Amateur radio and Furry

[altivo]

It may seem to most of you that cell phones and the internet have taken the appeal out of amateur radio, but I would disagree. For one thing, internet usage is controlled by the corporate world, which means everything is profit based, advertising stuffed, and overpriced. For another thing, those of us who live in rural areas continue to be severely underserved when it comes to internet bandwidth. Unlike European countries, where populations are densely packed and governments make an effort to insure equal access to all their citizens, the US has left the internet in the hands of telephone and cable companies who prefer to cherry pick service areas that promise the highest profit for the least investment in infrastructure.

Amateur radio continues to offer communication capabilities to those of us in rural areas, where cell phones are often unreliable and DSL or cable internet is simply not available.

So here's my public service announcement to my furry friends:

1) It is easier than ever to get an amateur radio license in the US. You don't have to learn morse code any more. The Technician examination requires only a brief period of preparation to pass, and covers just a few essentials of electronics and radio, along with the regulatory aspects of amateur radio itself.

2) The opportunities for a computer oriented ham to explore new ideas and technology that join the personal computer with the radio spectrum are nearly unlimited. Functionalities that you probably identify with cell phones and broadband internet are often available through amateur radio without the commercial trimming (advertising, tracking, spyware, etc.)

3) Furries have their own subset of amateur radio activities. Fox hunts have been popular at conventions. We have our own ham radio club (thanks to Yappy Fox, K9YAP,) Furryhams (www.furryhams.org) and thanks to Tycho Aussie, NE8K, our own weekly chat net on the Echolink network. (Tuesdays 9 PM EDT/Wednesdays 0100Z on the *DODROPIN* conference channel.)

Even the equipment needs are minimal. I linked to the Furry chat this week using just my cell phone and a bluetooth headset. The headset made it more convenient, but the cell phone alone was adequate. A license is required, however. The license is free, but there is usually a nominal charge for taking the exam.

For those of you who will be attending Midwest Fur Fest this year, I understand there will be a ham radio panel where you can learn more. Probably there will be demonstrations and a fox hunt, and I hear that you will even be able to take the exam if you wish.

Amateur radio is a social opportunity for the technically inclined. I think it's well suited to a lot of furs, and is worth a closer look.

73 DE ALTIVO K9NZI
("Best wishes from Altivo K9NZI")

Comments

[hrrunka]

...and it's not exactly hard to get a licence over this side of the Atlantic, either. I just spent the day over here helping withthe second half of a Foundation class. All candidates passed. :)

[altivo]

Thanks for the input on that. I know that US requirements have been simplified almost out of existence, but had no idea what the current situation might be elsewhere.

[hrrunka]

I figure a bright ten-year-old shouldn't have much trouble passing Foundation, given suitable teaching. I think an exceptionally bright six-year-old once managed a pass (but not at my club). Our usual fairly intensive two day course is more suited to adults, but we've certainly had at least a couple of twelve-year-olds get through it OK in the last two or three years. Intermediate's probably a couple of years up the schooling scale, and Advanced maybe three or four more above that.

All the exams are multiple choice, but the question bank is not published. At Foundation and Intermediate there are practicals that need to be completed and signed-off before the exam, too.

[altivo]

Yep. I seem to recall news on a five year old passing the beginner test here sometime in the last few years, but generally about age seven is more likely. The main obstacle is the literacy level and a little arithmetic. The rest, such as allowed frequency bands and modes, can simply be memorized.

Even when a code test was required, it wasn't too unusual for first graders to make it.

The Extra class is our top level here and the exam is still pretty rough. I've tried it once and failed by one question, though I admit I didn't study as much as I'd intended.

[hrrunka]

I get the impression your Extra is perhaps a little trickier than our Advanced. There's some juggling going on here, which I think will affect Intermediate most, as the present perception is that it's a small step from Foundation to Intermediate, and a much larger step to Advanced.

Morse is another matter altogether; for no particularly obvious reason it seems I'm right at the bottom of the class...

[altivo]

You're a musician. You CAN learn Morse code. It's all about rhythm and pitch, not the dots and dashes or the individual letters.

The most common issue is a left brain/right brain thing, I think. I'm only partly over it myself, though I passed the FCC 13 wpm test back in 1983 to get my General class. It's necessary to avoid thinking about it and let what feels like an instinctive response come through. Listening to decent code without trying to "translate" it in your head or write it down seems to make a difference. There's an old DOS program called "The Mill" that you can download, and it will take an ASCII text file and send it to you. Pick some song lyrics or a poem that you already know and just let the whole words match up to the sound of the code.

You've probably read John Varley's Titan trilogy. Morse has a lot in common with the Titanide language I think.

[hrrunka]

I've been through a whole bunch of software-driven Morse training, with very limited success. The "Koch" approach that tries to get you straight to the instinctive response simply didn't work on me at all. The few letters I did sort-of learn using it are still the ones that give me most trouble. The only approach that actually got me anywhere useful was a first-grade A, B, C, 1, 2, 3 one. Of course that's also put me on the path that hits the 10wpm wall, but the weekly Thursday morning GB2CW broadcasts, which run in an "old school" manner, have helped somewhat.