My favorite ham shack is an eight-foot rowboat. For the past four years I have taken a ham radio out with me as I row around the lakes of Colorado. I even went to the mountains and set a possible record for the highest ham radio operation from a boat at nearly 14,000 feet. But mostly I take a fifteen-minute drive to a small, 12-acre lake in a western suburb of Denver and enjoy ham radio while afloat. Occasionally I will tune to 14.300 MHz and check in to the Maritime Mobile Net just for fun.

Over the last four years I have made hundreds of fun contacts and even snagged some nice DX running only five watts. On November 10, 2003 I worked Victor, ZK1CG on Raritonga in the Cook Islands. On December 3rd of that year I heard Larry, T32WW on Christmas Island and reached him on the fourth try. Both were on 17 meters. April 4, 2004 it was 5WØKE in Western Samoa on 20 meters. I still work an occasional JA and Hawaii, even so close to the bottom of Solar Cycle 23. I can't wait for 10 meters to kick in again!

Pictured below is a peek at the inside of the rowboat. I have tried several antenna configurations including 1/4-wave and 1/2-wave verticals and even an antenna made out of saltwater.


 In four years of operating from this lake, I have never had the company of other boats. I have attributed this to the park rules that say you can fish from shore, you can boat, but you can't fish from a boat. I will usually begin a trip about three hours before local sunset and not return until well after dark as seen below.