Amateur Radio (Ham Radio) and Kayaking

Are any of you kayakers also amateur radio operators? If so, I'd love to see some pictures of your radio setups in your kayak.

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Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll sit in his boat (or kayak)and drink beer all day.

Well, PM (Private Messages) are disabled on this board, but check here for Ham operators / Kayakers
http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/foru ... hlight=ham

I'm not a ham yet, but have all the antennas and several Icom (and other brand) receivers lol

One day I'll get the license since no code now, but then that will take away from my kayak/fishing budget and time .... which I should have enough of, being retired, but trying to take care of a backlog of "to-do" lists first.... I had a little box which attached to radio (and can attach to computer too) which translates code to English, so I never bothered learning it.

Lately been obsessed with Dxing digital TV lol unreal what I get compared to analog.... I'm in central texas, pick up Tennessee. Louisiana, Mexico etc. ... cancelled dish and cable..... but my Amatuer-TV reception stuff is 250 miles away in a shed ... I need to get the rest of my stuff up here where I am soon, before it disappears.

Go for it. Its alot easier now than it was when I got my license. I've been licensed since around 1990. When I get my Mirage Pro Angler I want to set it up real nice with a radio and antenna. especially while out there alone I like to just listen while I fish. When I took the test I had to pass a 13 word per minute morse code exam beside the theory portion which I think was around 50 questions. I hold a general class license.

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Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll sit in his boat (or kayak)and drink beer all day.

Lots of coastal kayakers here carry vhf marine radios, on trips miles out to oil rigs etc... I've been looking at a few of those waterproofradios by Icom and Kenwood etc . I've probably already got an antenna for any frequency except VLF ... I modded an Icom 71A (or 7000 or 7100, I have all 3 in a closet, forgot which) so I could hear the grass growing frequency before earthquakes lol ...

My ex-boss made fun of my "porcupine" truck, I Imagine antennas on a ProAngler won't look that much different than fishing rods though....

hmmm ... now I'm thinkin'

QuarterWave Fibreglass ugly-stick fishing rod

HalfWave flagpole mast

Sailmast for HF ....

Vhf Stern light mast

Weight capacity should handle lots and lots of batteries
lol

I worked at an electronics warranty repair and radio shop back in early 1970s, got a "CB License" (and knew the FCC rules and adhered to them) before they were popular (funny that I still know my callsign lol) used to upgrade RAM police scanners so they could get 25,000 channels etc; got involved desiging/building computers so it didn't take a week to load 25,000 frequencies in a scanner by hand ... Just never got around to getting the Ham Ticket, ended up working security for Microsoft's servers a while and at a law office a while ..

I almost went for it whenever no-code tech came, but didn't ... ... but now that I'm retired, there is a club that meets monthly about 13 miles away... might do it.... Still need to put back together a few radios I did mods on before a female distracted me for several years. ... Dunno why some girls can't understand that kitchen tables are made for soldering stations, instead of dinner plates, heck that's what coffee tables and TV trays are for.

The extra bedroom? that's where my kayaks live .... the dresser and closets are theirs too.

Living room? well, other than the rotator, thrust bearing, turnbuckles, a few antenna masts, etc, (ignore the waders, and rods .... whhos a fish hook in the carpet, how'd that get there ....

Lol. Yeah, women have no sense of humor. I have a jon boat that was set up with a 2m/440 handheld and a magmount dualband antenna. I want to do the same with the kayak. I'm going to be purchasing a Yaesu VX-8 handheld quadband. 2m/6m/440/220. Awesome little radio thats waterproof. Some options are GPS and bluetooth. You should get your license. Once you do, you'll always have it.

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Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll sit in his boat (or kayak)and drink beer all day.

Fiberglass whip and a flag from beseenwear.com (superfantastic flag, I have 2; fastens with velcro, has both yellow-chartreuse and safety orange, as well as lots of reflectorization for night fishing) would be good

Not sure what to do for ground plane, other than I need to do whatever marine antennas did, dipole maybe? or how a magnetic mount antenna would be rigged to a kayak; probably better with parts scavenged from a gutter or mirror type mount clamped onto something, or a flatbar mounted like/similar to the Hobie Flagpole mount, with hole drilled for antenna stud to mount through as the flagpole/antenna?

I checked out the flag. Pretty cool. I think I'll pick up afew myself.

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Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll sit in his boat (or kayak)and drink beer all day.

yes I really like mine, but their cap is overpriced, (same $12.00 cap elsewhere $3.50 without their advertising printing on it) so don't fall for their combo deal..... there's better hats out there anyway.

We carry a dual band handy with a long rubber ducky just in case the cell phone can't get out of a canyon. It's amazing here in the west that a 2m, 20 year old repeater has more coverage than a cell phone that I pay many $ for has.

Our emergency protocol is cell phone, Amateur radio, then last resort our Spot locator beacon. If it looks like a helicopter or immediate rescue we would use the Spot first because of the insurance.

I have not gotten around to thinking about mounts or antennas yet. Still working on an easy loading idea for the Xterra.

KC5EQU and KC0RVO

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Just Traveling About

Hey Tandem, I always found that interesting too. You know when the internet became popular I would tell some people that I was online way before the internet using packet radio. Remember packet? Don't hear much of it anymore but we communicated that way long before the internet. I too always liked having my handheld 2m/440 just in case the cell craps out.

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Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll sit in his boat (or kayak)and drink beer all day.

Well this is as close as I come to (Ham Radio) Standard Horizon, pretty sweet waterproof warranty for 3 years and it can reach out there touch someone.....Fm,Am,aero,astro,wx,80 channels, and with a good battery I can pick up weather 4 hours away.......Stay on my PFD, and has saved my rear a few times already especially in the ICW.........Steve

It's too bad Yaesu (Vertex/Horizon) will not warranty their ham radios it sells as waterproof as it does their marine vhf's. If you have one drown in a rainstorm as I did a couple of years ago they will not cover it. They wanted to charge me $50 more to repair it than it cost to buy it new. They pointed out that water damage was considered abuse and was not covered. Yaesu radios ARE NOT waterproof even in a rainstorm without submersion so do not spend the money on them for that purpose. Buy a good radio and drybag and you will be better off. On the other hand, their Standard Horizon Marine radios ARE covered under warranty and will withstand at least brief submersion and regular rinsing (the radio on my Revolution is a HX270S).

As for the person who does not know what to do for a ground plane You are on the water!!!

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Fishing, freediving and SCUBA diving off my Revolution when not just pedaling or sailing

Still, if I remove all the tin foil covering my kayak, the Martians may mess up my navigation electronics, so I still might still use it as shielding. Besides, after the lightning hits, fish may float to the surface, making it easy to catch them.