RaDAR, and that was the reason that Greg told me about you and about RaDAR. Well, what is RaDAR and what are you doing with it?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Eric, RaDAR became something from something else many years ago. Here in South Africa we had ideas of working from the field. And we came up with a name, Shack in a Sack. And that doesn't sound very appealing.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Right. Yes. A go-kit.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Yeah. Essentially a go-kit, yes. And a friend of mine, a very good friend of mine, Hans ZS6 Alpha Kilo Victor. He's spent very much of his life involved in amateur radio and promoting amateur radio for many, many years. And a few years ago I took part in, or I was doing some presentations at our Radio and Technology in Action promotions which we hold in different parts of the country, and the last one was down in the Cape. And that afternoon when we ... No, let's put it this way. The previous evening we were having dinner, and he said, "Eddie, you know this Shack in a Sack is an incredible concept, but can't you give it a better name?"
This is typically how Hans speaks as well. So that lay on my mind the whole evening. And the next morning we flew back to Johannesburg from Cape Town it was a two hour flight. And as we landed, then we went to go and fetch our bags, I come up to Hans and probably it was the influence of the airport that I said, "Hans, how about calling this concept the RaDAR? Rapid deployment amateur radio." And that where the name started. And it became a buzzword. It's gone through an evolution as well, from the initial idea of Shack in a Sack.
We said, "Okay, well let's start contests. We'll take part in emergency exercises or contests as well. But let's make it a little bit different." We say, "Okay, well before any activity, you've got to carry all of your equipment for at least a kilometer." That basically forces you to carry everything with you. Now another one of my interests comes from jogging, really, long distance jogging. And I was introduced to trail running, which is off road running, and there you have to carry your own water and your own food and your clothing.
And I thought, you know, how about mixing the two of these, mixing radio, adventure type radio, outdoor radio, with trail running, a kind of survival. So those two merged together and made RaDAR even stronger. Then a few years later many of our local contests, our field days and QRP contests, another category was added there, where the QRP operator had to walk one kilometer. So it was basically what RaDAR was all about then.
Or if you take part in a field day competition, you're an on foot field day operator. They're totally different to what they were previously. So then RaDAR had to be different once again, and I thought, what can we do to more RaDAR even more special? And then I started doing experiments with one contact per kilometer moved. So on foot you'd have to make a contact, pack up your stuff, pull down your antennas, move one kilometer and erect everything again, and make another contact.
And that was a little bit strenuous, so for many people suffered. Well, let's make it five contacts for every kilometer move. And that idea picked up a little bit, but you've got a lot of people that like sitting in shacks and they don't want to running around. They practice radio, not running or jogging or anything like that. So it's difficult to promote that idea, but now the latest contest is not really a contest. For 2015 we've changed it to a challenge.
That was also to make worldwide contacts possible. If you look at propagation, different times of the day, and people all over the world. If you had a two hour, or four hour, or six hour contest, it's not going to be appropriate for everybody. So from this year it's a 24 hour challenge. And you can use all gains. The movement we expanded as well, that different types of movement come into play, where you've got portable stations in the field, include people at home, we call them fixed stations, or fixed RaDAR stations.
They might even set up their station in a different building or in somebody else's house, but it's not portable. Portable is away from home in the field. Now the moving stations are those on foot, and then you might get somebody who might like to ride in a mountain bike, or on a road bike, or on a motorcycle, or a quad, or even on a canoe or motorboat, or even in an aircraft. So RaDAR expanded now to these different types of movements. Now to make it fair we had to make the distance that you had to move fair.
And we took the on foot operator as one kilometer. And then in order to ride a bicycle, to be fair, from experience I found well, that if an on foot operator has to walk one kilometer, then a bicycle has the travel two kilometers. And if it's a motorcycle or a vehicle then they have to travel six kilometers. And if you want to travel in a canoe it's also a kilometer. And then we thought, now we're excluding the guys in wheelchairs, and we want to include them as well. So people in wheelchairs are very welcome to join in the RaDAR exercises and we say, okay, well move 500 meters that they also feel part of the excitement of practicing RaDAR.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I see. So RaDAR is an activity that has its basis in a portable station that you can carry on your back, some kind of movement. I mean it's involved right to any kind of movement, but movement of a considerable distance, setting up, packing it up and moving it again. So it seems to me that around this there's about a whole bunch of technology that comes out of this.
