Equipment - April 2004
by Ken and Ezzie Brody
Ham radios can be used for everything from chatting with another ham operator anywhere in the world to transmitting emergency calls. And they’re a great option for kayakers.
My wife Ezzie and I were enjoying a clear,
steamy day, kayaking on the Susquehanna River in eastern Pennsylvania.
As we glided under an old stone bridge, the sky to the north looked ominous.
Farther up the tree-lined, cold-water creek, we glimpsed dark, steel-bellied
thunderheads. A supercell storm was building. “Two more hours till it gets us,” I
said.Another hour of paddling left us sweat-soggy and all smiles. Nestled against
a clearing in the bank under a tree, we forgot about the threatening
weather and snacked on dried fruit and jerky. I pulled out my handheld
ham radio and tuned in the weather channel. The weather alert had been
activated, predicting intense thunderstorms. This report sent us paddling
double-time back to the dock, where we loaded the kayaks.
[click image for close-up] |
The storm hit shortly after
we got into the van. The water was whipped into a froth, and dust in
the parking lot was turned into a stinging cloud. We watched more than
30 powerboats try to get into the dock at the same time. Boaters we talked
to later that day described how the thunderstorm caught them unawares,
sweeping suddenly across the river with winds gusting to 40 mph. At the
peak of the melee came a wall of rain—a torrential downpour that
soaked the dust into slippery mud.Ezzie and I were dry and cozy on the
way back to our campsite. Our handheld ham radio had picked up the weather
alert in spite of the thick trees and steep hills surrounding Pequea
Creek and had allowed us to avoid the difficult situation so many other
boaters had been caught up in. |
