Episode 373 - Paul Mower - VA6MPM
Transcription sponsored by: Mark Sidell, KR3AM
QSO Today episode 373, Paul Mower, VA6MPM.
My thanks to Icom America for sponsoring the QSO Today Podcast.
Welcome to the QSO Today Podcast. I'm Eric, 4Z1UG, 4Z1UG, where I demonstrate the diversity and relevance of the amateur radio hobby and its impact on society by interviewing ham radio operators, many of whom played vital roles in shaping our technology through the amateur radio hobby. While many people might say, "Ham radio? Do people still do that?" this podcast demonstrates through and in-depth interview how just amazing diverse and dynamic the amateur radio hobby continues to be.
Trekking across the Canadian Rockies without communications convinced Paul, VA6MPM, VA6MPM, that amateur radio could connect him to the outside world when he is far beyond cellular telephone coverage. Paul enjoys working Summits on the Air from some of the most remote outposts in the world. VA6MPM is my QSO today.
QSO Today episode 373, Paul Mower, VA6MPM.
My thanks to Icom America for sponsoring the QSO Today Podcast.
Welcome to the QSO Today Podcast. I'm Eric, 4Z1UG, 4Z1UG, where I demonstrate the diversity and relevance of the amateur radio hobby and its impact on society by interviewing ham radio operators, many of whom played vital roles in shaping our technology through the amateur radio hobby. While many people might say, "Ham radio? Do people still do that?" this podcast demonstrates through and in-depth interview how just amazing diverse and dynamic the amateur radio hobby continues to be.
Trekking across the Canadian Rockies without communications convinced Paul, VA6MPM, VA6MPM, that amateur radio could connect him to the outside world when he is far beyond cellular telephone coverage. Paul enjoys working Summits on the Air from some of the most remote outposts in the world. VA6MPM is my QSO today.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
VA6MPM, this is Eric, 4Z1UG. Are you there, Paul?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I am Eric. It's good to meet you and you're coming in loud and clear.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Paul, thanks for joining me on the QSO Today Podcast. I might mention that Paul was a speaker at the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo in August where he spoke about SOTA. I'll have a link to that in the show notes page. Paul, let's start at the beginning of your story. When and how did that story start for you?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Well, it really started when I was a kid. I grew up in Kenya during high school. We had a short-wave radio there. I was intrigued with that. Of course, there, there was no hams that I knew and throughout my life there were no hams, but that intrigue with signals carrying across oceans fascinated, but it started in earnest several years ago actually in an unorthodox ways. I was sitting at my desk. I have a home office and I was sitting on my desk and my phone rang. A fellow picked up on the other line and he introduced himself as a ham radio operator who was traveling through our area. He said he had just received a call on his radio from a friend of mine named Mark Ellings and asked if I knew him. I said, "Yeah, I know Mark."
Paul, VA6MPM:
He said, "Yeah, you're a friend of Mark." He said, "You know where he's at?"
Paul, VA6MPM:
I said, "Yeah. He's out camping with his two young boys."
Paul, VA6MPM:
I knew where he was. The guy says, "Well, apparently his truck won't start."
Paul, VA6MPM:
It was about -20 Celsius so I knew this was a problem. So I arranged to get my buddy taken care of, get his truck out of there. This was all done over the radio. I was just intrigued with that. It just fascinated me that my buddy Mark who had the very lowest level what would be considered the US technician's license was able to call in the cavalry from the backcountry.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Would he not have a cellular telephone service there?
Paul, VA6MPM:
No. There was no cellphone service where he was at.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
His life might have been saved by ham radio, right?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Well, it is possible, yes, and I thought about that because he was in most places in the Canadian Rockies that there is no cellphone service. So one of the things that I do is I do casual work for the Alpine Club of Canada. I do custodial work in the system. The Alpine Club of Canada has a whole fleet of backcountry huts, about 35 huts scattered throughout the Canadian Rockies. So I spend a lot of time in the backcountry and I found myself about two weeks after this incident skiing across from Alberta into British Columbia across the continental divide in very, very remote location, and I was on assignment from the Alpine Club to go in and check on a brand new hut that had just been built, and they had not posted any route descriptions and there was no GPS markings for this hut yet.
Paul, VA6MPM:
So I had spent about 12 hours, my buddy and I, and the warmest it got was -30 Celsius that day, and we had traveled all day in very, very remote conditions. By the time I got to this hut, we were exhausted, hungry, cold, and I got to this hut, and it was locked. They had forgotten to give me the key or the code to the door. So standing on the steps of that hut I said, "Whatever I do when I get back, I'm going to get whatever license my buddy had because I got to figure out a way to communicate when I'm in the backcountry.
Paul, VA6MPM:
So that's how it started. When I got back I took the test and my buddy said, "All you need to do is get 70% on your test to get your license." So I didn't even really study. I just went out and took the test, and I got that license. That's really how it started.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
That's a huge argument for people that say, "Well, what do you need ham radio for? We have cellular telephones." There's a fair part of the world, maybe the largest part of the world that actually doesn't have cellphone coverage. That does make a difference. You know me. You told me before we started recording that you listen to the QSO Today Podcast. So therefore, I think we're too forward in the story. We have to go way back. So I'm going to ask you why you were Kenya for high school. I mean, what was the hometown? Where did you originally originate, and how did you find yourself in Kenya?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Well, I was actually born in the States originally, and I grew up a good part of my life until we moved in Kenya in Jackson, Wyoming, which is a mountain town, steeped in mountain culture I would say. So I got my taste of mountaineering very young in Jackson, Wyoming, but my father, he worked for the forest service. He was a forest ranger. He took a job with the government of Kenya, and just on a fluke, I don't know. I will thank my father forever for taking this leap of faith and dragging his family, young family to Kenya and giving us an opportunity to grow up there and having experiences that we would not otherwise have.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
How long were you there?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I was there during high school. I was there a couple of years, then I went back and went to university there as well. After I got married, Kenya has changed my life, really. It defined me. So I knew that when I got married, after I married, it would be important to bring them back there so that they could experience some of the things I did. So I got married while I was still in university and we saved our money, went back, enrolled in the University or Nairobi and stayed there for a while. Academically, it wasn't a great advantage, but as Mark Twain said, "I never let my schooling interfere with my education."
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I say that frequently to my kids.
Paul, VA6MPM:
It's an important mantra.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Well, talk a little bit about Nairobi. I think I read an amazing novel called Cutting for Stone, which I think took place in Kenya.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yes, yes.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Probably the best books I've ever read. So there is an allure of African that people have. I mean, I guess I think of being out on the veldt and seeing the wild animals, but what was the allure for you once you went back? It seemed like a primitive society for people that don't travel the world.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yes, and that's true. I think that that is the allure, that it is not developed. We can do things there that we wouldn't normally do in the West. There's a certain amount of freedom in living in a country that is not as developed as where you may have grown up. For example, my mountaineering really began in earnest in Kenya on Mount Kenya, Mount Kilimanjaro on the rock buttresses along the rift valley escarpment. That's really where I started my mountaineering.
Paul, VA6MPM:
I spent lots of time in the bush. My father worked clear up in the northeast province of Kenya and he'd be away for weeks at a time, and I would often go with him. In fact, I remember my high school counselor called me in the office one day and said, "Paul," she said, "our school is under the American system. In order for you to graduate, you cannot miss any more than 20 days per year." She said, "According to the records, you have missed 25 days and it's not even Christmas time." I spent a lot of time out. My parents allowed me to have that freedom, which was a wonderful opportunity.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
In the end of the school, allowed you to have that freedom as well so that you were able to graduate?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, it did, but my education path has taken years. It took me seven years just to get a university degree. So I have a habit of taking time off and disappearing into the mountains.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Well, I have to tell you, for other reasons, and this is just between us and nobody else, and that is it took me seven years to get a bachelor's of science. It was my wife who said, "You have to declare a major because we're leaving next year." I loved being in school, and probably if I hadn't gotten married I'd probably still be there, but I loved being in school. She said, "Just declare something."
Paul, VA6MPM:
Well, I applaud that educational route. I do.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
What did you end up majoring in?
Paul, VA6MPM:
It's a funny thing. All I wanted to do in my life was go back to Africa. So I thought, "Well, what do I do?" So I went in to political science. I thought I'd be a diplomat because many of my friends' parents that's what they did. I was taking a university course from a professor that I actually knew in Kenya just because it was a fun course. He caught me after the course and said, "Paul, what's your major?" I told him, "Political science."
Paul, VA6MPM:
He said, "Okay."
Paul, VA6MPM:
He wrote down a name and he said, "I want you to go to see this person this person and change your major to business."
Paul, VA6MPM:
I said, "Why? I hate business."
Paul, VA6MPM:
He said, "It doesn't matter what you hate, Paul." He said, "You need a job and you're not going to find one in political science. So just change your major," and he says, " you speak Japanese, right?"
Paul, VA6MPM:
I said, "Yeah, I speak Japanese."
Paul, VA6MPM:
He says, "Well, just major in business, get a job, and figure the outcome."
Paul, VA6MPM:
So I changed my major, went into business, and have ended up in this niche business where I'm escorting agricultural projects mostly to Japan, and actually also the Middle East, the cultures that I have been the most comfortable with basically.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
You're a guy from Wyoming who lands in Kenya. Why do you speak Japanese?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Well, I was born in Utah. Our Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints, we often send missionaries out when they're young, 19 years old. We can't choose where we go. I ended up going to Japan, and ended up coming back with the ability to speak Japanese. So it wasn't any-
Eric, 4Z1UG:
No, but it's still cool.
