A hundred years ago, this father-son duo were entertaining themselves on an otherwise slow afternoon by tuning in a radio program in some distant city. They are pictured in the July, 1924, issue of Radio Age, which notes that no camping trip was complete without its radio equipment. No matter where you went, you couldn’t be so far as to not be able to pull in a broadcasting station.
Over the Fourth of July weekend, my son and I decided to make a spur-of-the-moment camping trip to Rock Island State Park, Wisconsin, which is at the northern tip of Door County and at the entrance of Green Bay. It’s a state park accessible only by boat. Unless you have your own boat, you take a car ferry from the mainland to Washington Island, drive across that Island, park your car, and then take a passenger ferry to Rock Island. No reservations are required for either ferry, and they add as many boats as necessary to accommodate the traffic. We bought a round trip on both ferries at the dock, and the cost was about $90 for one car and two passengers.
The campground is about a quarter mile from the boat landing, and the park provides carts, shown here, to move your stuff. My son did the hauling, and we quickly had our campsite, which was right on the shore of Lake Michigan, set up.
Like most state park campgrounds, sites fill up fast, especially on a holiday weekend. But when I checked two days before arrival, there were sites available for both Friday and Saturday night. They were different sites, meaning we would have to move after the first night. But fortunately, the occupants of one of the sites had left early, and after checking with the campground host and warden, we were allowed to have the same site both nights.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a camping trip without bringing a radio, and I brought along the QRP Labs QCX Mini, shown here. This is a handheld CW transceiver for one band (in my case, 40 meters). For the power supply, I brought along my fish finder battery, which I also used to charge my cell phone. (We did have good cell phone service from most of the island, including the campground, through Boost Mobile. My son, on the other hand, who has service through Tello, had no signal, so your mileage might vary.)
I made a total of 33 radio contacts over the course of a couple of hours, covering the eastern half of North America, from Quebec to Georgia. If I had stayed up later, I would have been able to work the western United States. But 40 meters covers long distances best at night, and I shut down around local sunset, meaning the West Coast didn’t have a chance to work me. Ideally, I would have been on 20 meters as well for some daytime contacts, but I wanted to keep the station size and weight to a minimum. The complete log is shown below.
I used my usual antenna, namely, a dipole supported by my trusty golf ball retriever leaning against the picnic table, with the two 33-foot wires extending out from the table. The wires were actually just draped over tree branches. You don’t need an elaborate antenna to get out well. Despite the various reasons that it shouldn’t work (too low, touching trees, etc.), it got out very well.
You will notice that many of the contacts are with 1×1 call signs who, along with WM3PEN, were taking part in the 13 Colonies special event. If you are doing a park activation during a similar event or contest, that’s always a good opportunity to put some contacts in the log.
Our campsite
Other notable contacts included WB8IZM, who was operating from another park, Potagannissing Flooding Wildlife Management Area near Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and KB0HXL, who was operating from his car in Indiana.
I’ve always enjoyed operating from remote locations with portable equipment, an activity which has gotten easier over the years with the advent of radios such as the QCX. It’s also become a very popular activity. Starting in 2016, the National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) activity was extremely popular, and after it ended, many American hams continued, thanks to the WWFF (World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio) activity that had started to enjoy popularity in Europe. Shortly thereafter, a separate program, Parks On The Air (POTA) has become extremely popular. In addition, since I was on an Island, I was able to participate in the U.S. Islands Award Program. I was able to hand out contacts for all three programs. I didn’t make the required 44 contacts to make it an official activation for WWFF, but I was able to meet the minimums for both POTA and US Islands. If I had been able to get on 20 meters, I’m sure I would have made many more contacts, but as it was, I was able to give credit for a fairly rare park.
And even though we had cell phone coverage (except for a brief outage on Sunday morning), it’s reassuring to know that, in case of emergency, we have a reliable method of communications with the outside world.
.jpg)
Rock Island was originally developed as the vacation getaway of inventor Chester Thordarson, founder of the transformer company that bears his name. He built the iconic boathouse shown here, which serves as the terminal for the passenger ferry. The campground is located about a quarter mile away, with a more distant backpacking campground somewhat further away. We also hiked to Pottawatomie Light , Wisconsin’s oldest lighthouse, dating to 1836. The lighthouse is about 1.5 miles from the campground.
With carts available, setting up camp on foot was relatively easy. Unlike backpacking, where you have to consider every ounce, the carts made the trip fairly easy. It would have worked a bit better to bring a wagon from home, since we could have just packed it once before getting on the ferry. Also, the provided carts were somewhat heavy, and a wagon probably would have been a bit easier to move. Large wheels are important, because the paths on Rock Island are, well, rocky. I was initially thinking of just packing things in a roll-on suitcase, but this would have been a bad choice, since the wheels would have just been too small. We used an inexpensive tent and air mattress. The ground is covered with roots and rocks, so some kind of pad is a must.
