Hiked the High Divide Trail in Olympic National Park. Brought my crappy Baofeng UV-5R and a rollup J-Pole antenna because apparently I can’t just go on a hike without turning it into a radio experiment.
From Heart Lake, I sent out an APRS packet. Just a little “hey, I’m here, I’m alive, I’m sweaty” beacon into the void.
When I got back to civilization and checked aprs.fi, I discovered the transmission was picked up in Canada.
Canada! From a cheap Chinese handheld and an antenna I literally rolled up and stuffed in my pack!
Maybe that’s child’s play to the serious operators out there with their beam antennas and amplifiers. But standing on a trail in the Olympics with a $30 radio and reaching another country? That felt pretty cool to me.