Ham in a hammock

[smkymtns]

Hiking, ham radio and hammocking are all tied together for me now. After decades of inactivity, I got my lardy rump off of the couch and back into the woods. And SOTA is what motivated me to do that. Summits on the Air (SOTA) is a ham radio activity that combines hiking and ham radio from mountain tops. Due to old injuries sitting on the ground just wasn’t comfortable and I would be stiff and sore when I would get up to hike some more. Hammocks were my solution for this and whether just using it as a chair or reclining on day hikes, they were a literal relief for my body. Hammocking made it possible for me to get back into backpacking as well and reaching more remote summits for my combined hobbies, knowing that I can climb into my little rejuvenation chamber at night and wake up feeling fresh the next morning. If I had to guess, out of almost 700 SOTA activations over the last decade probably 500+ were done from the comfort of one of my hammocks. Even when a hammock is not the best option for the occasion, my hammock tarps often get pulled out of the pack for protection from the elements when operating.

W4G/NG-023 - Big Cedar Mtn by Patrick Harris, on Flickr

And with the upswing on this new solar cycle, this will be a great time to get into ham radio. Radio propagation has been great recently, especially on the upper bands, and we can look forward to even better conditions in the coming years.

73, pat - ww4d

[Ulfhedinn]

Now this is something I can get into. Very cool