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.

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.

When Ezzie and I first started kayaking together, we wanted to be sure we could keep tabs on the weather and stay in touch with each other on the water. Ezzie and I often paddle at different paces. Ezzie likes to “dawdle” and I usually enjoy a steadier pace and paddle doggedly to a destination. Suddenly, I’m around a bend and out of sight. That worries me. I’m a diabetic, and while I always try to take the proper precautions, it is especially important for me to stay in touch with Ezzie.

Ham Amateur Radios

Ham radios can be used for everything from chatting with another ham operator anywhere in the world to transmitting emergency calls. To abbreviate commonly exchanged information, hams use a system of calling procedures such as the phonetic alphabet (alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, etc.) and “Q” codes (see “Useful Ham Codes and Calling Procedures,” p. 56). The codes are not necessary, except when making sure people understand a word that sounds similar to other words. For instance, “This is KB3EZZ, kilo bravo 3 echo zulu zulu, transmitting from the middle of the Transquaking River.”

Ham radios operate on a dozen or so frequency ranges, called “bands.” The 2-meter band is the most popular for hams to use because radios with this frequency range can be found at very reasonable prices.

While the term “ham radios” may conjure up images of huge antennas and a clutter of bulky electronics, much has changed in the 95 years since the use of airwaves by amateurs first became popular. Modern handheld two-way ham radios (or HTs, for handheld transceivers) are as compact as modern marine VHFs and FRS (Family Radio Service) walkie-talkies. Although VHF and FRS are both very useful systems, they both have their limitations, many of which are addressed by ham radio.

VHF

While most waterways traveled by commercial vessels are well covered and served by marine VHF radio, many of the inland waterways that attract kayakers have no network of vessels and relay facilities for marine VHF radios. The U.S. Coast Guard coordinates all emergency services provided to marine radios, and they monitor the ocean coasts, the Great Lakes, and the navigable Western rivers, such as the Mississippi and Columbia. However, no one monitors marine VHF bands on the rivers, lakes or streams that are popular inland kayaking areas. The range of a marine VHF radio is similar to a 2-meter ham HT and is useful for kayak-to-kayak communication, but there are no marine VHF repeaters—powerful automatic relay stations that retransmit your signal over a wide area.

Regulations prohibit the use of a marine VHF radio while on land, so if I have to go ashore, technically I would not be allowed to call Ezzie using a marine VHF. In most cases, the Coast Guard will simply tell you to call the local police on a land line and to get off the marine bands if you are on land. The VHF radio network, in areas where it is used, works well in situations where lives or boats are threatened, but the Coast Guard will not relay a message except in emergencies. If you’re lucky, you may find a boater willing to relay a message, but you shouldn’t count on using the VHF network this way.

FRS, GMRS and Other Options

Ezzie’s experience with two-way radios began a few years ago with the small FRS (Family Radio Service) radios. Ezzie had bought FRS radios when we first started kayaking, and it took very little time to discover their limitations. Terrain, weather and even trees could cause interference and loss of signal. If one of us went around a bend in a river and there was a high bank between us, we couldn’t hear each other. Although our FRS radios had the standard NOAA weather channels, there were many times we couldn’t get them to come in. These radios are advertised to a range of “up to two miles,” but we were lucky to get much more than a half-mile apart before we lost contact.

The other frustrating problem was that FRS radios are very popular, especially near heavily used campgrounds, lakes and streams. The result is busy airwaves and unwanted messages in spite of numerous channels and privacy codes.

GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) radios are on the same UHF band as FRS and share some of the same frequencies. They have greater transmitting power than FRS—about five miles—but like FRS, that range is diminished by weather and terrain.

The FRS and GMRS systems are set up for interpersonal communications, and they aren’t monitored for emergency calls or services.

Ham Handheld Transceiver (HT) Radios

Ham radios have several advantages. You can use a ham HT to contact any other ham operator whether on land or on the water. With a ham HT, you can report emergencies, check in with family or friends about changes in your paddling plans or communicate about other important matters.

It’s very seldom that a ham HT is unable to pick up the weather reports, and most radios can be programmed to automatically switch to the weather station if an alert is issued. In areas where powerful storms are frequent, there are usually local ham operators’ groups (known as Sky Warn) on the 2-meter band tracking the storm cells as they pass. This was the system that we tuned into to avoid the storm on the Susquehanna.

