View Full Version : Calling all hams
rlharris
11-04-2007, 21:55
Not the edible kind. :p
Any hams out there that hike? Do you carry a hand held transceiver? Which model and why did you select it? I'm thinking of getting a Yaesu VX-6r or VX-7r for use in an emergency. :-?
I don't have a cell phone -- and don't have cell phone signal within ten miles of home but there are a number of repeaters within range of where I hike in the Whites.
Wise Old Owl
11-04-2007, 23:14
Ok that was a good question, I have used both a vhf & uhf here in Pennsylvania. I used to take them on the trail & hilltop them into repeaters from the AT and the cemetary in Centralia. I can honestly say you would be better off leaving them behind. As emergency gear they cannot be beat. The frustration in PA is that some of the hams are a Clickish bunch and if they don't know ya, they wont even respond to your call. Many of the repeaters are Pl and between the weight & power requirements the radios would need to be recharged each time you hit a town. Simplex works great from the top, but don't expect much conversation. Someone would have to "open" the repeater for you to make a call sometimes. I have had a few freindly conversations that were just for fun only to have the system operator pull the plug on the repeater. I can honestly say a cell phone on the ATT or Cingular network would hold the most promise in an emergency on this portion on the AT. My dad hikes with me and only once did his Verizon Cell have signal and I didn't, He usually has to place calls on my cell when we get to the woods. Like anything else I have tried it and for a while it was ok, but now I go light.
Thanks for asking,'
Mark
N3GWD
Passionphish
11-04-2007, 23:58
I'm not using my equipment as backup or anything else while hiking. Sorry. But I just thought I'd chime in! If you find a really light rig, I would love to hear about it. I'm only a Tech-no-code. So nothing really fancy.
Passionphish (kg4fhe)
Uncle Silly
11-05-2007, 00:48
When I hiked up Mt Greylock in '05 there were a bunch of hams setting up antennas and such at the top. Some kind of competition, I didn't get much in the way of details. It was pretty weird walking into an antenna forest on the AT.
When I hiked up Mt Greylock in '05 there were a bunch of hams setting up antennas and such at the top. Some kind of competition, I didn't get much in the way of details. It was pretty weird walking into an antenna forest on the AT.
I ran into one of these ham-radio antenna nests on a section hike in New Jersey. It was on the ridge above Culver Gap. Same deal, I think. Some kind of competition. There were folks (presumably hams) camped nearby making breakfast. They didn't offer me any. :(
Lone Wolf
11-05-2007, 09:33
There were folks (presumably hams) camped nearby making breakfast. They didn't offer me any. :(
why should they?
Frolicking Dinosaurs
11-05-2007, 09:39
There were folks (presumably hams) camped nearby making breakfast. They didn't offer me any. :(
why should they?Did you offer them part of your breakfast?
It's more of a commentary on my poor yogi-ing skills. :D
I'd like to think, if the tables were turned, I'd have invited the hiker to sit and chat and enjoy a cup of coffee. The hams had set up a rather impressive camp within a few yards of the trail corridor. There were several SUVs, a pavilion tent big enough for a small army, large coolers, etc. I could smell the frying bacon long before I arrived at the site.
The next day at Sunfish Pond I ran into a trail maintainer who had heard about this event and was not too happy about it.
No biggie, and of course the hams were under no obligation... though I suspect their camp was not exactly legal. I ended up having a decent breakfast (burger, fries, beer) down in Culver Gap an hour or so later.
When I hiked up Mt Greylock in '05 there were a bunch of hams setting up antennas and such at the top. Some kind of competition, I didn't get much in the way of details. It was pretty weird walking into an antenna forest on the AT.
That would be W2SZ/1, the Rensselaer Polytechnic ham club out of Troy NY, basically they always win those competitions. You can check out when you hiked on the list posted here: http://www.arrl.org/contests/results/ and see how they did if you are so inclined. :)
When I lived up in NY our local ham club would head to hilltops sometimes for these contests as an excuse to get out (hopefully readers of this forum would understand a little of that urge). We knew we had the generator working right when we'd make contact with the W2SZ group on Greylock, usually within the first five minutes of the contest.
There is or was a group that sets up for these contests on Big Flat in between the A.T. and the PATC cabin (Big Flat is between Caledonia State Park and Pine Grove Furnace State Park, in PA), when I lived over that way our local club provided communications for a mountain bike race in the surrounding Michaux Forest that happened to be that weekend (no, NOT on the A.T.!), and we needed to keep hopping frequencies to stay away from where those folks were operating.
I've moved too many times so I'm out of the cliques where I am now, honestly I'd rather hike and never carry any ham gear anymore when I do.
But I still don't have a trail name, only a callsign...