Paul, VA6MPM:
It is.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I think I have interviewed Mormons before, and you're right, they could end up in South America or Central America or wherever. So I think that's amazing.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
You've been able to leverage all of this education and this experience in agricultural grains business, which I think is-
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah. I worked for Honda, the car company, for many years. Honda, as most people don't know, one time was a large export of agricultural products to Japan, yeah. You can imagine within a car company there are thousands and thousands of employees there. There's very few that have any agricultural background. I was one of the few. My only background was that I halt hay during the summer for a farmer in Utah. So I was by defacto ended up in the agricultural export industry and when Honda abandoned all of that while I was working for them in Canada, I resigned then just started doing the same thing basically on-
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I was a history major. In the end, that was what I declared. I had some courses in Japanese history. So I think Honda was one of the zybot who trading corporations, right?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yes.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So for the listeners, I think that meant that these families, the Honda dynasty, they had lots of businesses. They were a conglomerate.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Well, actually, that's not completely true. Those zybot families were a little different because, actually, Honda, Soichiro Honda, he really grew from the very bottom. He came from a very humble background. He built the company up just because of his sheer love of going fast and building fast cars, racing. So he was a little bit different. He was an unorthodox player in the Japanese auto industry when things first started. For many, many, in fact, Honda is way more popular in the States than it is in Japan.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Oh, is that amazing?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, it is. It is.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I remember seeing shipping containers that said Honda on it, and they were obviously shipping more than cars.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah. Well, I'll bet what you were seeing was not Honda, probably Hyundai, which was a Korean company.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Also, right.
Paul, VA6MPM:
I'll bet you that's what you probably saw because Honda at one time in fact, the reason Honda Trading, my company, even started in agricultural exports was that Honda owned their own vessels and had big ships that said Honda across the bow. They pulled it into the port of Long Beach and unload the cargo and then sail home empty. Honda realized in the beginning that was bad PR. It was bad business. So they started the Honda Trading and said, "Our mandate was to export anything, have low value, high volume, just fill these ships up going back."
Paul, VA6MPM:
So hay for the Japanese dairies, scrap paper and scrap metal was what the first commodities that started shipping. The agricultural products went on. It carried on that tradition of export for many, many years.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
One of my incarnations, I was a marine radio service technician in the Long Beach Port. So that must be where I remember seeing the Honda ships.
Paul, VA6MPM:
You would have. You would have. Yeah. They had big blue ships with Honda right across the bow.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So until I got married, I was 130 pounds, skinny as a rail, and in the company, I could fit in the rudder post porthole on a tugboat to fix an autopilot. So I was very popular in the company I worked for when they needed somebody in the bilge. So I became an expert on rudder post and automatic pilots on tugboats to my sorrow because it was not a place to be.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Oh, you got stuck down in the bilge probably too often.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
A bilge rat.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
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Eric, 4Z1UG:
Now, why Canada? Is that where you landed with Honda and then you decided to stay in Canada?
Paul, VA6MPM:
It was. It was. I came up here to manage a hay export operation, and during the time I was here, Honda decided that they're a car company, they're not an agricultural company. So they disbanded all of the agricultural businesses. At the time, rather than go back, I had already fallen in love with Canada. So I resigned and just stayed here and started doing the same agricultural exports as I had done during most of my-
Eric, 4Z1UG:
That causes you now to even still to travel worldwide?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, it does. I go to Japan frequently and to the Middle East frequently because those are my two main-
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Right. So there's a picture of you I think on your QRZ page in Dubai, and we were just talking about Dubai. Dubai is now two hours from Israel. As soon as our COVID restrictions open up, then we'll see a lot more Dubaians here in Israel, and a lot of Israelis, we love to travel. So we'll be in Dubai at some point. As I told you before, I have staff from the expo that lives in Dubai and they were just saying that it was a beautiful 42-degree centigrade in Dubai. I think that's hot.
Paul, VA6MPM:
It is. I think we should wait a few months before we go over there when it cools off.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Somebody told me that in Dubai they chill the water in the pool so that you can swim in the pool.
Paul, VA6MPM:
That doesn't surprise me at all.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
They also have a ski slope. When you were in Dubai, did you snow ski?
Paul, VA6MPM:
No, I haven't. In fact, it would be hard for me to do that because we have the best skiing in the world in Canada. Dubai is no place to go to ski. It's a novelty.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
It's a novelty, but it's not like skiing the Canadian Rockies.
Paul, VA6MPM:
No, not at all, not at all.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I think we're caught up from the standpoint of we can start talking about amateur radio. You got your license, and then what happened after that? I saw a picture of you in your presentation that you started with a technician class license. How did that work out for you?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah. Well, it worked for a while, but I realized fairly quickly in the remote Alpine Club of Canada huts that I was visiting VHF wasn't going to cut the mustard and I needed to get an HF license, which I did, and since that time, I've been carrying an HF radio to when I go into the backcountry because I do casual custodial and maintenance work for the Alpine Club of Canada. So I'm back in the backcountry frequently. I enjoy that. So I carry my radio with me in there as a means of communication. That's really what intrigued me about the radio. It's been a wonderful opportunity.
Paul, VA6MPM:
I used at first when I went into the back I would arrange a sched with some of my friends, but I quickly found that the propagation was unpredictable. My schedule is unpredictable. I also found that the ham radio community at large is wonderful. So I started to just get on the radio, break in to conversations, get on nets, and I've been able to then communicate with somebody who is in turn able to get messages to my wife saying that I'll be late or I made it to where I need to be on time, but that's been means of communicating with home when I've been in the backcountry.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Now, when you're in the backcountry, how long is your trip?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Well, it depends. Usually three. If I go into one of the huts, usually three days, a day to get into it, a day to do whatever I need to do, and then a day to get out. So I'm usually typically three days, but some of the trip versus across some of the ranges that I do maybe longer than that. Then since I got involved in Summits on the Air, day trips are probably more common than not.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
You try to return the same day?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, on most of my SOTA operations, I do. I try to do most of them on day trips, but still there's quite a few overnighters as well.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Well, I think I have the majority of people that might listen to the QSO Today Podcast when they hear people talking about SOTA, they're talking about day trips probably dry day trips. Being that you're far north and probably there's still probably snow on the ground even in the summer, it seems to me that maybe the question that people would want me to ask is what's the minimalist packing that you do in order to be able to not only take the things you need, water, food, whatever, and the radios? Have you mastered that?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, I think so. Depending on the style of SOTA operation we do, activators will choose their own system. What I rely on is I'll take my radio. I try to carry less, no more than I would normally carry. So I don't carry a fiberglass mask like many do. I have an avalanche probe that I typically carry with me in winter activations, anyway, and I use that as a mask. I'll attach my trekking poles together to put it in about halfway between maybe my avalanche probe and my trekking poles because most of my activations would be above treeline. So I'm propping that up with rocks and I use that Elecraft KX2, and little water and lunch for a day trip.
Paul, VA6MPM:
In Canada at our latitudes, I will often carry an amplifier so that I can get 40-50 watts out. It makes it a little easier for the chasers and a little more fun. Overnight trips I won't carry that, but for day trips I will often carry that.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
That means you have to carry batteries. Do you bring solar panels or anything like that as well?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I will carry a battery pack for the radio and then a separate battery pack, usually LiFePO4 small battery pack to power the amplifier. I don't carry anything excess. So I can get two or three activations out of one battery charge, but probably no more. I wouldn't carry any more power then to get that much. Even in multi-day trips, if I'm just looking for communication on a mountain traverse, then I'll just limit my radio use and try not to carry because you really can't afford to carry too much weight on those trips.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
What's your backup plan if you run out of battery and you still need communications? Is that faith?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I really don't have one. I really don't have one. So no. Solar panels would be a great option, but there really is not. That's one of the things that I think my activations may differ from many. There's a lot of levels of mountaineering. There's a certain level where you step out where there is no safety net. When I leave a hut and I know that if I don't make it to the next hut, there is no safety net. So I try to make sure that, what I'm saying is I'm used to that type of feeling. So I try to limit my operations to where I will at least have enough battery power in an emergency if I were to need one.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Do you carry one of the Garmin satellite communicators as an emergency backup?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I don't.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
To please your wife?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I don't. Someday she may force me to start taking one of those, but I've come from the old school where when I started mountaineering we had no communication, and I become used to that. I've never really gone down that road and the HF radio has been sufficient. That's probably all that I will ever use.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Do you travel by yourself?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Most of the time I do. Most of my SOTA trips I am alone. I'm starting to get to the age where my buddies are not able to come with me any longer. I like to do things that even the younger guys probably aren't willing to do. So most of my SOTA trips are alone.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Now, some of the really difficult intense journeys, I do have a couple of buddies that come with me often and that helps. On the ones where it's just simply ludicrous to be on your own then, of course, I have a partner, but for most of my SOTA trips, most of them I'm alone.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Will the Alpine Club of Canada supply you with a Sherpa or maybe a younger member that could be that buddy?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Unfortunately, they consider me the Sherpa. So no. When they send me into one of these places, the reason they do is because they know I can get in and make it and I have the equipment to do so, but some of the long journeys, of course, yeah, I have a good friend, Eric Peterson, that will often go with me and do some of the more difficult journeys with me.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Is there something that you've learned being at the top of the world with a half wave end fed antenna just a few feet above the ground in terms of how to optimize the operation of that antenna in a snowfield or-
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah. There are little things that you learn. Actually, you mentioned snowfield. That always helps. If I can be over snow, that helps. There are little tricks you learn that I have learned, anyway, in operating style and in setup. I think the biggest thing, though, that I've learned is that once you reached the top of a summit, you're exhausted, and you may be affected by altitude. You're nerves are frayed. Your adrenaline has been going through your body through the day. You don't do think. You make a lot of mistakes. So the simpler you can keep things, the better off. That's really the main thing that I have learned.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
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Eric, 4Z1UG:
Does it make a difference in the direction that you send that antenna out or how you support it?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, it probably does, but most of the summits that I'm on that you really don't have that liberty. You've got a ridge line and there's not much room. So you really got one option. With my antenna, it's nice to have a wire cut for 40 meters, but often you don't have room for that either. So if you can get a 20-meter wire out, you're doing well on some of the summits that I'm on. So you don't have a lot of options on orientation or even height off the ground and sometimes even what to attach them to. So you're almost always compromised in some way.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So you've got essentially a 30-foot piece of wire out there on 20 meters. I guess what you were saying was it doesn't necessarily make sense to send it in any particular direction because any of the hams that you speak to regardless of where they're at could pass a message for you.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yes. That's exactly right. In SOTA, we can spot ourselves if we can get cellphone reception. I typically operate SS, single-sideband. So I have to figure out some way to spot myself. So that can done if I got cellphone reception. Sometimes it surprises me where I can get it at the tops of mountains, but if I can't get cellphone reception, sometimes APRS works, and other times I just have to dig up contacts from anybody that I can scrape up breaking in to conversations or other things like that.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
How do you use APRS? Are you carrying a two-meter radio or something like that as well?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, I do. I carry my two-meter radio as well. Mine is not APRS-capable, so I really tether it to my phone, and I have an app on my phone which will send a packet, and I'll push the PTT at the same time I push send on my phone and that will send it out. It's a little fiddly, but it does work.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
You know what? I remember from camping, snow camping in the Colorado Rockies with the Boy Scouts, what I remember is I'm trying to be a ham radio operator and finding that it was so cold there that none of the radios work because the batteries froze. How do you protect your batteries to make sure that they still have a charge? Do wear them on you, use body temperature to keep them warm?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah. That's exactly right. With batteries, I always keep them on my body, in my pocket on the longer trips because you'll suck the life out of them. Even if it doesn't make them unusable, you'll suck a lot of the life out of them, and if you've got a multi-day trip and need them to last for several days. In a lot of our winter operations, it's best to carry them on your body, and I usually do.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
In any of these huts, is there any power at all?