With Amateur Radio, you can tune to any frequency within a band and talk. Marine VHF, FRS and GMRS radios operate only on built-in channels to keep frequencies separated so users can’t operate off-frequency or interfere with users on other nearby frequencies. Incidentally, according to some historians, the term “ham” was a derogatory term used by early wireless operators to describe radio amateurs who jammed the airwaves with transmissions that spread across the whole array of radio frequencies. Other ham operators think the term is related more to operators talking a lot and “hamming it up.”

Ham radio users all take part in a worldwide network, and ham operators are, as a rule, garrulous and helpful. If you need to get a message to someone at home, ham radio operators are always willing to assist in times of need. Ham operators are not allowed, by law, to charge anything for making a call on behalf of someone, so to avoid long-distance charges, they usually get in touch with another ham operator who can make a local or reasonably priced phone call.

HT Specifications

All this capability comes in a compact package. My Yaesu VX-R7 ham HT is only the size of a deck of cards. It has 400 memory channels, four bands, digital selective calling (DSC) and pulse tones, automatic range testing, standard NOAA weather channels, weather alert, simultaneous dual-band operation, voice-operated transmit (VOX) and several other features.

At this time, the Yaesu VX-7R is the only ham radio that meets requirements for being labeled submersible. A few others are classified as splash resistant. In wet weather, Ezzie carries her splash-resistant Yaesu VX-5 in a cell-phone dry bag with a clear front, through which she can still hit keys and hear transmissions.

Most ham HTs use only AA alkaline batteries, which don’t last long. Our rechargeable lithium ion batteries last a full eight hours, even when we leave our radios on all day. We carry backup batteries and have chargers that we can use at home or in our vehicle.

Ham HTs on the 2-meter band are limited by line of sight and are blocked by high terrain unless you access a repeater on higher ground. Ham HTs, like marine VHFs, commonly transmit and receive frequency modulated (FM) signals, which are easy to understand and tune in. Some new portable ham radios are equipped to transmit and receive single-side-band (SSB) signals, which require more knob-twiddling than FM but pack more punch to cut through interference and therefore are capable of transmitting farther on the same bands.

Compact ham HTs working on 2-meter bands (the most popular and widely used bands) are as low as $89.99 at Ham Radio Outlet (HRO) (see “Internet Information Resources,” this page). Occasionally, you can find them for less than that if there is a club-sponsored hamfest (ham radio festival) going on—see ARRL’s web site (www.arrl.org) for information on dates, times and locations of hamfests, which should also be listed in the community calendar section of your local newspaper. (Radio Shack recently quit carrying ham radio equipment.)

Ebay lists many types of ham HTs with a wide range of prices. I would caution readers to ask if the seller is a ham operator and what his or her call sign is. Usually, ham users will be able to quote you “chapter and verse” on the features or shortcomings of their equipment, whereas other, less knowledgeable sellers may not be as familiar with these details.

Licensing

To operate a ham radio, you must have a license. There is a strong technical component to ham radio, and the purpose of the licensing exams is to make sure you are familiar with those technical aspects. Even without extensive technical knowledge of ham radios, newcomers can get started with an easy multiple-choice exam for a Technician Class license.

There are many books available with all the information you need to pass the exam. For some, a class can be beneficial. Classes are given by local ham radio clubs, and most only charge for the cost of the ARRL study book, which is $19. There is a $12 fee for the test, which is administered by a volunteer examiner who is an experienced ham radio operator.

21st-Century Ham 

While we take a break from paddling our kayaks on a hot day, we often contact local ham operators in the area. These locals have passed on valuable information about tides, a change in the river, and even little known spectacularly scenic streams that we may never have found on our own. At night in camp, we tune in to radio broadcasts from around the globe, catch the latest news and check in with other kayaking hams around the area.

Ham radio continues to play a significant role in emergency situations. During the massive blackout during the summer of 2003 that hit much of the Northeast, ham radio operators were able to maintain an emergency communication network. When the search teams were looking for pieces of the space shuttle Columbia after it was destroyed during reentry, ham radio operators provided communications for search teams and central command. Another example was during the devastating fires of Southern California in the Fall of 2003—ham radio operators passed along information about the whereabouts of family and friends when cell phones were inoperative and phone lines had been destroyed by fire.

Ham radio has changed a lot since the days of reclusive neighbors chatting with strangers in the far corners of the globe. Ham radio operators are men and women, boys and girls from all age groups, in all walks of life and from every country of the world. There is no age limit—people from 10 to 100 are on the air. Now with compact and water-resistant handheld radios, kayakers can join in that group and take advantage of ham radio.