Andrew, You bring up some interesting points. Also, your question about how many Ham use digital modes is really the heart of the issues of voice vs. digital modes. I think that the issue should be training Hams in digital modes as part of emergency training. While voice is excellent for emergency communications, digital is much more suited for transmission of "data" such as statistics and other non-alpha data.
So, in short, I think that the goal of ARES/RACES and other emergency services should be to train "up" Hams, rather than go to the least common denominator and use mainly voice. 73... Jon W1MNK Andrew O'brien wrote >Keeping this thread "digital" related, my main point is that the USA system >has developed a very good method for transmission of urgent information. >However, the use of Pactor and PACKET has added an layer that complicates >simple emergency communications. As my recent Field Day demo illustrated, t>he majority of hams have NO CLUE on how to set up digital modes for use >with amateur radio, even for a non-emergency digital rag-chew. And, as a >ham involved in a recent drill told me, "I am at least experienced in some >digital modes but still had difficulty remembering Flex-Net and Winlink >processes. Can you imagine what it would have been like in a real scenario >where the hams that turned up were hams with no knowledge of anything other >than using a repeater". While their ability to use a simple repeater system >may have been all the skills they needed, the drill organizers had >deliberately established packet radio as the method for liaison between >government officials and RACES. >I wonder how many hams actually USE digital modes? I am going to guess that >is or probably no more than 15 percent of licensed hams. I think WINLINK >and other such systems work wonderfully well, but think the backbone of an >emergency communication system should be based on the skills and >capabilities of the average ham, not the specialist ham. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Something is new at Yahoo! Groups. Check out the enhanced email design. http://us.click.yahoo.com/SISQkA/gOaOAA/yQLSAA/ELTolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