Paul, VA6MPM:
The Alpine Club of Canada huts are quite nice. They're wonderful. Most of them they'll have a heating source, whether it's a wood stove and firewood is hauled up there on helicopter or there's propane. So there's a heating source. They're well-furnished with cooking utensils. I mean, it's really a wonderful place to spend the time in the back-country if you even get the chance. A person should really go to the Alpine Club of Canada website and look at their fleet of huts because there are some wonderful places to stay.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
In your presentation or maybe it was at your presentation or maybe it was one of the websites I saw, I'll put a link to it, there was also a nice tour of one of the newer huts that looked like it had a big room for gathering 30 people.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yes. Yeah, big common room. That was probably the bow hut, that you're referring to. It's the largest hut that the Alpine Club operates. It's got a large common room with sleeping quarters off in a different area. Yeah. It's very comfortable. It's a lot of fun to spend time in the huts. That one in particular is frequented by a lot of mountain guides bringing clients into that hut and then making climbing journeys out from that hut.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
That's the base?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yes. That would the base. Most of the Alpine Club of Canada huts are built for that purpose, as a base for mountaineering objectives that are nearby.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Are you making those mountain objectives also SOTA objectives so that you can actually get SOTA summits?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, I am. It's really one of my funniest thing is to go into one of the Alpine huts and then make SOTA summits from that hut. It's just a lot of fun and it's a wonderful way to do it because it gives you a nice, safe, warm base camp to leave from and then return back to.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Have you done SOTA in Switzerland?
Paul, VA6MPM:
No, I haven't and I'd love to.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
You heard the interview with Renee.
Paul, VA6MPM:
I love listening to his stuff, and I love following him on YouTube and things because I feel that the Swiss Alps are very similar to the Canadian Rockies in many ways.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I think the Europeans would go on vacation for six weeks in the summer.
Paul, VA6MPM:
They do. The big difference between the mountains in Europe, the Swiss Alps, and the Canadian Rockies is the remoteness. I think statistically there's no place in the Alps where you can get any more than say five kilometers from habitable dwelling, where in our Canadian Rockies, there are places I've been then you could walk north, for example, and never cross a road or see another sign of civilization clear to the North Pole. I mean, it's much more remote. We get a lot of European climbers that come to the Canadian Rockies, and that's always the thing that they remark on and the thing that they come for is the remoteness and the opportunity to go places where few people go.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
If you are going to enhance your SOTA operation on a three-day trek, what's on your wishlist for making that possible?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I would not add any more equipment. I don't think I would do anything different. I would want to be more fit. I would want to be more experienced, more capable. It's really the only things, but I certainly wouldn't want to take any more equipment. In most backcountry operations, less is better.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Are there some areas of ham radio that when you're not in the mountains, when you're a flat lander, are there some areas of amateur radio that you're exploring right now that you'd like to learn about that-
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, I do. I love to operate from my QTH. The only radio I have is an Elecraft KX2, but it's a wonderful radio. I love plugging it at home because I have an amplifier. I can get 200 watts out. I love chasing DX. I really enjoy that. I love doing things like that. Even though it's a portable radio, the KX2 is a very capable radio. In fact, just the other day I operated split with the DX station, and that's things that normal portable radios are not capable of doing, but the Elecraft is really a fun radio. I really love operating at home. I love chasing DX. I love getting on nets, ragchewing with people. I enjoy all aspects of that, but I would say I use it mostly for portable, but I love operating all with an amplifier.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
What's the antenna that you use at home?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I have a fan dipole. I have an 80-meter wire hung and then I hung below at a 40 and a 20. So I can run resonate on 80, 40, 20, 10, 15, and I really enjoy it. I love operating it. It's a lot of fun. It's surprisingly effective with a simple antenna as I have. I think the thing about ham radio is enjoyment. I don't think I could enjoy it any more than I do. I just love operating the way I do. I love chasing DX with my simple station. I love being in the backcountry with my radio. It's just been a lot of fun.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Are you thinking about exploring other operating modes besides single-sideband?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I am. I am. I would like to operate a CW, but I don't think I'm ready yet. One of the things I like about single-sideband is it requires a little explanation because most SOTA operators, I would say the vast majority are CW operators. You carry less stuff. They're more efficient. They're just suited. CW is so suited for SOTA. So I'm asked often why I don't pursue that. There are a couple of reasons. One is that a lot of my activations are done alone. When I spend all day long getting to the top of a difficult summit and by the time I am at the summit, my nerves are frayed, my adrenaline is going, I'm lonely, and I have to anticipate sometimes a dangerous lonely journey back. I find it so comforting to hear these voices of chasers who have become familiar.
Paul, VA6MPM:
There's guys like Gary and Martha, John, Christian from France. All these names that have become familiar, it buoys me up, gives me encouragement, confidence, and it helps me on my return journey. I enjoy that part. So I hate to give that up when I'm at a summit. I enjoy that single-sideband operation. That's one thing.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Then the other is I got into this thing because of a need of having safety in the backcountry, and I've talked with helicopters by phone. I've talked with other mountain guides with search and rescue people. That's all been done by phone. I doubt I'm never going to call in a rescue on CW. There are certain things in the backcountry communication that are just better done single-sideband. So I concentrate at my efforts in that area. It's not that CW is not better because it probably is, but it's just the way I am.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I saw the picture on your QRZ page of the fan dipole. Very professional-looking installation on your house. Do you have a ham radio mentor that helps you with some of the stuff that might seem obvious to the old timers but may not seem so obvious to the newcomers?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, absolutely. When I first got into radio and realizing that my background was not technical, I immediately joined a club because I knew I was going to need help. A fellow that lives in town, Brian Davies, VE6CKC, has been extremely generous with his time helping me get that fan dipole tuned up and installed and teaching me what I need to know to do that. He's been great. VE6CIA, another member of the club has been very generous with his time. A person should join a club and get to know people because you're going to need help no matter how much knowledge you have.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
What's your radio club?
Paul, VA6MPM:
It's the Central Alberta Amateur Radio Club. CAARC is the name of the club. That's a great bunch of people, very, very generous with their time and willing and capable people. I've met many of them and grown to appreciate them.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
It's my understanding that Canada has been locked down more than perhaps United States and even Israel. Have they been meeting on Zoom or virtually as a-
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah. We have our own club repeater. We did that for a while. We met on that repeater. Then lately, we have got a Zoom account and we have been having some Zoom meetings, but we have missed quite a few. We look forward to getting back into the routine, but we are in the process of getting more Zoom meetings scheduled and set up because that's been effective.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Now, one of the things I noticed is that the presentation that you gave at the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo you've given before it seems, either before or after, and you've done it all over Canada, I think, by Zoom?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I have. There's been several clubs that's asked me to do the presentation and I have a few others lined up. The presentation is very visual because I have to mention there are a lot of SOTA activators that are more prolific than I am. There's better mountaineers. There's more fit people. There's a lot of people that do it better than I do, but I happen to live in the area that has the most beautiful mountains in the world, bar none, and I will defend that statement. So therefore, the presentation that I've done is quite visual and there's some stunning photos, and I think clubs particularly, anybody likes looking at pretty pictures. So it's been popular.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Of course. Maybe you're the intersection of SOTA pretty pictures, the best mountains in the world. I mean, individually, you may not be the top of all of them, but the intersections all come to you.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Absolutely.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
We will return to our guest in just a moment. A new way to show your support of the QSO Today Podcast is to buy me a coffee. I consume gallons of coffee to create this weekly podcast. Invite me for coffee by pushing the yellow button, buy me a coffee on the QSO Today show notes page. Now back to our QSO Today.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I noticed in one of the videos that you had that looked like there was a drone flowing over you.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yes.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Are you the drone pilot?
Paul, VA6MPM:
No. My buddy, I have a buddy who I had mentioned, Eric Peterson, comes out with me on most of my difficult journeys. He has a drone and he's also a very keen amateur photographer. So he also has a YouTube channel and he's got one of my videos, one of the videos of our SOTA operations on his YouTube channel, but he does most of that, the drone photography. In fact, we have a SOTA trip set up in a couple of weeks where we're going to take his drone with us and try to do a mountain that hasn't been active yet.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Well, there's a business idea it seems to me. The business idea is a jacket that has enough pockets designed for holding different kinds of batteries, the drone batteries, the radio batteries, the amplifier batteries.
