Solo voyager Horie, 83, passes Hawaii 3 weeks into Pacific trip
HAWAII–Octogenarian Kenichi Horie, who aims to become the oldest solo voyager to cross the Pacific, passed Hawaii on April 17, a week ahead of schedule and apparently in good shape and spirit.
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Although Horie carries a satellite phone, communicating with others through a ham radio remains one of his favorite pastimes.
“March 31: I spotted a tanker on the sea’s horizon this morning for the first time since I set out. The vessel was traveling eastward. Tomorrow, I am going to use the ham radio.”
Amateur radio fans across Japan tried to communicate with Horie on April 1, with some setting up large antennas. But they could not reach him due to the poor conditions for radio wave transmission. The following day, some could.
Launch into more: Gloversville school club prepares students for more than careers in STEM
GLOVERSVILLE, NY – Once a weather balloon is launched – payload attached – Gloversville Middle School science teacher Chris Murphy is behind the wheel, ready to drive to wherever the landing site might be. In the backseat are students following the airship on computers and punching in data that helps determine his directions.
The advisor for the school district’s High Altitude Achievement club has been going on these adventures with students since 2013, and ham radio operators along the route and someone at a home base help direct, too. The experience varies from a car caravan to a single vehicle, and from students on a second or third launch to their very first. The seventeenth, and most recent launch, on March 17 was, however, a first. It was the beginning of a launching era including eighth graders in the experience.
Ham radio operator reflects on 40 years in the hobby
Peru resident Bill McAlpin said he vividly remembers being a kid and someone giving his father a shortwave radio.
Shortly after acquiring it, McAlpin’s family strung an antenna up between his house and his grandparents’ house next door, and he’d sit for hour listening to communications from all over the world.
And McAlpin’s been hooked on amateur (ham) radio ever since.