The first WiFi

Mono Monday "Communications"... I worked with comms for nearly all my professional life after starting on a marine telecommunications course back in the early eighties, proposing to join the merchant marine as a ships 'sparks'. I learned how to tune valve transmitters and how to splice onto a radio antenna high above the decking, and my Morse Code was a solid twenty five wpm.

The layoffs in the industry at that time meant that career never set sail (ah-ha). I drifted for a time, and worked in the video game industry and in other places, until my father-in-law (who recently left us but was a tels engineer in the CEGB) introduced me to his workplace. I worked with low band radio, analogue and digital protection systems and government private telephone network exchanges, finally laying down my fibre optic SDH kit and laser test sets...

Communication networks have come a long way from the old Strowger exchanges and clickety clack relay signalling. I've tossed (cough, I mean, handed back) most of my telecom equipment, but here's the cover of a book my father-in-law gave me, from his own early days... and as an extra, just to close off the tulip thread, a shot from the garden where I've been all day.

I titled this the first wifi... and then thought... why wifi? The term echos the audio shorthand "hifi", but that stood for High Fidelity... what does the fi stand for here? If anything...

PS. I've tried to at least "thank you" on all yesterday's comments. I really do appreciate all your kind words and wishes on my milestone blip.