I’ve been thinking a lot about the trip this last week. Some things I need to do:
Get SCUBA certified. I’ll have opportunities to go diving and I’d like to take advantage of it. It shouldn’t be that hard as I have a diving center about a mile from my house.
Upgrade my amateur radio license so I can use HF bands. I’d like to take a small HF radio with me to talk to people on the trip. Probably the most popular thing in amateur radio is DXing, which is just racking up contacts in different locations. I’ll be in enough different locations that I should be a good contact to do DXing with.
As an interesting side note, what constitutes a “country” is different for different things. The UN has 191 members and a few countries with observer status (Vatican and Palestine). The Travelers Century Club recgonizes 315 “countries”. Amateur radio recognizes 425. The UN only recognizes sovereignty. The other lists make distinctions between politics and geography. Example: To the UN, the United States is the 50 states and all territories. To amateur radio, it is several units. The continental US is one, Alaska and Hawaii are both separate, and then there are separate entries for Guam, American Samoa, USVI, Puerto Rico, Johnston Island, Baker and Howland Islands, Midway Island, Guantanamo Bay, Jarvis Island and Kingman Reef, Wake Island, Kure Island, Navassa Island, and Descheo Island.
I will also be taking some classes on video and photography. My current level of knowledge is not sufficient.
2 replies on “Trip Talk”
Sounds like you are turning yourself into a travel celebrity. Seriously — seems like to really make this fly as something more than just a trip for yourself the trick is going to be to build a brand around yourself (even if not “Gary Arndt” some moniker that is you — like “Crocodile Hunter”, ‘cept different).
Nate, your finally getting the big picture.