Colorado Springs couple transforms area summits into temporary radio stations. Stuck on the summit without a signal? Stay calm and reach for the breath mints – at least that’s the unlikely advice that Frank and Lynn Skinner might offer. The husband and wife from Colorado Springs spend weekends hunting for radio signals on summits across the Pikes Peak region. They manage to snag them by means of a gizmo that would make MacGyver envious: a tiny radio tucked in an Altoids tin and powered by a 9-volt battery and a 35-foot wire that’s either tossed into the trees or held aloft by a fishing pole.
Despite computers, there’s still interest in ham radio. You’d think that with all the computers in homes, all the smartphones in the hands of everybody from children through senior citizens, all the internet, the world wide web, the forums and blogs and Twitter and Facebook and email and chat boxes and social media, there would be absolutely no interest in an old-time hobby like ham radio.
RickB says
Loved the SOTA story. Wonder if antenna is KX3Helper EFHW?
A good read is Three Hundred Zeroes by Dennis Blanchard, a book on ham’s adventure on Appalachian Trail. Zeros are days off the trail.