You've got to build small stations that are portable. You have to have antenna systems that you can erect, good antenna systems because you're also working contacts, so you have to have good antenna systems that you can easily erect and take down and move and do it again. Do you create a whole system around this?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Yes. It promotes experimentation, really with different antennas. And some antennas might not be very efficient, but they might fit in with the rapid deployment idea. When RaDAR was only local it was quite easy that around 40 meters you could put up an end-fed for example, that is really not all that efficient, but it works. You can get the message through. Now that RaDAR has become international, you might have to put up a wire beam, but now you have to go and experiment on a continuous basis.
It doesn't make sense to wait until the challenge is there. So it promotes continuous experimentation with amateur radio, rapid deployment antennas, battery systems, because to keep the kit down its incredible how quickly the weight of a backpack increases when you start putting in wire antennas, batteries, a radio mic, Morse code key, water. I normally carry at least two liters of water with me. And high energy food, or maybe sandwiches that you ... Because you might be out there for a few hours. You might be in the blistering sun.
You might be out there for 24 hours. That's the latest challenge. So you've got to be able to look after yourself, and you might even have to carry a raincoat, for example, because you might be caught in the rain. You've got to protect your equipment. So a lot of the dynamics come together and survival starts being part of RaDAR as well. You've got to think of everything. And you've got [crosstalk 00:37:02] a good communicator.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
That's amazing. So this has become a nationwide activity, in South Africa? And you say it's become international as well?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Yes. I think ... I had a friend Jack Victor Kilo 4 Juliet Romeo Kilo. He belonged to a radio club in Australia, and the acronym for the radio club was RADAR. So he discovered the word RaDAR through the Internet as well. And when he was in South Africa he come to visit me, and we're still very, very good friends. So RaDAR went to Australia, and Jack promotes it there amongst his friends. And then Marcus Kessler, from the USA, NX5, I can't 100% remember his call sign on hand. And through Marcus Kessler, Greg Lanes in N4KGL learned about RaDAR and he's done a lot of promotion in the USA on RaDAR.
And then we've got friends, Tom Robinson in the UK. G0 Sierra Bravo Whiskey. Also he's quite an elderly ham now, and what he gets right, and his passion for RaDAR and for pedestrian mobile is really quite phenomenal. He even does the bicycle thing and “balls kits” backpacking on a daily basis. In fact, it's amazing to see Tom and also Greg what they do on a regular basis, and experimentation, sharing ideas through the Google Plus RaDAR group.
Anybody really interested in RaDAR should really join that group, it's also international. People, friendly people, a lot of guys there that have done promotional work, promotional videos, really awesome. Another friend of ours from Finland, Survival Tech Nord, Julia, really awesome videos that these guys make on the RaDAR group on Google Plus. So certainly to find out some more information where to really see the excitement of RaDAR, it's certainly worthwhile joining up.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Wow, yeah, that's amazing. I never thought of this until you mentioned this. This is really quite interesting. So you've combined survivalism, exercise, that's something that everybody needs now, obviously packing the right radio. And that obviously creates then a whole industry of portable radios. People need to make them smaller, because the less you can carry, the more other stuff you can carry. This is quite remarkable Eddie, what you've done.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Thank you.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So okay, I see that ... And every year the contest then can evolve. So it can evolve in terms of different locations, or different bands that are operated on. Maybe you do a single band contest one year or something like that. So you're always having to come up with some new activity for the RaDAR group.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
RaDAR has evolved quite a bit over the years, but I think it's started to become refined now. In fact, during the challenge, we us any band that's available to amateur radio, any mode. It could be digital modes, it could be SSB, and it could be FM. Even on VHF and UHF channels, although we don't promote the use of repeaters. We like to get the guys to get optimum antennas and work simplex on VHF or UHF. But you mustn't forget the satellites. For many, many years I was, even with the FT-847 that I got, I get very much involved with satellites, in the time of AO-51.
Not very many are left out there nowadays, but the SSB satellites like FA-29 and AO-7 are still up there. AO-7 has been up there since 1974 and it's still working. And in fact, right in the first stages of radar, during the contests, I was able to make satellite contacts with the stations. And we give extra points for any satellite or digital contacts, the initial, the first one, just to promote the use of satellites and digital radio.
