Last June (June 9, 2002-June 28, 2002), I had the opportunity to kayak the Grand Canyon Run on the Colorado River as a member of the Page Rowing Club (PRC) of Page, AZ.

This reach of the Colorado is 225 miles long and contains some of the classic rapids of North America. The run is extremely safe for a “big water” run and is serviced by many commercial river-running companies.
Approximately 25,000 people run this reach of the Colorado each year. The run starts at Lees Ferry near Page and ends at Diamond Creek near Peach Springs, AZ.

I was asked to be a safety boater by the private permit holder for the trip, a woman named Vicky Uthe of Flagstaff, Arizona, another member of the Page Rowing Club. A safety boater runs the rapids first in his/her kayak and waits at the bottom of the rapid to pick up people and/or equipment if a raft flips in the rather large hydraulics of the Colorado.

The June 2002 trip of the PRC was made up of two kayakers and five rafts and 12 people. Among the party was Dan Lindemann, also a member of the PRC, who, assisted his wife Linda in writing a guide to Grand Canyon whitewater titled “Colorado River Briefs for a Trip Through the Grand Canyon.”

Linda and Dan’s book is unique in that it contains topos (diagams) of each of the major rapids. These topos show the boater the safest way to run each of the major rapids on the Grand Canyon Run.

Dan and Linda are also radio amateurs (KA7BAG (Dan) and KA7BYE (Linda). In the past, Linda has had an interest in portable QRP operations and has built a Heathkit HW-8 for portable QRP CW operation on river trips the couple has taken.

This (June 2002) was my third trip down the Grand Canyon Run in a kayak as a safety boater for the Page Rowing Club. Previous trips were in 1997 and 1998.

Using a handheld aircraft radio belonging to the PRC, I was able to call out for helicopter assistance in Fall 1997 in the recovery of a human body at mile 118 (locations along the river are referenced by their river mile from the USGS stream flow gauging station at Lees Ferry).

The unfortunate individual had been flash-flooded into the Colorado River at Phantom Creek (mile 88) and drowned (See the Book: Death in the Grand Canyon). My friend and fellow kayaker, Rob Scanland of Carson City, NV, found the body floating in an eddy. Rob and I often raced to the eddies to recover beer, soda pop or other items that had been lost when rafts flipped that year in the various rapids. Rob won the race to the eddy at mile 118, and I’m glad he did.

In Spring of 1998 using the PRC handheld aircraft radio I was able to call out for helicopter evacuation of a lady surgeon from Kansas who had fallen off a trail rising from the river at Stone Creek, just below Dubendorff Rapid (mile 132). The hiker had fallen some 60 feet through a tree to the ground and broken her back and punctured both lungs (High Country News, July 1998).

The woman lived due to the timely evacuation, but remains a paraplegic, although she can still practice the surgical arts. After this second call out I acquired the nickname “Randy Radio” and the title of communications officer in the Page Rowing Club.

My previous two trips down the Grand Canyon were marred by a gruesome discovery (1997) and an unfortunate accident in another party (1998) in which the Page Rowing Club’s aircraft handheld and my QPR skills got an unwelcome work out.

I figured if I took a recreational approach to communications and took a CW QRP rig, my luck would change and we would have an uneventful trip with the added adventure of portable QRP operation in the morning and evening and lay-over days from various riverside camps along the 225-mile trip. Table 1 below, inventories the equipment taken.

Table 1. QRP Equipment Taken for Portable Operation in the Bottom of the Grand Canyon.

QRP CW Operation from the Bottom of the Grand Canyon

Station setups were typically primitive with radio and antenna tuner sitting on the pelican boxes or a rock. I often set the station up next to my ground cloth, sleeping pad and bag and used my headlamp to operate well into the night.

I used four or five watts output on both 40 meters and 20 meters. I made 31 total contacts. The best DX was Anchorage, Alaska. Table 2, below lists those stations from which I have received QSL cards as of September 15, 2002. At all riverside campsites, even those in the inner gorge I was able to make contacts.

Table 2. Stations that sent QSL cards after the trip.