Solo Pacific: Susan Meckley W7KFI with Art Bell W6OBB

[American Patriot]

W7KFI: Solo-sailing the Pacific

By John AE5X, August 7, 2010



Susan Meckley W7KFI is a 74-year old great-grandmother who has been solo sailing around the Pacific for several years now and sending dots and dashes along the way.


She has finished recuperating in Hawaii from a car-bicycle accident – she was the one on the bike…After her engine repair, and the hurricane season, her plan is to set sail to Johnston Atoll (KH3) and then parts west on the USSV Dharma.


Current info on her travels is hard to decipher due to being undated – I don’t know if whatever paragraph I’m reading is current or 3 years old. Try your hand at it on both QRZ.com and her own website.


But from recent postings to the Elecraft reflector, here’s some current info: she operates a K3 periodically on 14.028 and 14.236 MHz and will continue to do so after she gets underway. Ultimate destination is Phuket Thailand.


An ex-Navy CW op, proficiency on the key ain’t an issue.


Although a couple years old now, here’s an interview with Susan conducted by Art Bell W6OBB on 40 meters while Susan was a couple hundred miles from Hawaii:
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Audio at the link: http://www.ae5x.com/blog/2010/08/07/...g-the-pacific/

[American Patriot]

http://www.qrz.com/db/W7KFI

[American Patriot]

I was looking something up today about mail forwarding services and happened to come across this lady's site. I've written her a note. She's 77 now and somewhere out in the Pacific now. Funny the recording was Art Bell and her on the amateur radio. I got a bit of a kick out of that.

I've heard Art on the ham rig before and couldn't get through to him as the conditions were exactly wrong for my signals that day, he was talking to the west coast and I was not using my beams so he didn't hear me calling.

[American Patriot]

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/article/susan-meckley

Susan Meckley

May 29, 2005
(3)Adventurer Susan Meckley (ussvdharma.net(1)), a 72-year-old grandmother, is currently on a solo expedition aboard her sailing vessel USSV Dharma. At last report she was nearing Hilo, Hawaii. Amazingly, Art Bell was able to make radio contact with Susan (W7KFI/MM), who was using only a 40-watt Ham Radio. Click here(2) to listen to their conversation.


1. http://www.ussvdharma.net/
2. http://mfile.akamai.com/5022/wma/coa...lips/susan.asx
3. http://mfile.akamai.com/5022/wma/coa...lips/susan.asx

[American Patriot]

Anyway, I posted this here for future reference. I wrote her a note today to ask how she dealt with all the nonsense of getting a license everywhere she is going and so forth to see what her response is.

I'm not sure where she is right now, and that Art Bell stuff was a couple years back so she might have gone on to Thailand or someplace by now.

I'll post her response if she writes back if I can.