So certainly we mustn't forget the satellites. So, in fact, even the international space station, if there's what they call a SAT Gate, it's very like an APRS IGATE. And when people listen out for the space station. And I did an experiment once, running a mountain race, and I had this backpack. I still had an old walkie talkie and a Garmin Legend GPS, and a home bought APRS tracker. And I could digipeat my position through the space station as it came over. So that was something quite exciting.
So we've got to use technology. RaDAR uses anything at its disposal. It might use a smartphone for applications that are written for amateur radio. It could be used for digital communications like RTTY, or even slow scan TV, you might want to send somebody a picture from the field for example. So anything that's available to amateur radio, radio operators tend to use in every way. So we must be practicing every method of communication. We like to promote that.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Do you use APRS? I mean, how do people track their locations? Are they using electronic maps and when they set down and set up their stations they take their coordinates? I mean obviously you guys are going to use GPS and stuff like that now, how do you keep track of that?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
APRS is especially here in South Africa, and especially in the area where I live, where they're aren't very many radio amateurs or infrastructure. You need an internet backbone infrastructure with IGATE’s listening for APRS signals. Now in the city you might get that, but certainly not here. There are applications that you can use using a cell phone, and using a cell phone's GPS functionality, you can parse your coordinates via the cell network to the APRS network.
That kind of moves away from amateur radio as such, but it's another facility that you might want to use. There's other applications where your GPS coordinates can be converted to a Morse code signal, and while you're on the move you might have a beacon being sent out in Morse code, and people can decipher your position and plot that on a map. So there's very many options where infrastructure isn't there. So it's all up the innovative operator to use technology to achieve his purposes.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So there are RaDAR activities that are coordinated. But you're referring to yourself and others as RaDAR operators, even though there's no planned competition or something like that happening. This is the way you operate now, is that right?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Absolutely. You know Eric, it becomes a lifestyle that ... I think many radio hams might have the problem there's no place at home for ... Not everybody has got the facilities to have a whole room for his own radio station and to have antennas up in the air at home. I kind of move away from that nowadays, that your shack as such is different every time you go out. And your shack window, I often say this, your shack window could be overlooking a beautiful river, or a mountain in the distance, or a beautiful forest, or wherever you might be deploying.
If we look at SOTA and the German Mountain Activity Group, which is very much adventure radio orientated, and climbing mountains. As RaDAR fills the gap there as well, because not everybody's got a mountain to climb nearby. Certainly a mountain that we were to climb here last year, I had to drive 400 to 500 kilometers just to get to a decent mountain to climb. So we can't all do SOTA. We can't all join in the GMA activities, but we can take part in RaDAR.
And we can all take part in the excitement of RaDAR. And RaDAR generates professional interest in radio amateurs that are able to communicate in any way. You might have a problem and you might be full of ways in which to solve that problem in different ways. But if you practiced and you can make the right decision and communicate. The thing's got spin offs to emergency communications and emergency radio support and things like that, which is quite a good thing.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I had Dennis Blanchard K1YPP on the show. Dennis wrote a book about traveling the Appalachian Trail. And the Appalachian Trail in North America runs from ... It runs along the East Coast of North America, I think from South Carolina all the way up to Maine. Its 2100 miles, which is I guess, oh I don't know, that's almost more than 4000 kilometers. And he did a very similar thing. He operated ham radio along the way with a transceiver that was about the size of an Altoids can. He did this ... It was an event and it's done, but it sounds to me like RaDAR means that you can do this every weekend.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Yes.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Any time you feel like you want to just park the car and start hiking, you have an opportunity to operate.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Yeah. Greg Lane is a typical guy that does that. He often promotes his activities and he calls it RaDAR lunch. So during his lunch periods he goes and plays RaDAR, puts up antennas quickly, makes a few contacts, testing antenna systems, and things like that. And the people that constantly practice the concept, those are the guys that come out on top during the challenges as well. It's really amazing to see what some of these RaDAR operators achieve.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
It's an amateur radio lifestyle.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Yes. Absolutely.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Oh, that's so crazy. Wow. And do radio operators work in the national parks there in South Africa? Can you go on safari and do radar?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
We promote Parks on the air, I think that's P-O-T-A. Anywhere that's available we're going to do some activities from there. I'm very fortunate in a way is where I live in Lichtenburg, we used to have a game breeding farm very, very close to my home. There's no animals there anymore, unfortunately. We used to have rhino and buck and all the wild animals that you would hope to see. But fortunately I can go into the field there with my dinners. I can go on a bicycle or jog there or walk there and just go and spend the afternoon in the wide open spaces underneath the tree and put a few antennas and experiment and communicate.
