POTA South Africa
Equipment
ZS6DX/ZS2M

Some information on the equipment I use for POTA activations as well as SOTA, Field day and just general hiking. This includes current equipment (at the top of the page) as well as historic equipment (at the bottom of the page).

As I change and upgrade equipment often this page is always "Work in Progress"

Current equipment - 2024

At the moment I have a few radios I use for POTA/SOTA and hiking. The radio I select depends on how far I am planning on hiking, how important light weight is and if there is a requirement for more than 5 to 10W.

Most of the time I only run 5W but I have found that with the limited number of local CW operators and only a few more SSB operators, it is often difficult to get a full activation (10 contacts) when only running 5W especially on SSB.

It is also unfair to local hunters when you run such low power and the cannot hear you. So my current active collection of radios allow me to run from 5W (or less) up to 100W. For the 3 low power radios (Yaesu FT-817, R928+ and Xiegu X6100) I have the option to add the fantastic little Micro PA50 amplifier. This is a RF sensing, auto band changing amplifier that will give you a clean 55W output with a 2-4W drive depending on band. See the photo below.

Yaesu FT-891

This is now my primary radio when I am not too worried about weight, it replaced the FT-897D in my line-up. It is a stunning radio, it is compact and very well built. The receiver sounds fantastic and the 3KHz roofing filter that comes standard is great. The IF based DSP driven variable band width control is also great.

The radio has CW as well as SSB memories so you can record standard things like CQ calls, this helps a lot after  few hours during a contest or activation, it really saves your arm/hand (CW) or your voice (SSB)

The radio has a current draw of around 650ma on receive, this is far better than other 100W radios, a big plus when you are running from batteries you had to carry.

Yaesu FT-891, I love it!

The FT-891 is now my preferred radio unless minimum weight is a must.

Xiegu X6100

This is a great portable SDR radio. It is compact, light, has an internal battery that will last 2 to 3 hours, enough for a POTA activation and it has a great receiver. The radio runs Linux so you can actually log into  the radio on operating system level and make changes or load new software.

The radio also has a great screen visible in daylight, unlike some of the other SDR radios on the market today.

The internal tuner works well and it really convenient, will tune all the antennas I have tried on it so far.

The radio will run 5W on the internal battery or 10W on an external 12V supply. When I need more than that I use the Micro PA50 amplifier.

The radio has an internal sound card and USB port so CAT control and interfacing a computer to run Winlink does not require an additional interface, just a USB cable.

Xiegu X6100


X6100 with 3D printed paddle and Micro PA50 amplifier.


Micro PA50 amplifier, also shows you power output, SWR, voltage, band and temperature of final transistors.


X6100 in the field

The X6100 does have  few issues. It can run quite hot so on a hot summers day you really need to supply additional cooling. I have also had a few lock-ups when transmitting CW, the radio would simply stay in transmit and you have to force a switch-off by holding the on/off button down for about 30 seconds. This has only happened a few times and not recently. I did do a firmware upgrade and since then it seems fine I hope it stays like that!

You can key (for CW) the radio using RTS via the USB cable, this is useful when you are running contest logging software like N1MM+, unfortunately this is not implemented well as it will truncate elements while sending quite often, and not just at the start of the transmission. This makes this great feature useless, maybe a future firmware update will solve this.

Keying via the CW key/paddle port is fine.

The standard microphone cable that comes with the radio is not shielded so, especially if you use an amplifier, you will get RF feedback into the audio circuit. This has been reported by many users. Until I can find a shielded microphone cable this makes the use of more than 10W not feasible on the X6100 on SSB, exactly the time you need it. At the moment I will only use the FT-891 when I need more than 10W on SSB. On CW higher power is fine.

I do like the X6100 a lot but as it is now it does have limitations so it is used less than it could be if everything worked the way it should.

R928+

This is a nice, cost effective little SDR radio from China.

It will run up to 8-11W, depending on the band. It has an internal battery but it is quite small, on 5W I seldom get more than 1 hour out of it. It does not have an internal tuner like the X6100 so if the antenna you are using has a SWR that is higher than it should be you need an external tuner.

I have used a few external tuners with this radio and the FT-817 in the past. The LDG tuner works great but it is quite large. Recently I started using the tiny ATU 100 tuner and it is fantastic! I also use it when the Micro PA50 amplifier is in use.

Initially I had some issues with the R928+. The audio on SSB was terrible! I managed to solve this by re-doing the complete setup and re-calibration of the system. You need to start with setting the bias on the finals and then all the settings per band. It is quite a proses but yielded a radio that works well.

Just as I was happy with the radio and wanted to take it out for a QRP portable contest it suddenly developed a boot problem, it would get stuck in self diagnostics. It gave up on it for almost a year before I had a look at it again. It turned out to be a tiny, almost microscopic, piece of loose solder that caused a short circuit on 2 of the pins on a processor. Once that was cleared it worked well again, for a while.

Next it suddenly stopped outputting any power in TX, again it went into a drawer, I though the finals were blown. After a few months I took it out again and opened it up, planning to remove the finals to check them. I discovered a few bad (dry) solder joints on the finals. Once I re-flowed those the radio was fine again, and still is.

The problem is I don't really trust it and I won't take it out of a hike or activation as the only radio. Maybe this will change if it behaves but for now it remains a "second" radio on an activation.

R928+, a great radio when it is working!

Paddles

For POTA CW activations I have 2 paddles I use at the moment. The little 3D printed one with a magnetic "spring" and a very nice stainless steel paddle that I imported from China. They both work well, the 3D printed version is lighter but the stainless steel version is more sturdy and has a better "feel".

Stainless steel paddle attached to FT-817 with it's magnets.


