Profile: Keith Rainbow

Personal background
Originally trained as a Physicist, I have been practicing as a professional Electrical Engineer (electronics and communications) for the last twenty years. Born in London, England and now residing in Perth, the most beautiful city in Australia, I am in my mid-fifties and semi-retired.

When funding is available, I carry out research into mobile radio systems for the Communications Technology Research Group within the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Curtin University. When Research money is short, I keep my mind sharp by part-time undergraduate teaching.

I am an occasional member of that dying breed of (mainly) men: the Radio Ham and hold the call-sign VK6JT. My major interests are packet radio, space communications (including ham satellites) and new digital communications techniques. I have just recently been contemplating some amateur (backyard?) radio astronomy, and I reckon that some serious work would probably be possible in the relatively radio quiet area in which I now live. The spirit is willing but unfortunately the radio wallet is weak... ! Still...Maybe...Oneday...
Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home
1. Almost certainly, but the chances of two civilisations finding each other will probably, in the end, come down to sheer luck. It is even quite probable that the first contacts between extraterrestrial civilisations have already been made and humans will disappear without ever knowing.
2. This one worries me. It could be like inviting a new native tribe into your camp before you know they're cannibals! But I am cautious by nature!
3. Every little helps and I might as well be doing something useful in those gaps between program executions which I'm paying for anyway. The project, like any type of research, may well turn up valuable information in areas where we currently have no interest at all. In this respect, I believe both the processed and the raw data should be made available to any established Groups or even teams of amateurs who can make a good case for using it.
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