HIGH ADVENTURE: A Lifetime of QRP and Mountaineering


By David Reed, W5SV
Special to The ARS Sojourner

July 2007

The first few decades I participated in amateur radio overlapped with another hobby of mine: Mountaineering.

The pictures accompanying this article include a mixture of my photographs and those from sites on the web. Unfortunately, I have lost many pictures in the course of many moves over the years. But all the photos here serve to illustrate the sites.

Over the course of time I have had the opportunity to operate QRP from a few beautiful locations.

The first of these was Ajusco - the highest point in the Distrito Federal in Mexico. I used a small crystal-controlled CW transmitter and receiver on 20 meters, a compact antenna tuner, and a long wire. To get an idea of what Ajusco looks like:

http://redescolar.ilce.edu.mx/redescolar/publicaciones/publi_prodigios/ajusco_df/ajusco_s2.htm

The climb, at 3,930 meters, was not too bad. Of course, that was over 30 years ago, so I was more energetic then.

The second was Popocatepetl - second highest in the country of Mexico, and first in the state of Mexico, at 5,400 meters. You have snow year round most years, and a glacier too. The volcano still smokes a lot some years, and the sulfur is obvious. Volcanic ash makes the going tough on the lower slopes - kind of like walking uphill on the beach.

With the same rig and set up, we drove to Amecameca, and took a day to acclimate to the altitude and set off early the next day. We drove up to the Paso de Cortez, between Iztacihautl and Popocatepetl.

Citlatepetl (Pico de Orizaba) is on the border between Puebla and Veracruz. I am unsure if the summit is on the state line or not.

After returning to the U.S., I climbed Mt. Lock Texas - near Ft. Davis, site of the McDonald observatory Emory Peak in the Chisos Mountains. There, an HW-8 was used. To see the area:

http://www.nmts.org/rides/bigBendRoundup.htm

My most recent trek - a year-and-a-half ago - was Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Whew. I operated a bit below the summit due to being asked to move the RF away from the observatory instruments. I used an FT-817 on that trip, with a "yo-yo" dipole, adjusted to length on each band, held up in the center with a light carbon fiber pole.

Since then, I have been using an Elecraft KX1 or an Elecraft K2 for my portable work, along with occasionally using my PRC-319, an extremely rugged and nice retired military radio. It is harder to hump it up the hills and mountains due to its weight, but its performance is quite nice.

As age and health take their toll, I will likely do more portable operations from the beach, or walking around my farm. But I tip my hat to those intrepid souls who carry on the mountaineering / HF-pack operations world-wide.

* * * * *

David Reed, W5SV, is a QRPer and seasoned mountain climber living in Pflugerville, TX.