Paul, VA6MPM:
It is a big problem. I mean, with my buddy Eric, with his cameras, just with his cameras and drone batteries, he carries a lot of batteries. It is a juggling act to keep them all warm. It really is.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
These are these packages that if you broke them all up you could use them to warm up stuff. I guess the only problem is you have to carry those, too.
Paul, VA6MPM:
They're not that heavy. Actually, we have used those with batteries. That's another thing that helps a lot is you'll break one of those hand warmers open and wrap it around your batter pack. It has to reside in your backpack. That's another way to keep them warm and we've done that.
Paul, VA6MPM:
In Canada, probably the main thing we deal with is cold weather and long winters. So a lot of our activities are wintertime activities. Even if they're not wintertime, SOTA gives a bonus for wintertime activations, and many of our activations people would suspect that they're wintertime activations, but even our summertime activations we're often on skis and snow dealing with inclement weather.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Well, I've lived as far north as Denver, Colorado, and I'm assuming that that's way far south than Alberta. So the question that comes to mind is that if you're driving your car or truck to the trail head where you begin your journey, how do you start your car or truck when you come back if it's -30 degrees and all that stuff is there? Is there a trick that the Canadians have for parking for more than a few hours?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Well, I think most of it is that you tend to learn your vehicle's ability. For example, my truck, I know it will start down to -35. Between -35 to -40, it's getting sketchy, but it's mostly just knowing your vehicle. By the time you end up in the mountains, you pretty much know how cold you're going to be able to get before that vehicle won't start when you get back, but it is something you have to watch because if you get back and you can't start your vehicle, there's got to be a backup plan.
Paul, VA6MPM:
One thing to note, in Canada we don't have a lot of roads going through our mountains like perhaps in the United States, where there's a lot of roads. So typically, we're parking on the highway and then walking in to the backcountry from the highway. So there probably is help when we finally get back out of the bush.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So if you need to jumpstart or something like that-
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, there's probably somebody.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
It's not like there's electric plugs or block heaters at the trail head.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Usually not at trail head. Although most businesses and so forth in Canada will have plugins for your vehicle, but at the trail head, no.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Has your spouse decided that she might want to be a ham radio operator instead of receiving the calls over the phone?
Paul, VA6MPM:
No. She sees me come limping in after long journeys and things. I want nothing to do with this.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So she's associating ham radio with physical danger.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
That seems to be something. Do you have say a one year amateur radio goal? Is there some skill or accomplishment that you'd like to master in the next year?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah. Of course, every SOTA operator wants to achieve what they call mountain goat status. That's one that I would like to achieve. I would like to get there. I think it takes a little more time because every association is different and our mountains in Alberta tend to be a little more involved. So we're not going to be doing multi-10-day summits in a day. That will never happen. Our four pointers usually require over 1,000 meters elevation gain, sometimes technical skills to get there. So it happens much more slowly for us here, but that's one.
Paul, VA6MPM:
The other is I love to operate when I travel. I'm trying to figure out the next time I go to the United Arab Emirates. They have just got their SOTA association set up and none of their summits have been activated yet. I would love to go there and do SOTA in the UAE.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
As a guy who lives in the Middle East, we have a mountain range. The highest mountain happens to be the southern most highest mountain of Lebanon. We share the Mount Hermon with the Lebanese and the Syrians as a matter of fact, but then I think of the UAE and I think there are mountains in the UAE. So now, I'm going to get out to my Google Maps and see where those mountains are. What kind of summits do they have in the UAE?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Well, that's the interesting thing. Every SOTA association, what they'll do is they'll determine the base of your lowest mountain to the top of the highest mountain and come up with a point system in between. So there's no attempt to make it uniform between associations. So all the mountains with the border, with Oman, all of those, which most of us would probably call them hills.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Right, or sand dunes.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, or sand dunes, yeah, but still they are what they have in the UAE, and every association will use what you've got. In fact, it's interesting in Canada, we are bordered by Saskatchewan, which is a prairie province. So you have Alberta, which is a mountain province, and we have Saskatchewan next door. So there's an area called the Cypress Hills that sits right on the border between Alberta and Saskatchewan. If you go down there and activate a SOTA summit, it's a one pointer in Alberta, but if you walk a few miles across the border to Saskatchewan, it's a 10 pointer because it happens to be their highest mountain.
Paul, VA6MPM:
So that anomaly takes place everywhere in the world. So UAE will have their own mountains, and whatever they got, I think the thing that makes SOTA fun is wherever you live, you can have as much fun as anybody else is having just from the hills or mountains that you have close to home.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Did you meet a large number of hams at the UAE club when you were there?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, I did, and very welcoming, warm people. I've visited their club there a couple of times. It's fun to go there and operate because it's just different than anything at home. I love going over there, and they're great, generous. The Arabs are such wonderful, hospitable hosts. They're so good to visitors and guests. I love going there.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Well, we were talking a little bit before we started and that is that Israel now has diplomatic relations with the UAE, and there's this anticipation that we'll be flocking in both directions. So I think the UAE now has a flight three times a week to Israel. As I said at the beginning, all of my QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo staff is in Dubai. We're anxious to actually get together at some point when the COVID restrictions lift. I think the COVID restrictions in Dubai are actually probably even more severe than Israel.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah. I think they are. It is one of the most positive things that's happening in the world today to see those relationships between Israel and some of the gulf countries solidify. It's nice to see that and I'm glad that that's happening. It's wonderful to see.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Well, we've been stifled here, I mean, with the COVID. Up until the COVID, 60% of Israelis leave the country every year to travel. We love to travel. So having a direction to go east is very exciting for us. We're looking forward to it.
Paul, VA6MPM:
It will be nice. You'll love Dubai. It's just a lot of fun. It's one of the most interesting places I've ever been.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Well, I'm glad to hear that. Are there any other, besides Japan and the Arab world, are there other places that you go now that you find especially interesting and when you go there, do you look up the hams?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah. Every time I go down to the States I try to do SOTA activations. I was recently on a trip to New Mexico and I looked up a local SOTA operator there and did an activation with him. My brother is a biologist with the New Mexico Game & Fish, and I was helping him do a ptarmigan reintroduction into the Pecos Wilderness there near Santa Fe, and I did a SOTA summit while I was down there, but it's a great activity to take anywhere you travel because there are mountains everywhere and like when I go on a business trip to Japan, it's so nice to take a day off and just hit the hills and do an activation. You meet local people.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Ham radio, take UAE for example, how else am I ever going to meet local emirates that are involved, that live there, and are residents there?
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Regular people, not business associates.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Exactly. Exactly. It's so nice. So ham radio offers that opportunity whether it's SOTA or just visiting clubs. It's a wonderful activity to bring us together.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Have you had a chance to go back to Kenya with your amateur radio license?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I have, and I have taken the radio there. When I was there last, I didn't actually operate, but since I lived in Kenya, I live more with the locals. I actually have a sister who is there who is African. So when I'm with her and her community, it's a pretty ... Most people would say sketchy areas. It's not a place you really want to take your radio equipment around. So I haven't done an awful lot of operating when I go there. I would like to. They don't have an association formed for SOTA either. So there's not the Summits on the Air draw in Kenya as well. Kenya is also a wonderful place to visit, great place to be in, wonderful people. It's a second home to me.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
What advice would you give to new or returning hams to the hobby?
Paul, VA6MPM:
The biggest thing I would say is to find something you're interested in. Activities like Summits on the Air have drawn in people that would otherwise not be interested in radio. There's a lot of activities like this, Parks on the Air. Portable operations are a lot of fun, and they're bringing in something like Summits on the Air, for example, it's increasing in popularity all the time. Every year there's more people that are involved in it. Those people are getting younger and younger, which is completely opposite of many aspects of our hobby. So I would encourage people to find something that they love.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Everybody who starts the hobby will become, I hesitate to use the word bored, but they will come to the point where it's no longer, whatever they were interested in at one time is no longer exciting and they need to find something that will excite them because there are many things out there that will.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I had somebody asked me today about amateur radio like, "Oh, do people still do that?" I mean, I say that at the beginning because that seems to be the first question that people say is like, "Oh, do people still do that?" and then you say, "Yeah, but the internet has made it possible, but there's a million things in ham radio now."
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yes. The technology, yeah, it is, it is, and people who see me operating on a summit will say, "Is that a ham radio? I didn't know that's a ham radio." It's maybe that small and you think 20 years ago to do what I do on a summit would have taken a line of porters, five people deep behind a chain, red asset batteries, big radio equipment, and now with one kilo, I can do everything. So that's another aspect of the hobby that has increased the ability for us to do it, and has made it way more fun for way more people.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Paul, I want thank you so much for joining me on the QSO Today Podcast. I realized that when we first started communicating you thought perhaps we wouldn't have anything to talk about. I'm so grateful that you said yes, and that we had this opportunity to get to know each other, and that the listeners of the QSO Today Podcast and the people who viewed your presentation and can still view your presentation at the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo will when they're watching your presentation will have some background information on you that will make that much more enjoyable. So with that, I want to thank you so much and wish you 73.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Thank you, Eric. It's been a pleasure, and 73.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
That concludes this episode of QSO Today. I hope that you enjoyed this QSO with Paul. Please be sure to check out the show notes that include links and information about the topics that we discussed. Go to www.qsotoday.com and put in VA6, that's Victor Alpha Six Mike Papa Mike, in the search box at the top of the page.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
My thanks to Icom America for its support of the QSO Today Podcast. Please show your support of Icom America by clicking on their banner in the show notes pages. You may notice that some of the episodes are transcribed into written text. If you'd like to sponsor this or any other episode into written text, please contact me. Support the QSO Today Podcast by first joining the QSO Today email list by pressing the subscribe buttons on the show notes pages. I will not spam you or share your email address with anyone. Become a listener sponsor monthly or annually by clicking on the sponsor buttons on the show notes pages or use my Amazon link before shopping at Amazon. Amazon gives me a small commission on your purchases while at the same time protecting your privacy. I'm grateful for any way that you show appreciation and support. It makes a big difference as I head towards episode 400.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
QSO Today is now available in the iHeart Radio, Spotify, YouTube, and a bunch of other online audio services, including the iTunes Store. Look on the right side of the show notes pages for a listing of these services. You can use the Amazon Echo and say, "Alexa, play the QSO Today Podcast," from TuneIn. My thanks to Ben Bresky, who edits every single show and allows both this host and my guest to sound brilliant.