Flush toilets are available near the boathouse, and the campground has vault toilets. Drinking water is available near the boathouse. We realized on the way that we hadn’t brought a water container, so we just bought a one-gallon jug of water and filled it as needed. Firewood is available on the island for $7 (cash only), We used that for most of our cooking, although I did some of it on the emergency stove I previously reviewed. I discovered that four fuel tablets were about enough to boil enough water for oatmeal and coffee. We had only a very small cooler, so for the first night, we cooked some brats on the fire, but on the second day, we ate packaged food such as ramen noodles, to which you just add hot water. Another convenient meal choice was a prepared meal such as Hormel Compleats. These avoid any cleanup, since you can just put the sealed meal in a pot of hot water. Packets of meat such as the pulled pork we previously reviewed are also easy to cook this way.
There is a very small camp store on Rock Island, but other than a few bags of chips and a few Clif bars, they don’t sell food or camping supplies. It’s mostly souvenirs and apparel. So you do need to plan ahead. But as long as you do your minimal planning, Rock Island provides an opportunity to easily do some camping completely off the grid.
x
Some links on this site are affiliate links, meaning this site earns a small commission if you make a purchase after using the link.
Photos and videos don’t do the eclipse justice, but the ones here give an idea of what we experienced when we viewed the eclipse on April 8.
This is my second total eclipse, and my wife’s third. We both agreed that this one was better than the 2017 version, mostly because of greater solar activity, resulting in a larger corona. Also, the length of totality and the width of the path were greater, which I think resulted in the sky getting darker. My wife thought it was on par with the 1991 eclipse she had seen in Mexico.
We wound up viewing it from Lake Catherine State Park, Arkansas. The entire area seemed well prepared for the eclipse. The park itself had what seemed to be additional staff, I’m guessing both paid staff and volunteers, on hand. We didn’t patronize them, but another part of the park had food trucks on scene. We tried giving the staff some extra eclipse glasses to hand out, but they already had some and were giving them to anyone who needed them.
The original plan was to view it in Dallas, but we awoke to clouds, which were forecast to last through the eclipse. Little Rock, Arkansas, on the other hand, had a forecast of sunny skies. So at about 6:00 AM, we hit the road toward Arkansas. Fortunately, Interstate 30 was within the path of totality for its entire run from Dallas to Little Rock. So as soon as we hit consistently clear skies, we got off the interstate and headed north, which led us closer to the center path. We passed a few good viewing locations, but kept following the state park signs, knowing that we could turn back if the park didn’t prove adequate.
We were greeted at the park entrance by a ranger. We told him the obvious, that we were there to view the eclipse, and he directed us to a parking area near the campground. There were trees around, but we had a good view of the sun, so we set in for totality. There was no admission charge to the park. T here were quite a few people in the other part of the park near the food trucks, and a dozen or so cars in our parking area.
Again, words or pictures don’t do it justice. In my opinion, the total eclipse itself is on par with the Grand Canyon, or Yellowstone National Park in its beauty. But adding to the awe is its short-lived nature. We watched for about four minutes, until it was over. Two stars (actually, the planets Venus and Jupiter, I believe) were visible, and the darkness level was consistent with after sunset. There was a 360 degree sunset visible on the horizon. Everyone else saw them, except for me, but I’m told that the shadow bands were very evident until almost a minute after totality.
If you learned that another Grand Canyon was going to spontaneously form, be there for four minutes, and then disappear without a trace, you would want to go see it. This is why we went to see the eclipse. The next one will be in Iceland and Spain on August 12, 2026, and I plan to be there as well. And the August 12, 2045 eclipse will pass through Arkansas again, so maybe I’ll try to watch it from the same spot. If you see an old guy in Lake Catherine State Park in 2045, stop by and say hello, because that will be me.
I did hear reports of extremely heavy traffic in Missouri, and in New England. In those areas, large population centers had only a few routes to totality, and they were jammed. We notice very little, if any, extra congestion on the route we took. Of course, we were within the path of totality the whole time.
The states of Texas and Arkansas were well prepared for the invasion of eclipse tourists, and everything went without a hitch.
Our viewing location near the campground highlighted one ongoing problem with state park reservation systems. We were right next to the tent camping area, and only one of the about six sites was occupied. On the other hand, it looked like all but one of the sites had been reserved, based upon reservation slips on the posts. Over half the sites in the RV section of the campground were occupied, but I wasn’t able to see how many were reserved. I’m guessing a lot of people made contingency reservations which they didn’t use. This highlights a problem in many state park systems: People make reservations that they don’t use. This ties up the site, making it unavailable. This is an ongoing problem, not just for special events. The knee-jerk reaction is to penalize people who cancel, but this is counter-productive. A better solution, it seems to me, would be to make it easy for people to cancel, and have a way to put the site back into circulation immediately.
