This week, we really do hit the surf when we visit a Web site that plans to put the digital world in motion on the ocean.

Remember Steve Roberts, N4RVE?

Between 1983 and 1991, Steve made history while he explored America pedaling three versions of his recumbent bicycle, which he named Winnebiko I, Winnebiko II, and BEHEMOTH. Steve's bikes were unlike any other bicycles before or since. They were loaded with all sorts of electronics equipment including HF, VHF and UHF ham radios and antennas, computers, phones, links to the Internet and solar panels to power it all, as well as a system to control it all from the handlebars of his bicycles!

Steve Roberts' (N4RVE) Nomadic Research Labs web site describes how he plans to be on the air while manually propelling his Microship across the waterways of America.

Steve was profiled in an article by QST contributing editor Kirk Kleinschmidt, NT0Z, in the April, 1992 issue of QST entitled "Life on a Megacycle." That was then; this is now. What has Steve been up to lately?

Since hanging up his bicycle helmet, Steve has been designing and building a nautical version of his bicycles and later this year, he and his partner will begin an aquatic journey throughout the eastern US aboard twin Microships, which are "a pair of canoe-scale amphibian pedal/solar/sail micro-trimarans, intended for open-ended exploration of coastal and inland waterways. Extensive computing and communication gear allows them to be connected more or less continuously to the Internet and to each other, as well as controlled by wireless handheld computers when the pilots are not on-board. Each boat is designed to carry one person, and with a brief conversion can enter 'road mode' for human-powered overland transport."

Steve's fine Web site, the Nomadic Research Labs Web site describes it all. Steve is a great story-teller, so what could have been a boring story written in geekspeak is an entertaining and interesting tale with just enough geekspeak to keep the geekdom portion of his audience happy. The links on the home page are plentiful and rich with information about the Microship project, as well as the three bicycle projects. Steve says that a couple of notable links are "7 Degrees of Freedom" and the "Daily News". The "7 Degrees" page details the mini-expedition Steve has set for this July in the Pacific Northwest, and Steve's still welcoming additional participants ... more hams would be good!

Besides being entertaining, Steve's Web site is inspiring; it makes me want to power up the old soldering iron and build something geeky.

Until next time, keep on surfin'.

Editor's note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, resides in downtown Wolcott, Connecticut, and is a member of the QQCC (QST quarter century club), i.e., he has been a QST writer for 25 years. Since getting his ticket in 1969, Stan has sampled nearly every entrée in the Amateur Radio menu (including a stint as Connecticut Section Manager), but he keeps coming back to his favorite preoccupations: VHF and packet radio. As a result, he runs a 2-meter APRS digipeater and weather station (WA1LOU-15) from his mountaintop location in central Connecticut. Stan has been a long time advocate of using computers with Amateur Radio and wrote programs to dupe contests and calculate antenna bearings way back in 1978. Today, he is on the board of directors of the Tucson Amateur Packet Radio (TAPR) and uses his Mac to surf the Internet searching for that perfect ham radio web page. To contact Stan, send e-mail to wa1lou@arrl.net.

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