Thanks, Ben. Until next time, this is Eric, 4Z1UG. 73.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
The QSO Today Podcast is a product of KEG Media Inc., who is solely responsible for its content.
VA6MPM, this is Eric, 4Z1UG. Are you there, Paul?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I am Eric. It's good to meet you and you're coming in loud and clear.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Paul, thanks for joining me on the QSO Today Podcast. I might mention that Paul was a speaker at the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo in August where he spoke about SOTA. I'll have a link to that in the show notes page. Paul, let's start at the beginning of your story. When and how did that story start for you?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Well, it really started when I was a kid. I grew up in Kenya during high school. We had a short-wave radio there. I was intrigued with that. Of course, there, there was no hams that I knew and throughout my life there were no hams, but that intrigue with signals carrying across oceans fascinated, but it started in earnest several years ago actually in an unorthodox ways. I was sitting at my desk. I have a home office and I was sitting on my desk and my phone rang. A fellow picked up on the other line and he introduced himself as a ham radio operator who was traveling through our area. He said he had just received a call on his radio from a friend of mine named Mark Ellings and asked if I knew him. I said, "Yeah, I know Mark."
Paul, VA6MPM:
He said, "Yeah, you're a friend of Mark." He said, "You know where he's at?"
Paul, VA6MPM:
I said, "Yeah. He's out camping with his two young boys."
Paul, VA6MPM:
I knew where he was. The guy says, "Well, apparently his truck won't start."
Paul, VA6MPM:
It was about -20 Celsius so I knew this was a problem. So I arranged to get my buddy taken care of, get his truck out of there. This was all done over the radio. I was just intrigued with that. It just fascinated me that my buddy Mark who had the very lowest level what would be considered the US technician's license was able to call in the cavalry from the backcountry.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Would he not have a cellular telephone service there?
Paul, VA6MPM:
No. There was no cellphone service where he was at.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
His life might have been saved by ham radio, right?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Well, it is possible, yes, and I thought about that because he was in most places in the Canadian Rockies that there is no cellphone service. So one of the things that I do is I do casual work for the Alpine Club of Canada. I do custodial work in the system. The Alpine Club of Canada has a whole fleet of backcountry huts, about 35 huts scattered throughout the Canadian Rockies. So I spend a lot of time in the backcountry and I found myself about two weeks after this incident skiing across from Alberta into British Columbia across the continental divide in very, very remote location, and I was on assignment from the Alpine Club to go in and check on a brand new hut that had just been built, and they had not posted any route descriptions and there was no GPS markings for this hut yet.
Paul, VA6MPM:
So I had spent about 12 hours, my buddy and I, and the warmest it got was -30 Celsius that day, and we had traveled all day in very, very remote conditions. By the time I got to this hut, we were exhausted, hungry, cold, and I got to this hut, and it was locked. They had forgotten to give me the key or the code to the door. So standing on the steps of that hut I said, "Whatever I do when I get back, I'm going to get whatever license my buddy had because I got to figure out a way to communicate when I'm in the backcountry.
Paul, VA6MPM:
So that's how it started. When I got back I took the test and my buddy said, "All you need to do is get 70% on your test to get your license." So I didn't even really study. I just went out and took the test, and I got that license. That's really how it started.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
That's a huge argument for people that say, "Well, what do you need ham radio for? We have cellular telephones." There's a fair part of the world, maybe the largest part of the world that actually doesn't have cellphone coverage. That does make a difference. You know me. You told me before we started recording that you listen to the QSO Today Podcast. So therefore, I think we're too forward in the story. We have to go way back. So I'm going to ask you why you were Kenya for high school. I mean, what was the hometown? Where did you originally originate, and how did you find yourself in Kenya?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Well, I was actually born in the States originally, and I grew up a good part of my life until we moved in Kenya in Jackson, Wyoming, which is a mountain town, steeped in mountain culture I would say. So I got my taste of mountaineering very young in Jackson, Wyoming, but my father, he worked for the forest service. He was a forest ranger. He took a job with the government of Kenya, and just on a fluke, I don't know. I will thank my father forever for taking this leap of faith and dragging his family, young family to Kenya and giving us an opportunity to grow up there and having experiences that we would not otherwise have.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
How long were you there?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I was there during high school. I was there a couple of years, then I went back and went to university there as well. After I got married, Kenya has changed my life, really. It defined me. So I knew that when I got married, after I married, it would be important to bring them back there so that they could experience some of the things I did. So I got married while I was still in university and we saved our money, went back, enrolled in the University or Nairobi and stayed there for a while. Academically, it wasn't a great advantage, but as Mark Twain said, "I never let my schooling interfere with my education."
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I say that frequently to my kids.
Paul, VA6MPM:
It's an important mantra.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Well, talk a little bit about Nairobi. I think I read an amazing novel called Cutting for Stone, which I think took place in Kenya.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yes, yes.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Probably the best books I've ever read. So there is an allure of African that people have. I mean, I guess I think of being out on the veldt and seeing the wild animals, but what was the allure for you once you went back? It seemed like a primitive society for people that don't travel the world.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yes, and that's true. I think that that is the allure, that it is not developed. We can do things there that we wouldn't normally do in the West. There's a certain amount of freedom in living in a country that is not as developed as where you may have grown up. For example, my mountaineering really began in earnest in Kenya on Mount Kenya, Mount Kilimanjaro on the rock buttresses along the rift valley escarpment. That's really where I started my mountaineering.
Paul, VA6MPM:
I spent lots of time in the bush. My father worked clear up in the northeast province of Kenya and he'd be away for weeks at a time, and I would often go with him. In fact, I remember my high school counselor called me in the office one day and said, "Paul," she said, "our school is under the American system. In order for you to graduate, you cannot miss any more than 20 days per year." She said, "According to the records, you have missed 25 days and it's not even Christmas time." I spent a lot of time out. My parents allowed me to have that freedom, which was a wonderful opportunity.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
In the end of the school, allowed you to have that freedom as well so that you were able to graduate?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, it did, but my education path has taken years. It took me seven years just to get a university degree. So I have a habit of taking time off and disappearing into the mountains.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Well, I have to tell you, for other reasons, and this is just between us and nobody else, and that is it took me seven years to get a bachelor's of science. It was my wife who said, "You have to declare a major because we're leaving next year." I loved being in school, and probably if I hadn't gotten married I'd probably still be there, but I loved being in school. She said, "Just declare something."
Paul, VA6MPM:
Well, I applaud that educational route. I do.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
What did you end up majoring in?
Paul, VA6MPM:
It's a funny thing. All I wanted to do in my life was go back to Africa. So I thought, "Well, what do I do?" So I went in to political science. I thought I'd be a diplomat because many of my friends' parents that's what they did. I was taking a university course from a professor that I actually knew in Kenya just because it was a fun course. He caught me after the course and said, "Paul, what's your major?" I told him, "Political science."
Paul, VA6MPM:
He said, "Okay."
Paul, VA6MPM:
He wrote down a name and he said, "I want you to go to see this person this person and change your major to business."
Paul, VA6MPM:
I said, "Why? I hate business."
Paul, VA6MPM:
He said, "It doesn't matter what you hate, Paul." He said, "You need a job and you're not going to find one in political science. So just change your major," and he says, " you speak Japanese, right?"
Paul, VA6MPM:
I said, "Yeah, I speak Japanese."
Paul, VA6MPM:
He says, "Well, just major in business, get a job, and figure the outcome."
Paul, VA6MPM:
So I changed my major, went into business, and have ended up in this niche business where I'm escorting agricultural projects mostly to Japan, and actually also the Middle East, the cultures that I have been the most comfortable with basically.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
You're a guy from Wyoming who lands in Kenya. Why do you speak Japanese?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Well, I was born in Utah. Our Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints, we often send missionaries out when they're young, 19 years old. We can't choose where we go. I ended up going to Japan, and ended up coming back with the ability to speak Japanese. So it wasn't any-
Eric, 4Z1UG:
No, but it's still cool.
Paul, VA6MPM:
It is.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I think I have interviewed Mormons before, and you're right, they could end up in South America or Central America or wherever. So I think that's amazing.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
You've been able to leverage all of this education and this experience in agricultural grains business, which I think is-
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah. I worked for Honda, the car company, for many years. Honda, as most people don't know, one time was a large export of agricultural products to Japan, yeah. You can imagine within a car company there are thousands and thousands of employees there. There's very few that have any agricultural background. I was one of the few. My only background was that I halt hay during the summer for a farmer in Utah. So I was by defacto ended up in the agricultural export industry and when Honda abandoned all of that while I was working for them in Canada, I resigned then just started doing the same thing basically on-
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I was a history major. In the end, that was what I declared. I had some courses in Japanese history. So I think Honda was one of the zybot who trading corporations, right?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yes.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So for the listeners, I think that meant that these families, the Honda dynasty, they had lots of businesses. They were a conglomerate.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Well, actually, that's not completely true. Those zybot families were a little different because, actually, Honda, Soichiro Honda, he really grew from the very bottom. He came from a very humble background. He built the company up just because of his sheer love of going fast and building fast cars, racing. So he was a little bit different. He was an unorthodox player in the Japanese auto industry when things first started. For many, many, in fact, Honda is way more popular in the States than it is in Japan.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Oh, is that amazing?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, it is. It is.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I remember seeing shipping containers that said Honda on it, and they were obviously shipping more than cars.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah. Well, I'll bet what you were seeing was not Honda, probably Hyundai, which was a Korean company.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Also, right.
