"From Fishing to Farmers Markets" ....news & events, issues & ideas

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

 
Tuna Trolling Hams

Our ham radio station onboard the Papa George featured a Drake TR-7 which transmitted on all ham bands with both side-band (voice) or CW (Morse code). Sometimes we bumped up the power of our transmissions from 100 watts to 500 with a Metron solid state amplifier. Our signal was pushed through an R-7 Cushcraft vertical antenna which I built from a kit. I liked to send CW with a straight key which was old fashioned but allowed me to send with one hand and hold on with the other.

On the way to Panama, we listened to some of the 20 meter marine nets for information. Many voyagers tune into these nets to contact friends, get WX info (weather), and to lend a measure of safety to their travels across the ocean. When Brian Young, VP6BX, was heard, I tail ended his last QSO (conversation with another ham) with the phrase “Brian, we’re headed your way on our tuna troller!” It was an impetuous moment which broke ham protocol and courtesy….but he answered me. “N7LHJ this is VP6BX”, and I made the acquaintance of one of Pitcairn Island’s famous hams.

We set up a schedule for a twice weekly QSO on 20 meters sideband. Brian was great company on the long run to Easter Island and we learned many fascinating things about Pitcairn Island and its culture and people. Brian’s wife, Kari, is also a ham…VP6KY.

In addition to our ham radio station, Steve and I planned for redundancies in our marine radios and electronics. We were out of the US for six months with little hope of repair for anything unless we had the parts and could fix it ourselves. The Papa George was like Noah's ark...two sidebands, two auto-pilots, two radars, etc.

- posted by Holly @ 7:20 AM