Rub, Although I agree it would be nice to run this group, and perhaps a few other ham discussions over some kind of RF network, how can this possibly be practical?
It could take days to deliver such messages, assuming you had some kind of server system to coordinate it. It seems to me that the reason that we went to internet discussion groups, and that was long before these kinds of groups, such as with usenet and listservs, was because the ham based approach (even with wormholes/internet like wireline) could not begin to work well enough. Consider that some of those who rail against wireline discussions for ham radio, were the earliest adopters of using wireline for those very discussions! The one place that discussions could happen, in close to real time, would be more local and possibly regional ones with less latency, but you would often not have the critical mass of enough participants to make that as useful. For emergency use, almost all the communications is tactical and that means voice. There can be some cases where messaging would be helpful but I would mostly be using it for e-mail to reach out of an affected area to the internet, for timely delivery. You would need to be very careful that such messages were confirmed received if they were emergency/priority time value traffic. Do you know of emergency plans in place now that would actually recommend putting messages on a server to be picked up that the convenience of an IC? 73, Rick, KV9U Rud Merriam wrote: > Personally, I would like to do email over the radio to other hams. It just > appeals to me. > > I would also like to see the NNTP protocol used for newsgroups implemented > on radio. The DigitalRadio group should be handled on radio. Newsgroups > would be useful in a number of ways. They can handle bulletins while setting > them as a lower priority than mail and other newsgroups. > > Emergency communications could be supported although some explanation and > training for end users might be needed. For example, instead of emailing to > an incident commander a message would be posted on an incident management > newsgroup. The incident commander could pick up the message from any served > location. Others could see the message and respond also. > > Hams could be encouraged to use a system by bonus points for sending contest > and field day entries via the system. > > Rud Merriam K5RUD > ARES AEC Montgomery County, TX > http://TheHamNetwork.net >
