It seems I should state the part of the history I have lived. 1n 1991 I started with my C-64 and KPC-2 as user of several HF BBS's, on different frequencies, "surfing the NETROM nodes", etc, until I settled as user of YV2AEH on 14095 LSB. It solved a problem I had not been told : stable mail routes.
A local BBS had started, CO2BQQ, but it did not have good routes for P mail. It was a matter of making contacts and setting up working routes, which is easier said than done. Eventually, I became co-sysop of CO2BQQ, which had two HF ports at those times, one on 14095 kHz (300 bauds) and another on 28 180 kHz 1200 baud to KA0WIN. Eventually, worked on 15 meters with XE1FH. On late 1993 I started CO2JA running FBB 5.15 and began forwarding with the South FL network on 40 meters and a Satgate there. I cannot remember callsigns now. Life went on and stations come and go. Switched to the Cancun Satgate (XF3R) on 7099 LSB. Routes all over the world were great and STABLE. I started working part time on 7099 and 14101. When XF3R closed the 7099 port, I had become the sysop of CO2BQQ too, and moved it to 14107, linked to XE1LM, which was the route to access the Cancun Satgate. Also, I started an e-mail forwarding link to CO8RCI, which had the routes to South America and the Caribbean. We left our HF radios en different frequencies (14095, 14101 and 14107) and shared forwarding via an automatic e-mail link, and linked to CO2BQQ and CO2BSS on 2 meters. CO2BSS was running JNOS and had a landline modem access for those our of coverage or unable to connect on 2 meters. We moved not less than 300 kB daily...it was a LOT to read, all over HF fwd links. When XE1LM switched off, CO2BQQ went to 14091 1200 baud...sometimes it was great, but most of the time, the propagation windows were wasted in endless retries. I also had CO2JA linked to KP4IG for a short time on 15 meters 1200 baud....it was GREAT, almost as good as 10 meters 1200 baud, but it did not last long. I had few HF users, and in general, it is a hindrance to support HF users unless the user is well trained, has good equipment and is considerate, to minimize the impact on the forwarding load for the larger local group of VHF users. I had few non local users on HF, which had no other way to enter into an organized network, but I always tried to move the local users to the 2 meters ports or to the landline access. I have used bulletin import from several web sites, and have also sent mail to them, but P mail routes stopped working coherently when internet forwarding routes appeared, among other reasons because some of those stations had no links to the "RF world". And building a a coherent forwarding routes files is not a trivial exercise, if it is going to be done well. On late 1998 I moved CO2JA to pactor forwarding and set P mail routes to WU3V, TU5EX and somebody else I cannot remember on Europe. CO8RCI closed the HF port, and so, lost the HF routes to South America. Satgates were also gone, and internet fwd was only good for bulletins. CO3VT joined for some time also feeding CO9BQQ on 2 meters from another HF frequency. CO2JA and CO9BQQ were switched to Linux...and stability improved inmensely. Could kiss goodbye to those nighttime resets of the MSDOS era. Uptime rose up to a month or two at times. I did not reset the BBS's anymore, but the power company did.... As Danny says, it was a sort of ham Internet, and worked well. When there were wormholes, it was easy to fwd to the wormhole headend and have it move the traffic to many places around the world, reliably. For some time it was the substitute of Satgates. There was a ham comradeship that I miss, groups like this one get close but it is never the same. I made good friends that way. P mail worked well. It was nice,as Mark says, to be able to send a personal remark to someone, request a 7PLUS fill, or request files from other BBS's in far places. REQFIL was a sort of networked FTP. I also have been running different flavors of NOS, but it was a different twist. It is a pity it all went into thin air. Man thinks as he lives, and I am not going to deny progress, but to many, full Internet access is out of reach or non affordable. The dissapearance of the RF packet network has been a great loss for those who had equipment to devote to it, but no Internet access. And it was OUR network. And there is still people in, say, less fortunate or less developed places where RF is at reach but the wires are not. Losing HF packet has broadened the ham digital divide. And it is not really about losing packet, is about losing HF connectivity. A widespread, improved substitute never showed up, at least, before AEA sang the dying swan squeak, declared bankrupcy and many took it as the death certification of packet radio. I am a bit reluctant to accept that it is all history, and always kept dreaming on something that worked better than 300 baud packet and was affordable. Pactor II is great, but not popular for known reasons. We have had our BBS's here fed by local users feeding articles and news to them, but it is no longer the same as we enjoyed in the 90's. Nowadays, P mail stays stuck, there are not enough good routes as before. Nostalgia, yes, maybe...as Mark says, I also loved it. It was not easy to keep running, but it was great....wasn't it ? Here, it was our window to the world, at least for the least fortunate hams. Jose, CO2JA Mark Milburn wrote: > Hi Rick.. You understand it exactly right. There are a few HF users, > but most of the product of our efforts are VHF stations running > bulletin boards who receive the messages by VHF nodes which are part > of the HF packet station setup. > > We're just a bunch of stubborn folks who think that packet radio > ought to be done by radio. When the hop-skip-jump of the early years > of packet radio started going away because antenna sites were lost > and nodes were not maintained, HF radio started replacing the VHF > links where possible. It is (IMHO) a losing battle we are waging, but > since internet packet has not developed a routing system to deliver > personal messages it has a huge flaw in it, in my thinking at least. > The internet users say just don't send personals, send your message > as a bulletin. But that defeats the purpose in my view and makes it > less attractive. On the other hand, internet has some > advantages...speed and ability to send larger messages. > > It's all in your point of view. I started out with packet back in the > early years and loved it, and still love the system that will allow > me to read bulletins, but also to reply with a personal question or > comment where appropriate...and also to send personal messages to > friends I have developed over the years. > > 73 Mark KQ0I Des Moines, IA > > --- KV9U <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:mrfarm%40mwt.net>> wrote: > >> Mark, >> >> Something I never really understood is what is the HF packet >> network was actually doing. You mentioned that mail is not done >> much anymore, but bulletins are. Who can connect to the system to >> receive the data or are you feeding it via HF to local VHF packet >> BBS systems? >> >> In the past was it the primary purpose of the HF part of packet to >> forward to the VHF BBS's or were (are) there stations who get this >> directly off of the HF connection? >> >> 73, >> >> Rick, KV9U >>
