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")

From before dawn until at least seven this morning, it was quite noisy and spectacular. It finally did rain, a good inch and a bit more, all in about a half hour's time. We went on down to Elgin anyway for brunch with friends and to watch a ten mile run that goes right by their corner twice. Normally the race is on Monday, and it wasn't clear why they changed to Saturday this year, but it seems to have caused a drop in participation. Or else the threatening skies chased some away, but it wasn't bad weather for running. Humidity was not high, temperature was in the 60s, and the sky was overcast so no pounding or blinding sun.

Anyway, it was fun. Saw two apparent furries running with what I took to be fox ears on their heads. Or maybe they were cat ears, but definitely furry ears. I said something about "Oh look, furries running" when they appeared and evidently they heard me because they waved. I waved back, though I have no idea who they were. One of our friends looked at me and asked "Do you know them?" But I had to admit that I did not.

I think the annual event is called something like "Fox Valley Foxtrot" so having foxes running seems appropriate enough.

This evening I managed to check out a library ebook and get it downloaded to the Kobo Wifi, which wasn't as easy as I'd hoped but did work in the end. Getting Adobe Digital Editions to recognize and initialize the device was the issue. Now that has been done, future downloads should be easier. (At least as long as I continue to use that particular computer. I'm not sure I can activate the device through more than one machine.)

Comparing the Kobo with the Literati it becomes clear just how much they share a common code base. It seems that Kobo in fact provided the base code for the Literati, but it was rushed to market without adequate debugging. I'm sure it can be updated successfully, but I have to make sure I can do it without "bricking" the device this time. Then I'll try it once more.