The Wilderness as your Receiver & the Duality of Ham Radio

Connection & Community vs. Isolation & Remoteness

It is easy to learn the “how-to” basics of a Ham radio operation. It’s easy to get your own call-sign. It can be easy for people to find you, looking you up in the QRZ.com directory. And it’s easy (relatively) to get an FCC-issued Amateur Radio license for operating a Ham radio.

The hard part? It can be getting out, getting away from all the city noise, all the background chatter, away from all the restrictions that come with suburban lifestyles, HOA restrictions, complications with finding just where you can safely place a 66-foot-long wire with a homemade radio antenna attached.

It turns out, you don’t need a big room equipped with tons of electronics and a 70-foot radio tower outside, to be able to reach hundreds and thousands of miles with a Ham radio set. The technology allows for “portability” — being able to take off at a moment’s notice, on foot or dirtbike or boat, whatever, to remote locations that are far from any other human physical contact.

All you need to get started with a portable radio station, is a transceiver (a KX2 is just one of the “rugged” models; the Icom 705 another); a battery or solar power (10 to 50 watts is typical for portable power), and a creative antenna which often uses a length of wire 40 to 80 feet long, that can be cast into a nearby tree, atop a peak formation, or even outside a high-rise apartment window.

Getting the aforementioned license and getting out into the wilds comes next. An operator really isn’t limited in this respect, the four points of the compass and anywhere in-between making connections over continents and oceans. The National Parks Service (NPS) encourages Ham radio operators to take to the woods to search across frequencies, through both their “Parks on the Air” (POTA) program, and “Summits on the Air” (for mountain peaks). Points with the NPS are awarded for combining mobility with radio, making it a challenge and an added reward for the attempt.

A few places across the United States can pose more of a challenge to gain access: National Wilderness Areas; BLM Lands; and National Register of Historic Places sites. So too, the operator’s Amateur Radio license prevents communications involving encryption (this sort of thing reserved for law enforcement with radios and modes that the FCC has approved). But the sky is literally the limit otherwise, if you want to try a hand at the dial to reach Asiatic Russia. Or the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho. Or along the Appalachian Trail. Or above the falls at Yosemite. Or Skull Island State Park, here in Washington state.

In the attempt, you may hear from another local operator, perhaps a fellow member of the Puget Sound Repeater Group, a club that’s active here in the Pacific Northwest. Or, alone with just your radio set, perhaps a fellow traveler will stop by, and ask about the strange litany of code talk that emanates between you, the operator, and the person on the other end of the line. Voices in the Darkness. Speaking in measured tones.

Here is where isolation and connection become one, when the hiss of white noise coming out of the radio’s audio speaker abruptly changes from an annoying and fatiguing sound to one that is replaced by a human voice on the other end. The typical “QSO,” or contact, is brief, but it can take hours of repeated attempts that are punctuated with discipline, patience, and anticipation. For what might last as only a 15 second exchange, the words of operators fly over the airwaves and frequencies, identifying themselves by callsigns (KILO KILO SEVEN MIKE WHISKY INDIA), locations (“you’re 57 into park UNIFORM SIERRA 3161 QSL”), audio reports (“I got you 59 into Florida FOXTROT LIMA QSL”), and ultimately, a sign-off (“73” – best regards).

In recent years, an effort has gained strength among the Amateur Radio community to offer The Wilderness Protocol, where Ham radio in the backcountry can monitor standard simplex calling frequencies (Primary: 146.52; and several secondary radio frequencies) at the top of each hour, each day, in order to receive Emergency distress calls. This means anyone who is not in repeater range and that needs assistance.

The elements have their say as well. Solar weather can play havoc, on trying to reach out across the ether. When an operator is successful, they can log the date and time and frequency and who and where they reached (POTA’s website allows for points received, for every encounter uploaded – for those with a competitive streak). Your location as an operator is key to everything: the more remote, the better, in the eyes and ears of many of those who travel forgotten trails and paths, to ascend to the heavens from that perfect spot.

To escape, and yet, connect, at the same time. It presents an opportunity for magical realism, the dynamic of possibility, paired with discovery, and achieved through an alchemy of electricity, tinkering, and desire to reach out and make contact.

Anywhere.

73

A special thanks to Jon Duce for his expertise with this feature. Keep listening in the wilderness, KK7MWI.