Paul, VA6MPM:
I'll bet you that's what you probably saw because Honda at one time in fact, the reason Honda Trading, my company, even started in agricultural exports was that Honda owned their own vessels and had big ships that said Honda across the bow. They pulled it into the port of Long Beach and unload the cargo and then sail home empty. Honda realized in the beginning that was bad PR. It was bad business. So they started the Honda Trading and said, "Our mandate was to export anything, have low value, high volume, just fill these ships up going back."
Paul, VA6MPM:
So hay for the Japanese dairies, scrap paper and scrap metal was what the first commodities that started shipping. The agricultural products went on. It carried on that tradition of export for many, many years.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
One of my incarnations, I was a marine radio service technician in the Long Beach Port. So that must be where I remember seeing the Honda ships.
Paul, VA6MPM:
You would have. You would have. Yeah. They had big blue ships with Honda right across the bow.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So until I got married, I was 130 pounds, skinny as a rail, and in the company, I could fit in the rudder post porthole on a tugboat to fix an autopilot. So I was very popular in the company I worked for when they needed somebody in the bilge. So I became an expert on rudder post and automatic pilots on tugboats to my sorrow because it was not a place to be.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Oh, you got stuck down in the bilge probably too often.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
A bilge rat.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
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Eric, 4Z1UG:
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Eric, 4Z1UG:
Now, why Canada? Is that where you landed with Honda and then you decided to stay in Canada?
Paul, VA6MPM:
It was. It was. I came up here to manage a hay export operation, and during the time I was here, Honda decided that they're a car company, they're not an agricultural company. So they disbanded all of the agricultural businesses. At the time, rather than go back, I had already fallen in love with Canada. So I resigned and just stayed here and started doing the same agricultural exports as I had done during most of my-
Eric, 4Z1UG:
That causes you now to even still to travel worldwide?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, it does. I go to Japan frequently and to the Middle East frequently because those are my two main-
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Right. So there's a picture of you I think on your QRZ page in Dubai, and we were just talking about Dubai. Dubai is now two hours from Israel. As soon as our COVID restrictions open up, then we'll see a lot more Dubaians here in Israel, and a lot of Israelis, we love to travel. So we'll be in Dubai at some point. As I told you before, I have staff from the expo that lives in Dubai and they were just saying that it was a beautiful 42-degree centigrade in Dubai. I think that's hot.
Paul, VA6MPM:
It is. I think we should wait a few months before we go over there when it cools off.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Somebody told me that in Dubai they chill the water in the pool so that you can swim in the pool.
Paul, VA6MPM:
That doesn't surprise me at all.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
They also have a ski slope. When you were in Dubai, did you snow ski?
Paul, VA6MPM:
No, I haven't. In fact, it would be hard for me to do that because we have the best skiing in the world in Canada. Dubai is no place to go to ski. It's a novelty.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
It's a novelty, but it's not like skiing the Canadian Rockies.
Paul, VA6MPM:
No, not at all, not at all.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I think we're caught up from the standpoint of we can start talking about amateur radio. You got your license, and then what happened after that? I saw a picture of you in your presentation that you started with a technician class license. How did that work out for you?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah. Well, it worked for a while, but I realized fairly quickly in the remote Alpine Club of Canada huts that I was visiting VHF wasn't going to cut the mustard and I needed to get an HF license, which I did, and since that time, I've been carrying an HF radio to when I go into the backcountry because I do casual custodial and maintenance work for the Alpine Club of Canada. So I'm back in the backcountry frequently. I enjoy that. So I carry my radio with me in there as a means of communication. That's really what intrigued me about the radio. It's been a wonderful opportunity.
Paul, VA6MPM:
I used at first when I went into the back I would arrange a sched with some of my friends, but I quickly found that the propagation was unpredictable. My schedule is unpredictable. I also found that the ham radio community at large is wonderful. So I started to just get on the radio, break in to conversations, get on nets, and I've been able to then communicate with somebody who is in turn able to get messages to my wife saying that I'll be late or I made it to where I need to be on time, but that's been means of communicating with home when I've been in the backcountry.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Now, when you're in the backcountry, how long is your trip?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Well, it depends. Usually three. If I go into one of the huts, usually three days, a day to get into it, a day to do whatever I need to do, and then a day to get out. So I'm usually typically three days, but some of the trip versus across some of the ranges that I do maybe longer than that. Then since I got involved in Summits on the Air, day trips are probably more common than not.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
You try to return the same day?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, on most of my SOTA operations, I do. I try to do most of them on day trips, but still there's quite a few overnighters as well.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Well, I think I have the majority of people that might listen to the QSO Today Podcast when they hear people talking about SOTA, they're talking about day trips probably dry day trips. Being that you're far north and probably there's still probably snow on the ground even in the summer, it seems to me that maybe the question that people would want me to ask is what's the minimalist packing that you do in order to be able to not only take the things you need, water, food, whatever, and the radios? Have you mastered that?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, I think so. Depending on the style of SOTA operation we do, activators will choose their own system. What I rely on is I'll take my radio. I try to carry less, no more than I would normally carry. So I don't carry a fiberglass mask like many do. I have an avalanche probe that I typically carry with me in winter activations, anyway, and I use that as a mask. I'll attach my trekking poles together to put it in about halfway between maybe my avalanche probe and my trekking poles because most of my activations would be above treeline. So I'm propping that up with rocks and I use that Elecraft KX2, and little water and lunch for a day trip.
Paul, VA6MPM:
In Canada at our latitudes, I will often carry an amplifier so that I can get 40-50 watts out. It makes it a little easier for the chasers and a little more fun. Overnight trips I won't carry that, but for day trips I will often carry that.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
That means you have to carry batteries. Do you bring solar panels or anything like that as well?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I will carry a battery pack for the radio and then a separate battery pack, usually LiFePO4 small battery pack to power the amplifier. I don't carry anything excess. So I can get two or three activations out of one battery charge, but probably no more. I wouldn't carry any more power then to get that much. Even in multi-day trips, if I'm just looking for communication on a mountain traverse, then I'll just limit my radio use and try not to carry because you really can't afford to carry too much weight on those trips.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
What's your backup plan if you run out of battery and you still need communications? Is that faith?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I really don't have one. I really don't have one. So no. Solar panels would be a great option, but there really is not. That's one of the things that I think my activations may differ from many. There's a lot of levels of mountaineering. There's a certain level where you step out where there is no safety net. When I leave a hut and I know that if I don't make it to the next hut, there is no safety net. So I try to make sure that, what I'm saying is I'm used to that type of feeling. So I try to limit my operations to where I will at least have enough battery power in an emergency if I were to need one.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Do you carry one of the Garmin satellite communicators as an emergency backup?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I don't.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
To please your wife?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I don't. Someday she may force me to start taking one of those, but I've come from the old school where when I started mountaineering we had no communication, and I become used to that. I've never really gone down that road and the HF radio has been sufficient. That's probably all that I will ever use.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Do you travel by yourself?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Most of the time I do. Most of my SOTA trips I am alone. I'm starting to get to the age where my buddies are not able to come with me any longer. I like to do things that even the younger guys probably aren't willing to do. So most of my SOTA trips are alone.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Now, some of the really difficult intense journeys, I do have a couple of buddies that come with me often and that helps. On the ones where it's just simply ludicrous to be on your own then, of course, I have a partner, but for most of my SOTA trips, most of them I'm alone.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Will the Alpine Club of Canada supply you with a Sherpa or maybe a younger member that could be that buddy?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Unfortunately, they consider me the Sherpa. So no. When they send me into one of these places, the reason they do is because they know I can get in and make it and I have the equipment to do so, but some of the long journeys, of course, yeah, I have a good friend, Eric Peterson, that will often go with me and do some of the more difficult journeys with me.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Is there something that you've learned being at the top of the world with a half wave end fed antenna just a few feet above the ground in terms of how to optimize the operation of that antenna in a snowfield or-
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah. There are little things that you learn. Actually, you mentioned snowfield. That always helps. If I can be over snow, that helps. There are little tricks you learn that I have learned, anyway, in operating style and in setup. I think the biggest thing, though, that I've learned is that once you reached the top of a summit, you're exhausted, and you may be affected by altitude. You're nerves are frayed. Your adrenaline has been going through your body through the day. You don't do think. You make a lot of mistakes. So the simpler you can keep things, the better off. That's really the main thing that I have learned.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I want to take a minute to tell you about my favorite podcast, The Ham Radio Workbench Podcast with George, KJ6VU, and now joined by Rod, VA3ON, Mike, VA3MW, Mark, N6MTS, and Vince, VE6LK. Every two weeks, George and company offer up a status report on the many amateur radio projects on their workbenches and explore projects on their guesswork benches. This group is project active and prolific covering many technical areas of amateur radio.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So the next time you want to deep dive into ham radio electronic project building or to learn about technology, tools, test equipment, construction techniques and the rest, listen to The Ham Radio Workbench Podcast available on every podcast player and channel. Use the link in this week's show notes page to get to The Ham Radio Workbench Podcast directly, and now back to my QSO.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Does it make a difference in the direction that you send that antenna out or how you support it?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, it probably does, but most of the summits that I'm on that you really don't have that liberty. You've got a ridge line and there's not much room. So you really got one option. With my antenna, it's nice to have a wire cut for 40 meters, but often you don't have room for that either. So if you can get a 20-meter wire out, you're doing well on some of the summits that I'm on. So you don't have a lot of options on orientation or even height off the ground and sometimes even what to attach them to. So you're almost always compromised in some way.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So you've got essentially a 30-foot piece of wire out there on 20 meters. I guess what you were saying was it doesn't necessarily make sense to send it in any particular direction because any of the hams that you speak to regardless of where they're at could pass a message for you.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yes. That's exactly right. In SOTA, we can spot ourselves if we can get cellphone reception. I typically operate SS, single-sideband. So I have to figure out some way to spot myself. So that can done if I got cellphone reception. Sometimes it surprises me where I can get it at the tops of mountains, but if I can't get cellphone reception, sometimes APRS works, and other times I just have to dig up contacts from anybody that I can scrape up breaking in to conversations or other things like that.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
How do you use APRS? Are you carrying a two-meter radio or something like that as well?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, I do. I carry my two-meter radio as well. Mine is not APRS-capable, so I really tether it to my phone, and I have an app on my phone which will send a packet, and I'll push the PTT at the same time I push send on my phone and that will send it out. It's a little fiddly, but it does work.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
You know what? I remember from camping, snow camping in the Colorado Rockies with the Boy Scouts, what I remember is I'm trying to be a ham radio operator and finding that it was so cold there that none of the radios work because the batteries froze. How do you protect your batteries to make sure that they still have a charge? Do wear them on you, use body temperature to keep them warm?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah. That's exactly right. With batteries, I always keep them on my body, in my pocket on the longer trips because you'll suck the life out of them. Even if it doesn't make them unusable, you'll suck a lot of the life out of them, and if you've got a multi-day trip and need them to last for several days. In a lot of our winter operations, it's best to carry them on your body, and I usually do.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
In any of these huts, is there any power at all?
