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The author of this column, who has been writing for MOTHER since 1973, is the inventor of slow-scan television ... a method of amateur radio transmission that allows ham operators to both hear and see each other during shortwave broadcasts.

Some of the most active, down-home electronics folks anywhere can be found at The Farm ... the successful intentional community of 1,300 people which was founded, back in 1971, by Stephen Gaskin and friends. In fact, radio and electronics have played important roles in the development of the Summertown, Tennessee settlement right from the beginning.

At first, though, such activity was limited to the use of ham and CB radio for keeping in touch with The Farm Band when it was on the road . . . contacting friends in sister communities elsewhere in North America . . . and providing communication within The Farm itself. At some point, however, the community's licensed hams, who came to be known as "the radio crew", began to broaden their range of activities.

CENTRAL AMERICAN CONCERNS
When the 1976 earthquake hit Guatemala, a number of persons from The Farm went down to help that nation's people rebuild their lives. (This was the beginning of PLENTY . . . The Farm's relief organization that's currently active in Lesotho and Haiti.) Hams from the radio crew went, too, and during the next few years enabled community members in Guatemala to stay in touch with those back home. Furthermore, the hams started seeing ways in which the natives of the area could make good use of radio technology, so The Farm folks helped the locals start their own broadcasting station, and set up a health and safety radio network to connect a number of villages in the Lake Atitlán area with a clinic on the lakeshore.

During this same period, The Farm supported Greenpeace by supplying people—first, Stephen Skinner (WA4PVQ) and then Mark Long (WA4LXC)—to serve as radio operators on the ecology group's ship, the Rainbow Warrior. During his stint, Stephen was involved in the challenge of the Icelandic whaling fleet and the attempt to stop British dumping of nuclear wastes in the Atlantic, while Mark took part in an antinuclear demonstration in a French port. Both are back in Tennessee these days, but Greenpeace has sent one of its own people to The Farm to learn ham operation techniques.

CB AND CIVIL DEFENSE
When the CB boom reached its peak in the late 70's, the radio crew produced a homey, very humorous, and helpful book called Big Dummy's Guide to CB Radio. It's been incredibly popular for a technical publication, reaching sales of 1,100,000 copies . . . and the end isn't in sight. Recently, when CB was authorized in Britain, the radio crew put together an updated version of the book tailored to the British market, and German and French translations are coming out shortly!

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