Learning Stuff

I'm currently studying for my amateur radio technician class license. For those of you who do not know, amateur radio is a hobby as well as an important part of the radio infrastructure of the world. Basically, it involves receiving and transmitting on certain "ham" bands. To transmit on amateur radio frequencies, a license is required. Right now, I'm brushing up on the FCC regulations, electronics theory, and morse code.

The reason I am doing this is because I had attempted to obtain my license back in 1992 but never took the test.

Using amateur radio (it's also known as "ham radio") may at first seem outdated since the internet has become such a mainstream form of communication. Forums, chat, e-mail, and web sites make it easy to communicate and obtain information, but radio provides a form of communication that is real-time, simpler, more direct, and just plain lets you experience the electronic communication medium more directly. Internet chat rooms, even those with voice chat, don't provide a direct, truly real-time method of communication with others.

Wi-fi, cell phones, and radio-controlled clocks have all evolved out of ham radio technologies such as packet radio. In a way, this hobby encourages people to understand how and why all of our modern electronic gadgets work they way they do.

Anyway, I hope to obtain my license within the next month or two. If you're interested or want to know more about ham radio, check out this site .

In other news, I've also been studying more drawing techniques and of course doing lots of uni coursework.

The comic should be updated some time within the week.