Paul, VA6MPM:
The Alpine Club of Canada huts are quite nice. They're wonderful. Most of them they'll have a heating source, whether it's a wood stove and firewood is hauled up there on helicopter or there's propane. So there's a heating source. They're well-furnished with cooking utensils. I mean, it's really a wonderful place to spend the time in the back-country if you even get the chance. A person should really go to the Alpine Club of Canada website and look at their fleet of huts because there are some wonderful places to stay.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
In your presentation or maybe it was at your presentation or maybe it was one of the websites I saw, I'll put a link to it, there was also a nice tour of one of the newer huts that looked like it had a big room for gathering 30 people.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yes. Yeah, big common room. That was probably the bow hut, that you're referring to. It's the largest hut that the Alpine Club operates. It's got a large common room with sleeping quarters off in a different area. Yeah. It's very comfortable. It's a lot of fun to spend time in the huts. That one in particular is frequented by a lot of mountain guides bringing clients into that hut and then making climbing journeys out from that hut.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
That's the base?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yes. That would the base. Most of the Alpine Club of Canada huts are built for that purpose, as a base for mountaineering objectives that are nearby.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Are you making those mountain objectives also SOTA objectives so that you can actually get SOTA summits?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, I am. It's really one of my funniest thing is to go into one of the Alpine huts and then make SOTA summits from that hut. It's just a lot of fun and it's a wonderful way to do it because it gives you a nice, safe, warm base camp to leave from and then return back to.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Have you done SOTA in Switzerland?
Paul, VA6MPM:
No, I haven't and I'd love to.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
You heard the interview with Renee.
Paul, VA6MPM:
I love listening to his stuff, and I love following him on YouTube and things because I feel that the Swiss Alps are very similar to the Canadian Rockies in many ways.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I think the Europeans would go on vacation for six weeks in the summer.
Paul, VA6MPM:
They do. The big difference between the mountains in Europe, the Swiss Alps, and the Canadian Rockies is the remoteness. I think statistically there's no place in the Alps where you can get any more than say five kilometers from habitable dwelling, where in our Canadian Rockies, there are places I've been then you could walk north, for example, and never cross a road or see another sign of civilization clear to the North Pole. I mean, it's much more remote. We get a lot of European climbers that come to the Canadian Rockies, and that's always the thing that they remark on and the thing that they come for is the remoteness and the opportunity to go places where few people go.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
If you are going to enhance your SOTA operation on a three-day trek, what's on your wishlist for making that possible?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I would not add any more equipment. I don't think I would do anything different. I would want to be more fit. I would want to be more experienced, more capable. It's really the only things, but I certainly wouldn't want to take any more equipment. In most backcountry operations, less is better.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Are there some areas of ham radio that when you're not in the mountains, when you're a flat lander, are there some areas of amateur radio that you're exploring right now that you'd like to learn about that-
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, I do. I love to operate from my QTH. The only radio I have is an Elecraft KX2, but it's a wonderful radio. I love plugging it at home because I have an amplifier. I can get 200 watts out. I love chasing DX. I really enjoy that. I love doing things like that. Even though it's a portable radio, the KX2 is a very capable radio. In fact, just the other day I operated split with the DX station, and that's things that normal portable radios are not capable of doing, but the Elecraft is really a fun radio. I really love operating at home. I love chasing DX. I love getting on nets, ragchewing with people. I enjoy all aspects of that, but I would say I use it mostly for portable, but I love operating all with an amplifier.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
What's the antenna that you use at home?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I have a fan dipole. I have an 80-meter wire hung and then I hung below at a 40 and a 20. So I can run resonate on 80, 40, 20, 10, 15, and I really enjoy it. I love operating it. It's a lot of fun. It's surprisingly effective with a simple antenna as I have. I think the thing about ham radio is enjoyment. I don't think I could enjoy it any more than I do. I just love operating the way I do. I love chasing DX with my simple station. I love being in the backcountry with my radio. It's just been a lot of fun.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Are you thinking about exploring other operating modes besides single-sideband?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I am. I am. I would like to operate a CW, but I don't think I'm ready yet. One of the things I like about single-sideband is it requires a little explanation because most SOTA operators, I would say the vast majority are CW operators. You carry less stuff. They're more efficient. They're just suited. CW is so suited for SOTA. So I'm asked often why I don't pursue that. There are a couple of reasons. One is that a lot of my activations are done alone. When I spend all day long getting to the top of a difficult summit and by the time I am at the summit, my nerves are frayed, my adrenaline is going, I'm lonely, and I have to anticipate sometimes a dangerous lonely journey back. I find it so comforting to hear these voices of chasers who have become familiar.
Paul, VA6MPM:
There's guys like Gary and Martha, John, Christian from France. All these names that have become familiar, it buoys me up, gives me encouragement, confidence, and it helps me on my return journey. I enjoy that part. So I hate to give that up when I'm at a summit. I enjoy that single-sideband operation. That's one thing.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Then the other is I got into this thing because of a need of having safety in the backcountry, and I've talked with helicopters by phone. I've talked with other mountain guides with search and rescue people. That's all been done by phone. I doubt I'm never going to call in a rescue on CW. There are certain things in the backcountry communication that are just better done single-sideband. So I concentrate at my efforts in that area. It's not that CW is not better because it probably is, but it's just the way I am.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I saw the picture on your QRZ page of the fan dipole. Very professional-looking installation on your house. Do you have a ham radio mentor that helps you with some of the stuff that might seem obvious to the old timers but may not seem so obvious to the newcomers?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, absolutely. When I first got into radio and realizing that my background was not technical, I immediately joined a club because I knew I was going to need help. A fellow that lives in town, Brian Davies, VE6CKC, has been extremely generous with his time helping me get that fan dipole tuned up and installed and teaching me what I need to know to do that. He's been great. VE6CIA, another member of the club has been very generous with his time. A person should join a club and get to know people because you're going to need help no matter how much knowledge you have.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
What's your radio club?
Paul, VA6MPM:
It's the Central Alberta Amateur Radio Club. CAARC is the name of the club. That's a great bunch of people, very, very generous with their time and willing and capable people. I've met many of them and grown to appreciate them.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
It's my understanding that Canada has been locked down more than perhaps United States and even Israel. Have they been meeting on Zoom or virtually as a-
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah. We have our own club repeater. We did that for a while. We met on that repeater. Then lately, we have got a Zoom account and we have been having some Zoom meetings, but we have missed quite a few. We look forward to getting back into the routine, but we are in the process of getting more Zoom meetings scheduled and set up because that's been effective.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Now, one of the things I noticed is that the presentation that you gave at the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo you've given before it seems, either before or after, and you've done it all over Canada, I think, by Zoom?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I have. There's been several clubs that's asked me to do the presentation and I have a few others lined up. The presentation is very visual because I have to mention there are a lot of SOTA activators that are more prolific than I am. There's better mountaineers. There's more fit people. There's a lot of people that do it better than I do, but I happen to live in the area that has the most beautiful mountains in the world, bar none, and I will defend that statement. So therefore, the presentation that I've done is quite visual and there's some stunning photos, and I think clubs particularly, anybody likes looking at pretty pictures. So it's been popular.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Of course. Maybe you're the intersection of SOTA pretty pictures, the best mountains in the world. I mean, individually, you may not be the top of all of them, but the intersections all come to you.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Absolutely.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
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Eric, 4Z1UG:
I noticed in one of the videos that you had that looked like there was a drone flowing over you.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yes.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Are you the drone pilot?
Paul, VA6MPM:
No. My buddy, I have a buddy who I had mentioned, Eric Peterson, comes out with me on most of my difficult journeys. He has a drone and he's also a very keen amateur photographer. So he also has a YouTube channel and he's got one of my videos, one of the videos of our SOTA operations on his YouTube channel, but he does most of that, the drone photography. In fact, we have a SOTA trip set up in a couple of weeks where we're going to take his drone with us and try to do a mountain that hasn't been active yet.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Well, there's a business idea it seems to me. The business idea is a jacket that has enough pockets designed for holding different kinds of batteries, the drone batteries, the radio batteries, the amplifier batteries.
Paul, VA6MPM:
It is a big problem. I mean, with my buddy Eric, with his cameras, just with his cameras and drone batteries, he carries a lot of batteries. It is a juggling act to keep them all warm. It really is.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
These are these packages that if you broke them all up you could use them to warm up stuff. I guess the only problem is you have to carry those, too.
Paul, VA6MPM:
They're not that heavy. Actually, we have used those with batteries. That's another thing that helps a lot is you'll break one of those hand warmers open and wrap it around your batter pack. It has to reside in your backpack. That's another way to keep them warm and we've done that.
