We were watching TV this morning and there was a story about the internet. I’ve always heard things stay forever on the internet. You hear that when some stupid teenager posts illicit pictures. It turns out, things do not last forever. Lion said that our site will die once he does. I don’t have any problem continuing to pay for the site, but eventually it will need work. I’ve “shown no interest in learning” and I “won’t even do the ham radio” stuff. I guess I’m learning both now.

Personally, I think I’ve done a lot of ham radio stuff. It was me who installed his first antenna on the roof at the old house, despite not wanting to go on the roof. I went on the roof more than I care to remember. I ran cables. I’ve continued to run cables here, although I didn’t have to install the antenna. And I’ve been continuing to help him figure out why his big antenna isn’t working. True, I haven’t done any actual ham radio work with regard to getting my license. I still maintain, in a life-or-death emergency, there wouldn’t be too much of an issue if I grabbed the radio and yelled for help. Consider this scenario: Someone is hiking and has their ham radio walkie talkie thing with them. They become unconscious for whatever reason. Another hiker comes along, sees the radio and calls for help. The second hiker is not licensed, but just did a huge no-no. They are libel for a $10,000 fine for broadcasting without a license. Given the threat of the fine, should the second hiker have kept on walking? Legally, yes. Morally, no.

I have not shown much interest (any, really) in keeping the website alive. Let’s face it, without Lion, why would there be a site? What would I write about? “Day 392 and I still haven’t spanked Lion”? Still, I talked about scattering his ashes as a way to take him back to places he loves. I guess the biggest tribute would be to keep the website going.

So, apparently, I’m learning website and ham radio stuff. Yay me.

Oh, by the way, Lion had a very nice orgasm last night and I was rewarded with a mouthful of Lion cream. Yay me for real.

[Lion — Mrs. Lion brought up a couple of good points. Getting a ham radio license is more than just being able to transmit in an emergency. For one thing, unless she knows how to use the radio just pressing the push-to-talk button on the radio is chancy. What if the radio isn’t tuned to a repeater in the area? The point is that ham radio isn’t like a cell phone. You actually have to know some stuff to successfully use it. Setting up an antenna and running cable doesn’t really count. The same is true of our website. For the most part, it will take care of itself. There are times when some technical support is needed. Usually, it is confined to rebooting our server. Sometimes, more complex work will be needed. I’ve thought about rebuilding the site on Blogger, which is managed by Google. It would be a ton of work to move 6,700 posts. Anyway, for better or worse, this blog is my legacy. I would love for it to survive me.]

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3 Comments

  1. Actually, the way the rules are written, in a bonafide emergency where life or property is in danger you may use whatever means is a ailable to communicate. That includes picking up someone’s ham radio even if you are not licensed and even grabbing a police officer’s radio and using the public service frequencies. If it’s not a real emergency (and “don’t forget to pick up milk” is definitely not an emergency), then the fines do apply.

    If you want to get started with radio, you might want to try GMRS first. It does require a license, but just one per family and no test. It would give you a chance to get used to talking on the radio, at least, and with GMRS you can use up to 50 W on certain UHF frequencies, including repeaters if there are any in your area.

    As for moving from WP to Blogger, there is a conversion tool available. Check out https://www.thoughtco.com/move-blog-from-wordpress-to-blogger-1616405. I have not tried this, and ymmv, but you might check it out. Alternatively, arrange for archive.org to crawl your site (make sure your robots.txt is set up correctly).

    HTH
    – BC

    1. Thanks for the advice. We have a GMRS license. We used to use 5 watt HT’s to help back our camper on a site. I’m not aware of the Blogger tool and will explore it. For now, I have a contract with AWS that lasts 3 years, so we will be there even if I croak. The big issue with radios is that the operator, licensed or not, has to know how to use it. One advantage of getting at least a Technician’s license is the knowledge gained and the availability of clubs who will help.

  2. Apparently the converter is no longer available, but maybe there are other alternatives. Couldn’t post this as a reply to my earlier post because it hadn’t been approved yet.

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