Ham Radio and the Pony Express: Providing Communication in Remote Areas

The Pony Express provided mail service between Sacramento, California, and St. Joseph, Missouri, using relays of horse-mounted riders from 3 April 1860 to October 1861. The route, shown in Figure 1, was roughly 1,966 mi (3,164 km) long, through country inhabited mainly by Native Americans with a few scattered white settlements in the western United States. The Pony Express is reenacted annually, with riders galloping day and night to carry the mail across the country. Ham radio operators provide emergency communication for this event across the remotest sections of the route, using a variety of base and repeater stations, handheld and vehicle-supported radios; ultrahigh frequency (UHF), very HF (VHF), and HF bands; and an array of deployed antennas, described in this article.