There are many aspects of ham radio. My favorite is contacting stations at far away places on shortwave radio. Typically, large roof-top antennas and large radios are required for this. I had been wondering if it would be possible to place a small shortwave ham radio on my recumbent bicycle and be able to contact anyone at all. I finally got the parts together and tried it out... and had success! One thing lead to another and I decided to try to contact stations in as many countries as possible. Ham radio operators exchange post cards with each other after successful radio contacts as proof that the contact happened. These post cards are called QSL cards. I now have hundreds of QSL cards from ham stations all over the US and from many overseas stations. Here's one from Morocco:
Here's some others:
8P9X in Barbados
C53HG in The Gambia
JA9RCH in Japan
ZD8VJ on Ascenscion Island
ZS6JR in South Africa

Some of these contacts were made using morse code. Here's some details that may be of interest to fellow hams on the hardware I've used for sending morse code from a bicycle.

Here's the complete log book of KB8U/bicycle mobile (just a list of callsigns and times)
Here's a picture of my QSL card:
KB8U photo was taken during a Michigan to Washington State bicycle tour I took in 1989.

If you're interested in Amateur Radio and bicycling I encourage you to send for an information packet about the Bicycle Mobile Hams of America. The address is:

BICYCLE MOBILE HAMS OF AMERICA
C/O Mike Nickolaus, NF0N
316 E. 32nd St. - I
South Sioux City, NE 68776-3512

Most of the members use amateur radio to talk locally, in case you're wondering!

BMHA members also help out in tours and races by assisting in communications for organizations that run the events. Contact Bill Sharp (bsharp@delnet.net) if you need information on communications for tours.

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