Paul, VA6MPM:
In Canada, probably the main thing we deal with is cold weather and long winters. So a lot of our activities are wintertime activities. Even if they're not wintertime, SOTA gives a bonus for wintertime activations, and many of our activations people would suspect that they're wintertime activations, but even our summertime activations we're often on skis and snow dealing with inclement weather.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Well, I've lived as far north as Denver, Colorado, and I'm assuming that that's way far south than Alberta. So the question that comes to mind is that if you're driving your car or truck to the trail head where you begin your journey, how do you start your car or truck when you come back if it's -30 degrees and all that stuff is there? Is there a trick that the Canadians have for parking for more than a few hours?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Well, I think most of it is that you tend to learn your vehicle's ability. For example, my truck, I know it will start down to -35. Between -35 to -40, it's getting sketchy, but it's mostly just knowing your vehicle. By the time you end up in the mountains, you pretty much know how cold you're going to be able to get before that vehicle won't start when you get back, but it is something you have to watch because if you get back and you can't start your vehicle, there's got to be a backup plan.
Paul, VA6MPM:
One thing to note, in Canada we don't have a lot of roads going through our mountains like perhaps in the United States, where there's a lot of roads. So typically, we're parking on the highway and then walking in to the backcountry from the highway. So there probably is help when we finally get back out of the bush.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So if you need to jumpstart or something like that-
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, there's probably somebody.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
It's not like there's electric plugs or block heaters at the trail head.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Usually not at trail head. Although most businesses and so forth in Canada will have plugins for your vehicle, but at the trail head, no.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Has your spouse decided that she might want to be a ham radio operator instead of receiving the calls over the phone?
Paul, VA6MPM:
No. She sees me come limping in after long journeys and things. I want nothing to do with this.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
So she's associating ham radio with physical danger.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
That seems to be something. Do you have say a one year amateur radio goal? Is there some skill or accomplishment that you'd like to master in the next year?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah. Of course, every SOTA operator wants to achieve what they call mountain goat status. That's one that I would like to achieve. I would like to get there. I think it takes a little more time because every association is different and our mountains in Alberta tend to be a little more involved. So we're not going to be doing multi-10-day summits in a day. That will never happen. Our four pointers usually require over 1,000 meters elevation gain, sometimes technical skills to get there. So it happens much more slowly for us here, but that's one.
Paul, VA6MPM:
The other is I love to operate when I travel. I'm trying to figure out the next time I go to the United Arab Emirates. They have just got their SOTA association set up and none of their summits have been activated yet. I would love to go there and do SOTA in the UAE.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
As a guy who lives in the Middle East, we have a mountain range. The highest mountain happens to be the southern most highest mountain of Lebanon. We share the Mount Hermon with the Lebanese and the Syrians as a matter of fact, but then I think of the UAE and I think there are mountains in the UAE. So now, I'm going to get out to my Google Maps and see where those mountains are. What kind of summits do they have in the UAE?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Well, that's the interesting thing. Every SOTA association, what they'll do is they'll determine the base of your lowest mountain to the top of the highest mountain and come up with a point system in between. So there's no attempt to make it uniform between associations. So all the mountains with the border, with Oman, all of those, which most of us would probably call them hills.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Right, or sand dunes.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, or sand dunes, yeah, but still they are what they have in the UAE, and every association will use what you've got. In fact, it's interesting in Canada, we are bordered by Saskatchewan, which is a prairie province. So you have Alberta, which is a mountain province, and we have Saskatchewan next door. So there's an area called the Cypress Hills that sits right on the border between Alberta and Saskatchewan. If you go down there and activate a SOTA summit, it's a one pointer in Alberta, but if you walk a few miles across the border to Saskatchewan, it's a 10 pointer because it happens to be their highest mountain.
Paul, VA6MPM:
So that anomaly takes place everywhere in the world. So UAE will have their own mountains, and whatever they got, I think the thing that makes SOTA fun is wherever you live, you can have as much fun as anybody else is having just from the hills or mountains that you have close to home.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Did you meet a large number of hams at the UAE club when you were there?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah, I did, and very welcoming, warm people. I've visited their club there a couple of times. It's fun to go there and operate because it's just different than anything at home. I love going over there, and they're great, generous. The Arabs are such wonderful, hospitable hosts. They're so good to visitors and guests. I love going there.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Well, we were talking a little bit before we started and that is that Israel now has diplomatic relations with the UAE, and there's this anticipation that we'll be flocking in both directions. So I think the UAE now has a flight three times a week to Israel. As I said at the beginning, all of my QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo staff is in Dubai. We're anxious to actually get together at some point when the COVID restrictions lift. I think the COVID restrictions in Dubai are actually probably even more severe than Israel.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah. I think they are. It is one of the most positive things that's happening in the world today to see those relationships between Israel and some of the gulf countries solidify. It's nice to see that and I'm glad that that's happening. It's wonderful to see.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Well, we've been stifled here, I mean, with the COVID. Up until the COVID, 60% of Israelis leave the country every year to travel. We love to travel. So having a direction to go east is very exciting for us. We're looking forward to it.
Paul, VA6MPM:
It will be nice. You'll love Dubai. It's just a lot of fun. It's one of the most interesting places I've ever been.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Well, I'm glad to hear that. Are there any other, besides Japan and the Arab world, are there other places that you go now that you find especially interesting and when you go there, do you look up the hams?
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yeah. Every time I go down to the States I try to do SOTA activations. I was recently on a trip to New Mexico and I looked up a local SOTA operator there and did an activation with him. My brother is a biologist with the New Mexico Game & Fish, and I was helping him do a ptarmigan reintroduction into the Pecos Wilderness there near Santa Fe, and I did a SOTA summit while I was down there, but it's a great activity to take anywhere you travel because there are mountains everywhere and like when I go on a business trip to Japan, it's so nice to take a day off and just hit the hills and do an activation. You meet local people.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Ham radio, take UAE for example, how else am I ever going to meet local emirates that are involved, that live there, and are residents there?
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Regular people, not business associates.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Exactly. Exactly. It's so nice. So ham radio offers that opportunity whether it's SOTA or just visiting clubs. It's a wonderful activity to bring us together.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Have you had a chance to go back to Kenya with your amateur radio license?
Paul, VA6MPM:
I have, and I have taken the radio there. When I was there last, I didn't actually operate, but since I lived in Kenya, I live more with the locals. I actually have a sister who is there who is African. So when I'm with her and her community, it's a pretty ... Most people would say sketchy areas. It's not a place you really want to take your radio equipment around. So I haven't done an awful lot of operating when I go there. I would like to. They don't have an association formed for SOTA either. So there's not the Summits on the Air draw in Kenya as well. Kenya is also a wonderful place to visit, great place to be in, wonderful people. It's a second home to me.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
What advice would you give to new or returning hams to the hobby?
Paul, VA6MPM:
The biggest thing I would say is to find something you're interested in. Activities like Summits on the Air have drawn in people that would otherwise not be interested in radio. There's a lot of activities like this, Parks on the Air. Portable operations are a lot of fun, and they're bringing in something like Summits on the Air, for example, it's increasing in popularity all the time. Every year there's more people that are involved in it. Those people are getting younger and younger, which is completely opposite of many aspects of our hobby. So I would encourage people to find something that they love.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Everybody who starts the hobby will become, I hesitate to use the word bored, but they will come to the point where it's no longer, whatever they were interested in at one time is no longer exciting and they need to find something that will excite them because there are many things out there that will.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
I had somebody asked me today about amateur radio like, "Oh, do people still do that?" I mean, I say that at the beginning because that seems to be the first question that people say is like, "Oh, do people still do that?" and then you say, "Yeah, but the internet has made it possible, but there's a million things in ham radio now."
Paul, VA6MPM:
Yes. The technology, yeah, it is, it is, and people who see me operating on a summit will say, "Is that a ham radio? I didn't know that's a ham radio." It's maybe that small and you think 20 years ago to do what I do on a summit would have taken a line of porters, five people deep behind a chain, red asset batteries, big radio equipment, and now with one kilo, I can do everything. So that's another aspect of the hobby that has increased the ability for us to do it, and has made it way more fun for way more people.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
Paul, I want thank you so much for joining me on the QSO Today Podcast. I realized that when we first started communicating you thought perhaps we wouldn't have anything to talk about. I'm so grateful that you said yes, and that we had this opportunity to get to know each other, and that the listeners of the QSO Today Podcast and the people who viewed your presentation and can still view your presentation at the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo will when they're watching your presentation will have some background information on you that will make that much more enjoyable. So with that, I want to thank you so much and wish you 73.
Paul, VA6MPM:
Thank you, Eric. It's been a pleasure, and 73.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
That concludes this episode of QSO Today. I hope that you enjoyed this QSO with Paul. Please be sure to check out the show notes that include links and information about the topics that we discussed. Go to www.qsotoday.com and put in VA6, that's Victor Alpha Six Mike Papa Mike, in the search box at the top of the page.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
My thanks to Icom America for its support of the QSO Today Podcast. Please show your support of Icom America by clicking on their banner in the show notes pages. You may notice that some of the episodes are transcribed into written text. If you'd like to sponsor this or any other episode into written text, please contact me. Support the QSO Today Podcast by first joining the QSO Today email list by pressing the subscribe buttons on the show notes pages. I will not spam you or share your email address with anyone. Become a listener sponsor monthly or annually by clicking on the sponsor buttons on the show notes pages or use my Amazon link before shopping at Amazon. Amazon gives me a small commission on your purchases while at the same time protecting your privacy. I'm grateful for any way that you show appreciation and support. It makes a big difference as I head towards episode 400.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
QSO Today is now available in the iHeart Radio, Spotify, YouTube, and a bunch of other online audio services, including the iTunes Store. Look on the right side of the show notes pages for a listing of these services. You can use the Amazon Echo and say, "Alexa, play the QSO Today Podcast," from TuneIn. My thanks to Ben Bresky, who edits every single show and allows both this host and my guest to sound brilliant.
Thanks, Ben. Until next time, this is Eric, 4Z1UG. 73.
Eric, 4Z1UG:
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