In fact many of the times I go out into the field I don't make many contacts, but I enjoy putting up the antennas. I enjoy working at mechanical things, so possibly that's what I got from my dad as well. Ideas, funny I have good ideas to put up an antenna quickly, and go try them out in the field. And then maybe make a contact or two to see that everything's working and it's really a lot of fun. But to get out into the open is really ... Every different deployment you do you've got a different shack window. And memories that you can carry forever.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Wow. I'm going to put a link to your website in the show notes page. Wow, this is new to me. I'm blown away. Eddie, what advice would you give to a new or returning ham radio operators?
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
I think what I discovered late in my ham radio career is that things aren't as critical as what they seem. In fact, when I got my Icom 706 Mark II, I went to one of the first Radio and Technology in Action shows that the South African Radio League Presented. And there was somebody talking about working the AO-51 Satellite. And throughout my whole career, from the 1970's, I always thought working satellites is rocket science.
Don't think things are all that difficult. In fact, I started working satellites using a wooden boom and a couple of brazing rods for the elements, and I effectively worked satellites that way. In fact I worked DX satellites even into Brazil. I think I've got the unofficial record, distance record via FI29 between myself and Luciano BY5 Libra Foxtrot 4CW on FI29. And it wasn't that I had to have fancy rotator systems for SMS at elevation and high gain cross Yagis of 15 or 20 elements and you need 200 watts.
It's all these stories that make people think that things are too complicated. I'd say anybody coming back into amateur radio is at least invest in a good, synthesized HF radio that can handle shortwave or the HF bands, six meters, two meters, and seventy centimeters. And that'll be an investment in your radio career where you get access to many different types of communication. And you don't have to go very high power as well. I was quite amazed ... I've never used in my life more than 100 watts, but the sense of satisfaction that you get using 5 watts is 10 things that of using 100 watts.
100 watts makes it simply too easy. You can pull up a piece of wire and you can work anyone in the world on 100 watts. It's a little bit of a challenge on 5 watts, but once you get it right, and you build your antenna and you see it works and you can communicate, that's what gives you kicks. Sometimes if things come too easy, then the rewards isn't all that great. But if you battle to get to a point, even walking five kilometers to get to a tree that you want to sit under, putting up your antenna, maybe working one or two stations on five watts, it's absolutely worthwhile.
So I'd say you know, get out of the shack and get into nature and enjoy what the world has to offer, and in so doing, enjoy your ham radio career as well.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
That's a lovely way to end our QSO today. Eddie, I really appreciate very much that you’re coming on. I'm with you a hundred percent. I had no idea this is what RaDAR was about, and now that I understand it better I'm going to deep dive into your website and start at the very beginning and learn more about it. It makes an awful lot of sense, and it doesn't have to be expensive to be fun.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Absolutely.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So with that 73.
Eddie, ZS6BNE:
Thank you very much Eric and thank you for inviting me to QSA today, and very nice to meet you as well. I hope we can keep in touch. Keep well Eric.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
That concludes this episode of QSO today. I hope that you enjoyed my QSO with Eddie, ZS6BNE as much as I did. Be sure to check out the show notes page as www.qsotoday.com and put in ZS6BNE in the search bar at the top of the page where I will post links to the references that Eddie made in the podcast. I'll also deep dive and make sure that Eddie's RaDAR website is in the podcast show notes as well.
QSO Today is available in the iTunes store and in the Stitcher podcast app for both iPhone and Android. I'm always on the lookout for interesting guests for the podcast, please send me your suggestions on the comments page at www.qsotoday.com. Please take time to join the QSO Today community. I promise not to spam you or share your email address with anyone. There are buttons for this on the show notes page. Until next time this is Eric 4Z1UG. 73.
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