Special to The ARS Sojourner
October-November 2006
October 6, 2006:
Twenty-one years ago I took a guided kayak trip along the coast of British Colombia. Those six days were filled with islands and charts and whales, and our time was regulated only by the tides and currents. Well, I've wanted a sea kayak ever since, and today I'm the owner of a Prijon Kodiak. It's 17 feet long, and for the 2006 model year they have added a hatch cover just forward of the cockpit. That's where I will mount a support base for my ham radio antenna. There are lots of details to be worked out, including the addition of a 2-meter APRS station and its antenna placement.
October 13, 2006: initial test ride
Today I took the new boat to a nearby lake for her maiden voyage. With my Garmin GPS set to nautical readings, I opened up the throttle (okay, I paddled hard) to see how fast she would go. I was able to make 5.2 knots, or 6 m.p.h. Then I monitored my paddling at other speeds. Here is how I would describe it:
3.0 kts (3.5 mph) - piece of cake: not in any hurry
3.5 kts (4 mph) - could maintain this speed for some time
3.8-4.0 kts (4.6 mph) - good speed for making a quick crossing
5.2 kts (6 mph) - full speed ahead
5.4 kts (6.2 mph) - theoretical maximum hull speed for 16.5' LWL
I am very pleased with the overall stabitity, and feel I can operate HF successfully from this boat.
October 20, 2006: First time out with ham radio in kayak
There was snow in the forcast for the weekend, so it was either go now or wait another week. I spent most of the day getting the boat ready for some kayak mobile operating. I modified a spare hatch cover to support a Cabelas 14' graphite fishing pole. (Thanks to Jim Cluett, W1PID, for introducing me to the pole in his Adventure Radio Society article). The support base begins with a 1-1/4" PVC cap bolted to the hatch cover.
This is one of the shortest electrical halfwave antennas I've ever tried. It was designed around the Cabelas 14-foot crappie pole. This fishing pole collapses down to 15.5 inches, so it's very compact and portable. In fact it is what I'm using on my new sea kayak for marine mobile operating. I had my doubts about the fishing pole because it is made of graphite. In fact, initial tests showed wildly varying swr as the wire slapped against then away from the pole in a breeze. I solved that by wraping the wire lightly around the pole a few times and taping it down near the coils. Now I get rock solid swr readings, and the conductive graphite doesn't seem to affect the sent or received signal (although it must be to some degree). I tune all of my EFHWA antennas with a homebrew L-C matching unit. Look at the bottom of that page.
I had made some CW contacts earlier in the Fall with the new antenna, but October 20, 2006 was the first time I tried it with a microphone. I was out with my sea kayak in a lake near Golden, Colorado and running 5 watts on 20 meters. It was satisfying to hear signal reports coming in confirming the very shortened antenna was getting out coast-to-coast. Here is a rundown of the first eight sideband contacts and the signal reports:
| Call | State |
Report |
|---|---|---|
| N6KKS | CA |
59 |
| WD9EML | IL |
53 |
| W7DK/90 | WA |
59 |
| W8ELG | MI |
54 |
| WB6LNH | NC |
51 |
| W9H | IL |
57 |
| NA4BH | AL |
53 |
| WB7EXB | NV |
57 |
While I was working special event station W9H, a TI2 station broke in to say, "Tell the kayak mobile he's making it into Costa Rica." Unfortunately, it was a busy frequency and I never got a chance to have him QSY with me.
Construction notes:
The antenna is made from stranded, 26 ga. Teflon-coated wire. There are three sections of wire connected by two loading coils. The outer sections are 36.5 inches in length, and the center section is 88.5 inches long. Adding both 3" coil forms gives 14 feet, 4.5 inches total length.
The coils are stranded, 22 ga. wire wrapped around 3 inches of thin-walled 3/4-inch (schedule 20) PVC tubing. Then it's covered with black electrical tape. Alligator clips allow switching of taps for different bands.
I recorded the number of turns I used to tap for each band for future reference:
10 meters = 8 turns
12 meters = 12 turns
15 meters = 17 turns
17 meters = 24 turns
20 meters = 41 turns (full coil)
This is certainly a compromise antenna at only 42 % of full size on 20m, but even on it's lowest band it appears to perform well enough. I can't wait to try it out on 10 meters.
My halfwave tuner is taped to the antenna support. Forward of that is an orange waterproof bag containing my FT-817 radio. If conditions get too rough, I can disconnect the headset and coax and close the bag for complete waterproof protection of all the gear.
With the paint still drying on the new project, I finally pushed away from the dock around five o'clock local time as the air temperature began its descent from a high of fifty degrees. With the seriously shortened halfwave antenna, I made eight contacts in an hour-and-a-half on the water. I talked to California, Washington and Nevada to the west, and Illinois, Michigan, Alabama and North Carolina to the east. These were all made at five watts, sideband, with a set of eight rechargeable AA batteries inside the radio. Signal reports received ranged from 51 to 59 with most in the 53 to 57 range. I managed to log everything with my Palm IIIxe, but found it's not very convenient to use a PDA while you're trying to paddle. I may have to revert to my digital voice recorder next time.
I was having fun, but I knew it was time to go when cars leaving the area all had their lights on.
Prospect Lake, Wheatridge, Colorado just hours before the snowstorm
October 20, 2006 (update):
It's midnight, six hours after I took the last picture, and the snow is coming down hard outside. Talk about timing!
October 21, 2006:
Here's a photo I took the very next morning from the lake. It was 10:00 am, and the Colorado sunshine was already melting the 4" of snow we received overnight.
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Jacob Groenhof, NØLX, is a QRPer and avid outdoorsman living in Golden, CO.