View Full Version : Cq?
Been noticing more callsigns on WB of late.
I know I never really combined hiking and ham radio that much myself - do y'uns?
Didn't they try to stop the Ham radio thing by blocking signal or something a year or so ago, thought I read this. I hope they don't, sounds like a lot of fun! :)
Wise Old Owl
01-16-2009, 17:29
Been noticing more callsigns on WB of late.
I know I never really combined hiking and ham radio that much myself - do y'uns?
Because you use lower case in your call sign I never really recognised it. I assumed o was O not zero.:-?
Slo-go'en
01-16-2009, 18:19
I make and sell a 6 band, HF CW ham radio rig (kit) which fits into an Altoids tin and weighs about 2 oz (less batteries, key, headphones and antenna). The ulitmate in UL ham radio gear! At least one of these rigs was taken on a full thru AT hike and another one about 1000 miles. Mines got maybe 400 miles on it. Its called the AT Sprint (ATS-3B is the current model)
I don't combine the hobbies. Never been able to learn CW and can't afford a new FM HT that isn't a brick.
TrippinBTM
01-16-2009, 20:57
Dunno if anyone on here knows K1YPP, he hiked last year, and carried a ham radio. It was pretty cool to watch him set it up some evenings, throwing the antenna wire over a branch and all, and doing the morse code.
MintakaCat
01-16-2009, 21:30
I’ve had an amateur radio license for 33 years and have the call sign of N4OZI. I’ve got the Extra class license but I don’t have any real desire to combine the hobby with backpacking or hiking.
When I hit the trail I like to leave the rest of the world behind.
Funkmeister
01-16-2009, 21:44
I combine the two sometimes. I have a commercially made 30 meter 5 watt rig from MFJ that I carry when weight is not an issue. Besides that, I've carried my 50w Ten Tec Argosy on backpacking trips as well. It's not the radio that gets you, it's the 10-D-cell pack or the wheelchair battery that you have to lug along to run it.
But from the high desert of northwest New Mexico I've had contacts with Fiji, Ascension Island, and Liberia. Not bad for 5 watts and a wire antenna tossed into the scrubby trees. And I've talked to the South Pole station (KC4AAA, I think) on SSB while hiking in Connecticut. Once I hiked to the summit of Mt Blue near Weld, Maine with a Heathkit CW rig and spent the weekend working a contest around Memorial Day. I've taken a ham radio on a canoe trip to the Adirondacks. I've dayhiked in Hawaii with one as well.
I like combining the two hobbies. Then again, I've carried scuba gear backpacking so I could dive in Black Mountain Pond in New Hampshire. You certainly get odd looks when there's an aluminum tank sticking out of the top of your pack.
Gram weenies would frown on these activities, however.
Slo-go'en
01-16-2009, 22:26
Dunno if anyone on here knows K1YPP, he hiked last year, and carried a ham radio. It was pretty cool to watch him set it up some evenings, throwing the antenna wire over a branch and all, and doing the morse code.
Yeah, he used one of my ATS-3 rigs this year. Probably the one you saw him use. Last year he used his own homemade rig which wieghed in at about 4 pounds and it was a bit much. He made contact from every state along the trail.
Hiking with 6 meters sounds like fun for a weekend that coincides with one of the VHF contests. Used to go mountaintopping car camping when I lived in upstate NY and a few guys from the local ham club were into it. One of those big contest stations actually sets up pretty close to Big Flat (half way between Caledonia SP and Pine Grove Furnace SP), I worked comms for a MTB race once around there that weekend and finding a frequency was kind of tough.
I got an FT-897 and the standard battery packs for it, thinking I might schlep that somewhere sometime. I'm sure schlepping that very far would make me wish for the Altoids tin!
Edit: I read too damned fast and read 6 band as 6 meters... :o
Because you use lower case in your call sign I never really recognised it. I assumed o was O not zero.:-?
So what's yours - W0O? :D