Upside article. Wired in the Rain Forest [I* review]
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upside.com
March 11, 1999
Napo Camp in the Amazon Rain
Forest--The phrase "it's a jungle out there"
has taken on new meaning for me this
week as I write my columns, take digital
photographs and update a couple of Web
sites from a remote jungle in the Peruvian
rain forest. I'm here in Peru covering the
Jason Project for Ask Jeeves for Kids.
The operation is based at Explorama's
Napo Camp, which--until a couple of
weeks ago--was a rather remote site more
than 100 miles from the nearest telephone
or electrical outlet, with rather limited solar
power.
While the Jason Project is in town there is
enough power to light a small city, a T1
line, six voice lines and the ability to beam
four simultaneous audio and video signals
anywhere in the world. There is even an
air-conditioned production studio and a
communications office perched on two
barges docked on the Sucusari River, a
tributary of the Amazon. All of this
technology will be barged out of here by
Sunday, but--for now--we have most of
the technological comforts of a big city--as
long as we stay at the base camp.
Some of my work here takes me away
from the Napo Camp, where there is
nothing in the way of technology, electricity
or communications, other than the
Charapilla Del Murcielago tree, which is
used as a drum. Drum beats can't reach
North America, so I'm toting a Motorola
Iridium satellite phone and a separate
Iridium pager. For computing on the go,
I'm using a Hewlett-Packard Jornada
Windows CE handheld computer that runs
up to 12 hours between charges. Most
notebook PCs run for only about two
hours before the screen goes blank.
The Iridium phone is a mixed blessing. On
the one hand, it lives up to its billing--it can
make and receive calls from any corner of
the earth. I've used it from a riverboat on
the Amazon, from the balcony of my hotel
room in Lima and from a clearing in the
jungle. The bad news is that it's not
reliable. Some calls get through, but at least
a third of the time I haven't been able to
make a connection. When I do connect,
there is a better than even chance that the
call will be disconnected within a few
minutes.
Call quality also is unpredictable. Some
conversations are as clear as a regular
phone, while others are garbled. Of
course, this is true of all wireless phones.
Analog cell phones are often plagued by
static, and digital cell phones sometimes
have a warbling sound that makes the
person on the other end sound as if they're
slurring their speech. That effect is even
more pronounced with the Iridium.
Wired in the Rain Forest
page 2: A Place Where Win CE
Shines
The phone weighs about a pound and is
about two or three times the size of a
regular cell phone--about the size of the
first generation of handheld cell phones.
And the Iridium is not cheap. The unit
costs about $3,000, and usage ranges
between $1.95 and $8 a minute,
depending on where you're calling from
and the destination of your call. There is
also a $70 monthly service charge.
In addition to the phone, Motorola also
offers a pager that, thanks to the Iridium
satellites, can be used from any portion of
the world. My pager is set up with an
international phone number. For
long-distance billing purposes, Iridium is
considered its own country with its own
country code (81). However, rather than
having people make long-distance calls,
people can send pages for free via e-mail.
The pager seems to be rock solid.
Sometimes it takes 10 to 20 minutes for an
e-mail message to make its way to the
pager, but it's worked every time, even
when I'm in a remote area of the jungle.
And even though the phone hasn't been
100 percent reliable, it has nevertheless
been useful. I can't always get through on
the first try and I can't always continue a
conversation for more than a minute or
two. But if I keep calling, I can generally
get through within a few minutes and, if I
talk fast, I can usually accomplish
something on the call.
I don't recommend this technology for
anyone who absolutely needs to get
through the moment they dial a call, but,
considering the alternatives, it's useful for
anyone who has a little patience and a big
need to keep in touch from out-of-the-way
places.
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Amazon
Larry Magid is a syndicated computer
columnist for the Los Angeles Times. To
find out about all of his radio, print and
advocacy activities, visit his Larry's
World Web site.
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