Chances are, the people who made those Arkansas camping reservations were watching the eclipse in Indiana, Maine, or some other state miles away. There’s probably no way for them to make the site available, or they didn’t have enough incentive to do so. States with state park reservation systems should figure out a way to make these sites available.
It turns out that the skies in Dallas cleared nearly miraculously right before the eclipse, and Dallas got an excellent view. Particular praise should be given to the Dallas Independent School District (and undoubtedly other districts in the area) that made sure all of there students were outside to experience it, and for supplying eclipse glasses to all students. MyEclipseGlasses.com had some left over, and we donated a thousand to one parochial school to make sure their students could safely view the partial phase. But eclipse glasses were not needed to view the most spectacular part, totality, and it appears that all children in the path had an opportunity to see it.
Another school district that deserves special praise is my alma mater, the Minneapolis Public Schools. Not only did they supply eclipse glasses for all K-5 students, but they organized a field trip to Indiana for some lucky students to experience totality, as well as visit museums in Milwaukee and Chicago. You can see pictures at Facebook #MPSEclipseTrip.
The photo and video above were taken by my daughter, with her cell phone camera. The lens flare actually shows the shape of the eclipse better than the main image. The video gives a pretty good idea of how dark it got in the area. Again, nothing does justice to being there in person, but these give an idea of what we experienced.
A hundred years ago, “the newest way of camping is to pitch a tent on a barge,” and the August 1923 issue of Popular Mechanics showed you just how to do it. The construction article, penned by “widely known authority on outdoor life” Stillman Taylor, notes that the floating camp has many unique advantages. It was easy to build and not expensive, and provided a good comfortable canvas home with large storage places. And whenever the camper felt like picking up and changing camp, he could easily drift with the current and wind to a new spot.
The camping scow shown here was good for many years of service. It was hauled out of the water each year and stored, bottom up, out of the reach of ice. The boat featured plenty of storage space, including a waterproof box accessible through a trap door in the tent floor.
The scow would be hard to row with the tent set up, but was fairly easy to scull. Therefore, an oar lock or scull plate could be fixed to the roomy front deck.
Today, such a craft would undoubtedly need to be registered in most states, but this shouldn’t present a problem. In Minnesota, for example, a homemade boat over ten feet in length can be registered. But save the receipts for the materials, as you’ll need to present them, along with four photographs of the completed boat.
Harnessing the power of the sun to cook your food is nothing new, as shown by this hundred-year-old illustration on the cover of Science and Invention, June 1923.
The accompanying article, penned by Dr. C.G. Abbott, the assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, isn’t quite a construction article, but it does provide some basic ideas. The model shown above was suitable for camping, or other situations where fuel and power were unavailable. The two concave mirrors, made of tin, reflected the sun onto the cooking surface, the bottom of which was blackened with soot. The complicating factor, possibly unnecessary, is the use of an alarm clock to keep the mirrors aimed.
For situations where it was necessary to cook at night or when there was no sun, the author also described a more complicated system, where the sun heated a reservoir of oil, which was in turn used to provide the cooking heat.
For a simple solar cooker, you can see our earlier post, where we provide plans for construction of a solar oven. If you want to save the work, the solar cooker shown below uses the same principle as the 1923 design, but it somewhat more efficient with the parabolic mirror. Also shown are some solar ovens:
While these can’t be used in the dark or on cloudy days, having the ability to cook using only the sun’s energy adds flexibility for camping or emergency preparedness.
Some links on this site are affiliate links, meaning that this site earns a small commission if you make a purchase after using the link.
x
A Scout is Thrifty, and the magazine showed those thrifty scouts how to make a similar mess kit out of old tin cans. With a few simple hand tools, the cans can be cut to size. The article showed a technique for smoothing the cut edge with a hammer. Handles are made with stiff wire. The author used a fly swatter handle, but a metal coat hanger would work just as well.
The article notes that almost any kind of can may be used, although it warned to never use a paint can. It warned that since cans back then were neither aluminum nor stainless steel, it was important to dry the items thoroughly after washing. However, modern cans are probably more forgiving.
Advanced scouts could construct from a one-gallon can the combination stove/toaster/frying pan shown at left. It’s pretty self-explanatory–the fire goes inside the inverted can. The door for putting in the wood fuel serves double duty, as it folds upward to provide a spot to snap a slice of bread in place for toasting.
