Go Ahead, Try RaDAR

RaDAR is Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio. The first Saturday of April and November are the RaDAR Rally Events. The upcoming RaDAR Rally is on April 5th, 2025. The rules are on www.radarrally.info. Go ahead and try RaDAR. It is a fun and exciting outdoor ham radio challenge. This was the topic of our Feb 24th, 2025, Beginner's Academy Zoom.

Registration is Open for the April 5th, 2025 RaDAR Rally

RaDAR is Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio conceived by Eddie Leighton ZS6BNE. RaDAR encourages outdoor operating with a unique challenge: make five contacts and redeploy as fast as possible in four hours. The RaDAR Challenge has become the RaDAR Rally with some rule tweaks. Please take a look at the complete rules here. If you are interested, please make your plans and register. Registration will facilitate RaDAR to RaDAR contacts. Email your registration info below to the RaDAR Rally POC, Greg Lane, at lanekg@gmail.com. I'll accept registrations through April 4th UTC. If your plans change, send me an update. This is not a contest; it is just for fun! Check out this intro video and the April 2025 roster here.

Registration info includes:
Name
Call
Day (Sat or Sun)
Venue,
Start UTC
Conveyances
Bands
Modes
QRP (Y or N)
Spotting method (optional)


Good luck,


Greg N4KGL

The New RaDAR Rally Spotter/Logger

A big thanks to Eddie ZS6BNE, the founder of RaDAR, for using his IT skills to provide us with a RaDAR Rally-Specific Spotter/Logger. I highly encourage its use for the November 2nd RaDAR Rally. I am excited about the spotting function. You can use the first link to spot yourself. That will help other RaDAR ops and chasers to find you. You can check for spots using the second link below. Contacts can be logged with the first link. It is optional to log in real-time.  You may make more than five contacts at a stop, but please choose the five you want to keep for the score and delete the rest. The third link will submit your log and calculate your score. I encourage chasers to enter contacts with RaDAR ops. Chasers will get a score, and if their contacts are QSL, then the RaDAR op gets a bonus. The basic logging and spotting are working. Eddie can tweak the evaluation after the event if required. Please feel free to submit a summary according to the rules if you don't use the logger. 

Guide to logger

Main Page

The RaDAR Rally online logger : https://radarops.co.za/radar_rally/RaDAR_Rally_Logger.html

The RaDAR Rally OPEN View : https://radarops.co.za/radar_rally/RaDAR_Rally.html

The RaDAR Rally Evaluator : https://radarops.co.za/radar_rally/evaluate_rally.html

Heads Up for the RaDAR Rally

RaDAR stands for Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio. The next RaDAR Rally is on November 2nd, 2024. We will discuss how you can participate in our Beginner's Academy Zoom Meeting recorded on September 9th, 2024. Visit www.radarrally.info and join the RaDAR group on groups.io for more information.

Registration is Open for the Nov 2nd, 2024 RaDAR Rally

RaDAR is Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio conceived by Eddie Leighton ZS6BNE. RaDAR encourages outdoor operating with a unique challenge: make five contacts and redeploy as fast as possible in four hours. The RaDAR Challenge has become the RaDAR Rally with some rule tweaks. Please take a look at the complete rules here. If you are interested, please make your plans and register. Registration will facilitate RaDAR to RaDAR contacts. Email your registration info below to the RaDAR Rally POC, Greg Lane, at lanekg@gmail.com. I'll accept registrations through Nov 1st UTC. If your plans change, send me an update. This is not a contest; it is just for fun! Check out this intro video and the November 2024 roster here.

Registration info includes:
Name
Call
Day (Sat or Sun)
Venue,
Start UTC
Conveyances
Bands
Modes
QRP (Y or N)
Spotting method (optional)


Good luck,


Greg N4KGL

May 11th RaDAR Rally!

For those who want more RaDAR. We will have a one-time extra RaDAR Rally on May 11th, 2024.  Use the same RaDAR Rally rules at https://www.radarrally.info/p/radar-rally-rules.html  

Please use https://groups.io/g/RaDAR/ to let us know your plans.

Have fun,

Greg N4KGL

April 2024 RaDAR Rally Reports

Our RaDAR Rally photo album is here.

Sherri n5uxi:

My Antenna and radio a Yaesu 857 D
MFJ antenna that telescopes
Had a blast!

John KH6RF/KL7:

Had a blast doing the RaDAR Rally today. I tuned around but didn’t hear any of the other participants. I did work lots of DX, though: Finland, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Slovenia & Japan. Here’s my report:


Name: John Pfeifer
Call: KH6RF/KL7
Day: Saturday
Venue: 5 Alaska POTA references
Start: 1900z
Conveyance: Pickup Truck
Band: 20m
Modes: Mostly CW, a bit of SSB
QRP: No (70 watts)
Number of QSOs:
Zero R-to-R,
51 POTA QSOs,
no other QSOs,
7 Deployments,
?? Bonus Points

(I was a POTA activator for all of my QSOs. Two were park-to-park QSOs.)

Eight-digit grid squares for your deployments:

BP51CB08, BP51C87, BP51EA00, BP50GX33, BP50HW83, BP50LV07 & BP50LU94

Thanks & 73,

John

Lucy M6ECG:


I made three vehicle deployments and one by bicycle. My best contacts were three into Australia from Deployment #1 one of whom works as a Flying Doctor!
Conditions windy and cold but dry. Propagation excellent. I had a great time! See below:

Greg N4KGL:

Tom WD0HBR was my teammate during the April 2024 RaDAR Rally. Our venue was Falling Waters State Park in Florida. Tom, Suzy, and I walked the trails to four locations within four hours making five contacts at each on 20 meters. We used the FX-4CR rig on SSB with both the SOTABeams 40-30-20 link dipole and the Alexloop mag loop. The last stop was my favorite, using the Elecraft KH-1 running five-watt CW. It is a handheld rig with a four-foot whip antenna. I got the last five there for a total of twenty contacts. The weather could not have been better. Tom and I enjoyed our team's RaDAR outing.