ARRLWeb: The Fishing Is Great On Mount Saint Helens

Karl Anderson, NM7N
nm7n@comcast.net

January 7, 2008

Operating position on the Eruption Trail at Johnston Ridge. Karl Anderson, NM7N, photo

Operating position on the Eruption Trail 5.5 miles from the crater. Karl Anderson, NM7N, photo

The gigantic mud slide area on the north side of the mountain. Karl Anderson, NM7N, photo

The growing lava dome can be seen within the crater of Mount Saint Helens. Karl Anderson, NM7N, photo

I enjoy hiking in the Pacific Northwest and one of my favorite stomping grounds is the Mount Saint Helens National Monument in the State of Washington. It’s a beautiful area and a great place to hike, learn about the events leading up to the eruption of Mount Saint Helens and the recovery that has taken place since. The lava dome in the crater of the volcano continues to grow at a rate of 0.6 cubic yards per second and produces steam, gas and seismic events 27 years after its initial eruption in 1980. Because the mountain remains active and the area has a history of Amateur Radio emergency communication, I decided to make a trip to the Johnston Ridge Observatory. What better place to hike and do a little ham radio fishing than near the crater of an active volcano?

It is always important to get permission to operate on any private or public property especially when designated as a national monument. Getting permission was fairly easy but took several months of contact with the National Forest Service explaining my intent and answering questions about radio equipment and antenna installation. A few weeks prior to my scheduled trip, the approval letter arrived in the mail. It just takes a little more patience to catch the big one!

There are no trees readily available to support an antenna in the area where I was approved to set up my operating position, and doing anything off of the designated trail would not be permitted. It would only be a short distance from the Johnston Ridge Observation Center making it easy to pack gear to the site. My main objectives were to operate CW and have the capability of operating SSB for any visitors to the site. You need to have at least a couple of different lures in the tackle box in order to be successful.

I took my Elecraft K2 transceiver and a 12.5 Ah battery. To support the antenna I lashed a telescoping fiberglass pole to a guardrail to support a 33 foot long vertical wire with two counterpoise wires on the ground for each band of operation. I chose to leave the 100 W power amplifier attached to the K2, adjust the power to QRP levels and use an external antenna tuner. All of the equipment was fairly lightweight, portable, and easy to set up and fit into a medium size backpack. The K2 worked perfectly and most visitors had the opportunity to listen to both operating modes.

Johnston Ridge Observatory is located 52 miles north of the city of Castle Rock on State Highway 504 and is about a two hour drive from my home QTH of Beaverton, Oregon. The ridge is at 4255 feet elevation and it is a short 5.5 mile south to the volcano’s crater.

Dave Johnston was a geologist who had an observation post near the ridge where my operating position was located and volunteer ham radio observer Gerry Martin, W6TQF, was located a few miles to the north. Both of them provided initial communication that the mountain was erupting and both lost their lives during the 1980 eruption. The 300 mile per hour blast sent 3.5 billion cubic yards of mountain northward and knocked down or buried 230 square miles of forest. From my operating position I had a front row seat of the crater and the blast area, reaching out as far as 17 miles. The eruption left Mount Saint Helens 1314 feet shorter.

I arrived at the observation center at 8:30 in the morning to find the area covered in clouds with rain on its way. Fortunately the weather started to clear and after a short walk up the trail, my station was assembled and ready to go in 30 minutes. After casting a few CQs on 40 meters I managed to hook Web, W6VFA, from Galt, California and got a 589 report. The next station landed was Kevin, KD5ONS, from Buxton, Oregon. Kevin was a catch and release because I’ve landed him a few times on the Elecraft CW Net. I worked 10 more stations on CW before switching to SSB. Then I worked Tom, WA6TLL, on the Maritime Net frequency and another 12 stations on 20 meter SSB.

I landed 25 stations, all keepers, in three hours of operating and had a great time. The clouds and weather started closing in again about noon with a flash of lightning from a cloud inside the volcano’s crater so I called it a limit and headed for home. While packing up the gear a passerby stated that they didn’t know there was water so close to the ridge. When I asked why, they pointed to my fiberglass pole with the wire hanging from it and said “the fishing pole.” All the way home I kept thinking about casting that pole with the wire vertical and fishing for stations.

An internal antenna tuner would have eliminated one piece of external equipment and made operating a little easier. I’ll be installing that new piece of fishing gear soon and will also spend more time with my straight key in hopes of improving the casting arm.

I want to thank Rod Ludvigsen with the Mount Saint Helens National Monument for his help in obtaining permission to operate from Johnston Ridge and all of the operators who endured my fishy straight key. It was a privilege to be able to operate an Amateur Radio station in the shadow of Mount Saint Helens and among the memory of many people who lost their lives during its eruption. I encourage every Amateur Radio operator to find their favorite fishing hole and go fishing.

Reid Blackburn, KA7AMF, was also killed in the eruption. No signal was received from Reid. Later that afternoon a helicopter found his car burning in several feet of smoldering volcanic ash. – Ed.

Karl Anderson, NM7N, has been licensed for 33 years and is an Amateur Extra class licensee. A retired firefighter, he enjoys hiking, CW, DX, QRP, contesting, portable operating and kit building. Karl lives in Beaverton, Oregon and can be reached at nm7n@arrl.net.