POTA South Africa
Suikerkop Hiking Trail - ZA-0078 6-7 September 2025
ZS2M

I decide to activate my local POTA hiking trail again while also running a field station during our twice yearly SARL Field Day contest.

I managed to get to the place I had in mind for the field station about 1 hour before the 10am (local) starting time. I found a spot close to the hiking trail (about 20m) that was accessible with my vehicle, there is no road but it is reasonably level and the rocks small enough that you can drive there very slowly and carefully in a 4x4 vehicle.

I erected the antennas, the 40m dipole on the 8m mast and the EFHW on the 12m mast (only used 11m) strapped to the sturdy (it had 3 guy ropes as well) 8m mast.

The masts worked well but later in the day the wind came up and the 12m Spiderbeam mast started bending really badly. I like the Spiderbeam mast but to be quite honest it is too flexible, when it is windy no more than 8m is really usable. This makes the more sturdy, and lighter, 8m Comet mast a better option most of the time.

Once I had everything setup the fun started. There were quite a few local Field Day stations already on the air so I had quite a few nice, pre-contest, chats. I compared the 40m dipole and the EFHW on the local 40m contacts and I found that there was no difference, both worked really well.

It soon became apparent that I must have chosen a really good spot! I was getting really good signal reports on SSB running 5W, most stations could not believe I was running only 5W. I had signal reports of 59 plus as much as 30dB from stations all over Southern Africa.

I think I will be using this spot again! It is on a gentile hill and open in all directions. Towards the north there is a mountain but it is far enough away to be below 10 degrees above the horizon so it did not interfere with my radiation take-off angle.

Antennas up and ready to go!


The Spiderbeam mast is already bending in the light breeze!

Soon the contest and the fun started! I started with the Xiegu X6100 running 5W from the internal battery. Most local stations were on 40m and SSB. I ended up working only 3 local stations on CW.

Xiegu X6100 with microphone and 3D printed paddle ready for action.

After a while I did connect a 22A/h (actually 12A/h according to my tests) Lithium battery to the X6100 so that I did not have to worry about running the internal battery down too far.

I spent most of the morning and early afternoon working local stations on 40m, often having a bit of a rag-chew as well. These low-key local contests can be fun because everyone is relaxed and not too worried about making the most QSO's.

By around 3pm local time I had a listen on the higher bands. 20m was buzzing with CW signals! Seemed like there were more than one contest going! I joined the fun and I managed to make quite a few contacts even with just 5W and a (low) wire antenna.

It was a bit confusing at times as the contests required different exchanges! At some point I was making QSO's where I needed to send serial numbers, I then had a QSO with a station and I sent him 131 as a serial number, he asked for quite a few repeats, even though signals were strong! I could not understand what his problem was only to find out later that he was in a different contest and I was supposed to send my age, no wonder he could not understand!

After sunset (and having made something to eat on a gas stove, I tried 80m. I did managed to work all the stations I could hear, the band was really quiet as I had no QRM, but there were not that many stations on the air.

Later in the evening I decided to test my portable Winlink setup. I use this for emergency communication. It is nice to have the ability to send and receive email even when there is no internet connection available. I tested with both the Xiegu X6100 and the FT-891. Both worked well but I suppose in a real emergency where the message needs to get through the additional power form the FT-891 would be the better option.

Testing the Yaesu FT-891 with Winlink, already dark but a full moon can be seen as well as the EFHW 49:1 transformer.

It became really windy later in the evening and the Spiderbeam mast was bending almost horizontal so I dropped it down to 8m.

I had a decent, if short, night's sleep. Early the next morning the bands were quiet, seemed like everyone was still sleeping so I decided to shoot a time-lapse of the sunrise. I did manage to get a few photos.

Pre-sunrise from the Field station.

Sadly my plans to shoot a time-lapse sequence of the sunrise did not quite work out as planned as fog/clouds rolled in and messed up the sunrise! The result was still interesting, you can see the resulting video clip HERE

After the sunrise it became really humid and everything was wet due to the low clouds and fog. Since I could only hear stations I had already worked I decided to pack up and head home.

I must admit that I really enjoyed the whole Field Day experience, the radio side was fun and the camping bit was also great. I did not see a single person while I was there, my only visitors were a few sheep and a herd of Kudus that passed me early in the morning.

Visitors!

Everything worked well, I think in the future I will just used my trusty EFHW antenna. As far as radios are concerned all 3 radios worked well, the X6100 would be my first choice if I need to carry the radio and battery more than a short distance. If bad band conditions are expected I think I would choose the FT-891.

I think I will be camping and playing radio more this summer!

(c)R Venter 1996-2024
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