I would be hesitant to completely accept certain "facts" as absolutely true, but even if Greg Jones wanted to destroy packet, he really would not have been able to do so when up against the tremendous numbers of us who used it daily. The truth is that there just was not enough interest by a critical mass of hams to move packet networking forward to new technology. In fact, there still isn't even today, after more than a quarter century!
The shift to the internet started well before the "internet" was commonly available. At the very earliest times, and I was one of the earliest adopters in my area who promoted packet as a killer app and killer system for ham radio, the local BBS owners were using "wormholes" within a very short time. Long distance traffic was still pretty slow on packet, but it would have been useless without the wireline connections because the distances were far too great here in the U.S. It is good to keep in mind that the geography of the U.S. is a bit different than Europe. And out laws are different and more open when it comes to communications, which allow for more alternatives. Without wireline, getting across the plains states was impossible without HF or satellite and even if we could have taken over all those frequencies we could not have handled that level of traffic. What packet did do in our area was to destroy the VHF RTTY infrastructure that we previously used for digital intercommunication on 2 meters with a regenerative RTTY repeater and model 15's and 33's teleprinters. Some were upset that packet was destroying the world that they had spent a long time developing. They did not want to accept that this could be happening. But it was. And even though they had pledged that they would not turn off the repeater for years, about three weeks later ... it was permanently shut down due to no further interest as packet networking swept the ham community like nothing else I have seen, and in such a short time. Your interest in transmitting data has been done for a number of years now with APRS, particularly your interest in weather data, temperature/windspeed, etc. There is a critical mass of hams who find this interesting and who actively transmit such data. It is not uncommon to find that the APRS digipeater locations and equipment, came from the former packet switched networks that were taken down as they became unused. 73, Rick, KV9U keyesbob wrote: > Wow...this is so very disheartening. Disgusting, even. It makes me > want to crawl back into the corner and ignore packet, like so many > other hams seem to have done. But I can't and I won't, because digital > radio is what I do. So perhaps I just need to not be concerned with > trying to pick up the broken pieces and putting them back together > again. Maybe there's just too many bad memories attached to the words > "packet" for many hams. But if I just pursue digital radio on VHF & > UHF without regards to the old baggage, I may just step on some toes. > But I am not going to step on signals, if I can at all avoid doing so. > > Maybe I should tell whomever is reading this thread about the data I > wish to distribute. It is sensor data. Everything from temperature > through propagation through ionizing radiation levels. All for > consumption by the amateur radio community and eventually the public. > This can start with data from the shacks of interested experimenters, > but I'd like it to proceed to the time when dedicated > sensors/computer/radio stations are set up in appropriate areas. I > think we can be useful to the world and have some fun at the same > time. Along with sensor data, the network can pass other traffic as > well. But the prime directive, the "raison d'etre", is sensor data. I > am not saying that this is all digital radio, or VHF/UHF packet, has > to be, but it is what I am interested in, and I am interested to hear > what others might have to say in regards to this application of > amateur radio. > > 73, > Bob > N1YRK > >
