Demetre SV1UY wrote: > --- In digitalradio@yahoogroups.com, "Jose A. Amador" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > [snip] > >> Once, I had a clash with a british net controller, which I regarded >> as >> "fascist" instantly, imposing a limit of 5 K per piece of mail sent >> to >> the british network. It happened that one of my users had sent a too >> large piece of e-mail. >> > > Hi Jose again, > > I think that exactly this behaviour killed PACKET RADIO networks > worldwide. Bad sysops like the one you are describing above existed in > many parts of the world are responsible for this. > > NETROM BARONS AND PACKET KINGS!!!!!!!!!!! > >
I used the Packet network for many years, only as an operator and 'interested party'. I did talk to some sysops, and most were people who wanted the network to work. However, there were some who I suspected had either become sysops because of the power that it gave them over their fellow Radio Amateurs, or who wanted to kill the system dead. A common ploy in the business world. Looking at the new systems, I'm sure they will find their users and devotees, but, to be honest, I'm not sure that they will catch on in the UK, or even most of Europe, to a great extent. The obvious rival is internet email. Love it or hate it, and argue that it's not using Amateur Radio all you like, and that it could be knocked out by accidents and any number of causes, but it's just too cheap, too fast and, mostly, too reliable to send stuff over the air instead. Add to that the need to dedicate radios and antennas to it to make it work, which was why I did not run a BBS or an APRS node, as I prefer the freedom to use my own antennas whenever I wanted, and the added problems of not wanting to loose a band due to having a transmitter going on a nearby frequency for periods of the day, and it might seem selfish but I wasn't prepared to do that. All cudos to those that did, and paid out to put node transceivers on towers etc., etc. but it takes alot of organising to do it... There will always be the special interest groups, who will do it because they want to prove it can be done and those that live in places where sending email is expensive, or difficult, of course. However, as Amateurs, it seems to me that we do seem to keep coming out with new ideas to reinvent the wheel at times. Dave (G0DJA)