The little blue 3D printed paddle can be seen above.

Tuners.

Here are the two tuners I use in the field, both work well but the ATU-100 is so small and compact plus it works so well that I now use it most of the time.

The LDG Z-11Pro II tuner beneath the FT-817.


The ATU-100 tuner, it show you power out, SR and what matching was needed to get a low SWR.

Antennas.

For years I used either dipole antennas (single band) or fan-dipole antennas (multi band) when out in the field. They worked well but the fan dipoles were a pain to put up and you were always a bit limited as far as useable bands were concerned.

2 band fan-dipole in the bush.

Recently I decided to try an EFHW (End Fed Halve Wave) antenna with a 49:1 transformer. When cut to the correct length, easy with my nanoVNA, this antenna will resonate on 40, 20, 15 and 10m, no tuner needed, and with the addition of a loading coil/trap you can add 80m. It only needs a single support an one point, can be at ground level, to tie the end to.

It works really well and has now become my standard "away from home" antenna.

Antenna mast.

I have been using a Comet 8m aluminum mast for quite a while now. It works great and it is sturdy. My only complaint is weight and bulk, it is not fun to carry over any longer distance! With this in mind I have just ordered a Spiderbeams 12m fiber glass mast. Not only is it more compact when collapsed, it is longer when extended and lighter. Once I have used it I will report back on it.

Batteries.

I bought 2 new "22Ah" Lithium batteries specifically for POTA and SOTA. Once I received them I was really surprised at how light they were, but I smelled a "rat", I have been using Lithium batteries for a very long time and I have a pretty good idea of the weight/capacity ratio.

So I decided to run a full charge - discharge - charge cycle on the "22Ah" Lithium battery I bought for POTA. Well, to my not so big surprise my suspicion was confirmed, the "22Ah" battery is actually a 12Ah battery! Seems like you cannot trust the specifications of stuff that is manufactured in China! Shame on you!

I opened up one of the two packs a have only to find a battery, shrink rapped, in the case that does not even fill half the case.

But all is not lost, I operated for more than 2 hours (Activating ZA-0078) at mostly high power and used 5.2Ah so the pack would still be good for at least 4-5 hours of high power use and more than double that for low power use. Perfect for POTA and SOTA use. That combined with the light weight, and maybe smaller size as I am considering removing the "real" battery from the pack to save space, still makes this a great POTA/SOTA battery, just a shame about the lies from the manufacturer (Ingle)!

The "22Ah" battery that is actually 12Ah.

Historic equipment - Pre 2024

Yaesu FT-890/850

This was one of my first HF radios, I first used it while on a DX pedition with two other hams in Swaziland.  After that I used it for a long time during field days and while camping. I also used it for 2 years on a sailing yacht. This was before POTA or SOTA, from around 1998 to 2001.

The radio worked well (I still have it in my collection). By today's standards it is large and heavy and I would never consider taking it on a hike but back then it was perfect for the job.

Over the years I had two issues with it, first the VFO tuning knob seized, it took a lot of work to get it free again but 24 years later it is still fine. I think the original issue was no lubrication in the brass bearing  from the factory.

The second issue was a sudden jump in frequency after heating up that it developed after a few years. It turned out to be a faulty/aging variable capacitor in the reference oscillator. Once I tracked down the problem and replaced the component it was fine again.

Yaesu FT890/850

The FT-890 was replaced by the Icom IC-706 mk2

ICOM IC-706 mk 2

Around 1999 I acquired this radio specifically to use mobile and for SOTA that was just starting up. It was also the radio that I used for my first SOTA activation, Magaliesberg ZS/GP-008, This was also the very first SOTA activation in South Africa. I was part of the team that originally mapped peaks in South Africa.

Icom IC-706 mk 2 complete with external AT-180 tuner.


IC-706, in the shade, on ZS/GP-008. 1 January 2003

I used the IC-706 for a while but I must admit I never liked the very harsh audio and the high levels of "white noise" on the air.

Yaesu FT-897D and FT-857D

I eventually sold it and replaced it with a larger, but far better radio the Yaesu FT-897D. At the same time I also bought a Yaesu FT-857 but I never really used to in the field. The audio was very similar to the IC-706 so in total I spent less than 1 hour on the air with it before I sold it again. It was also terrible on CW!

Yaesu FT-857D, nice and compact but I did not like the sound.

The Yaesu FT-897D was a far better radio as far as I am concerned. It had a far quieter receiver and it worked well on CW. For the next 20 years it was my main SOTA/Field day radio. I still have the radio today (with the matching tuner) and as recently as a few months ago, before I acquired the FT-891, I still used it in the field.

Yaesu FT-897D with tuner.


FT-897 in a log cabin in the mountains. Used with the Signalink interface and Winlink software to provide email facilities in the wild.

At the same time as when I acquired the FT-897 and the FT-857 I also bought a Yaesu FT-817.

Yaesu FT-817

This little radio is stunning! Over the years I used it when hiking, for SOTA activations and QRP contest field station, I love it!

Yaesu FT-817


FT-817 with LDG tuner and LiPo battery, QRP contest portable station.


Having fun with the FT-817 during a QRP contest. 2024

The FT-817 was also used from the shack for many CQWW and ARRL contests running in the QRP class. It always performed well, my only wish was that it had better noise canceling abilities and a narrow CW filter.

You can install a narrow CW filter and I did look for one but could not find one for a decent price. This was the main reason I started looking for a replacement around 2021. The initial radio I replaced the FT-817 with was the little R928+ SDR radio. In many was it was an improvement but I initially had some reliability issues with it so the FT-817 remained in service for a while along with "replacements".

(c)R Venter 1996-2024
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