This issue of the magazine is also useful to scout historians, because it includes a removeable booklet section showing the Tenderfoot-Second Class-First Class requirements which had just been adopted. Many of our readers, of course, will be interested to know what the signaling requirement was back then. I recall that about the time I joined in the 1970s, the First Class requirement was that the Scout be able to use Morse Code or semaphore. I’ve been told, although I haven’t confirmed it, that at one point, Scouts had to know both Morse Code and semaphore. But in 1948, the requirement was for Morse code only, although it could be done with flags, light, or sound:
Some links on this site are affiliate links, meaning that this site earns a small commission if you make a purchase after following the link.
For those wishing to extend the camping season into the cold months, the October 1937 issue of Popular Science showed how to make this lightweight wood stove for your tent. If you need a lightweight wood stove for use in emergencies, it would serve that purpose as well.
It’s designed to burn with low oxygen, so when you get it started with kindling, you put in logs, and they give off most of their heat after they’re turned into charcoal. The result is that you can build the fire at night, it will keep you warm all night, and then you can cook your pancakes in the morning. The stove also features a small oven compartment.
It’s made out of sheet metal and riveted together, so it’s lightweight.
Some links on this site are affiliate links, meaning that this site earns a small commission if you make a purchase after following the link.
This ad appeared in Life Magazine 80 years ago today, June 22, 1942, extolling the virtues of the Rex Ristlite from the Flashlight Company of America of Jersey City, NJ. The light snapped on like a wristwatch, giving you full use of both hands. It was a “boon to mechanics, car owners, sportsmen, housewives, Army, and Navy men.” It sold everywhere that flashlights were sold for only 98 cents, including batteries. According to this online inflation calculator, that works out to $17.57 in 2022 dollars.
This one also includes a clock (with 24-hour display, as our readers will appreciate) and compass. It’s customary to wear a watch on your wrist, so the clock seems logical. And since it appears to be much smaller than the 1942 version, you can wear it in situations where you might need a light, rather than putting it on as needed. Many of the reviews state that the compass doesn’t work very well, although I suspect that it works well as long as it’s flat. As long as it’s magnetized and spinning freely, there’s really not much that can go wrong with a compass. So if you take it off an lay it on a flat surface, I imagine it will reliably point north. And if you click on the Amazon link or the picture, you’ll see that the cost, adjusted for inflation, is about the same as it was in 1942.
One big advantage of the modern version is that you don’t have to worry about batteries. It has a built-in lithium ion battery, and it comes with a micro USB charger. If the charger gets lost, you can use the same one you normally use with your cell phone.
Some links on this site are affiliate links, meaning that this site earns a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking the link.
Seventy-five years ago this month, the well equipped Scout might have in his pack this combination compass, match safe, and fire starter. A compass was at the top, with a window to view the direction. To avoid confusion, the window was labeled “YOU ARE LOOKING” to make clear that if you saw an N, then you were looking north, rather than having the N printed on the north side of the dial.
Matches were stored in a watertight container, but just in case you ran out, the side had a “flint of pyrophoric metal” that could be struck by a knife. The ad declared that it was the only compass “that can build a fire in a split second,” and I’m guessing that would be done with one of the matches inside. With practice, the flint would probably work, but it would take some practice, and probably wouldn’t happen in a split second.
The product was manufactured by the DuPage Plastics Company, 10 South LaSalle Street, Chicago. It was officially approved by the BSA, and is advertised here in the October 1946 issue of Boys’ Life.
While this particular model is no longer available, there is a modern replacement, shown at left. I have one of these, and while I’m not sure it’s from the same manufacturer, it looks identical. There’s a compartment for storing matches, and as far as I can tell, it is waterproof. Strike anywhere matches are still available, but they’re often hard to find. I simply use regular strike on box matches and include one of the strikers from the box inside with the matches. If all else fails, it does include on the side what is now called a ferro rod.
The modern version also includes a whistle, which is quite loud, as well as a tiny mirror inside the cap, which presumably could be used for signaling.
I’m guessing that the compass on the 75 year old version was better than the modern one, but the modern one does, indeed, work. You have to be careful, however, because if you don’t hold it perfectly level, it will bind up and not move. The best way to use it is to check it once, and then check a second time to make sure that north hasn’t moved.
Especially if you buy the three pack, the modern version is very inexpensive. Like this Scout 75 years ago, it’s not a bad idea to have one of this in your pack.
Some links on this page are affiliate links, meaning that this site earns a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on the link.
Eighty years ago this month, the October 1941 issue of Popular Mechanics carried this self-explanatory idea to quickly make an emergency tent with materials that might be at hand. Any poles of similar length could be used, but in this case, it’s two oars and another stick of the same size. To quickly turn them into a tripod, a bucket is placed over the ends as shown. The frame is then covered with a piece of canvas or other available material.
If the idea looks familiar, it’s probably because we previously showed how to make a similar tripod for cooking using an empty can.
