"Karl F. Larsen" wrote:
>
> Ham Packet Radio is Dead
>
> Karl Larsen K5DI
>
> February 14, 1999
>
I am not sure you are right, Karl.
Hamradio was not developped to replace phone or mail. It was invented in
the 70s by technically inclined hams who wanted to experiment on
communication via radio. Following that goal, there is still plenty of
work to do with packet radio, for example in developping new protocols.
One that is still very promising, PACSAT, was designed for sharing
satellite trafic among multi users.
I remember when micro computers arrived in the 80s, we have seen in
France a loss of VHF local phone traffic. Then hams started to use radio
to help friends who were fighting against Basic software on Apple II
computers. This gave very funny QSOs with rather obscure codes exchanged
verbally over the air. Then, people found that they could exchange
software via radio links. Then packet AX25 started and replaced RTTY
(Kansas City 1200/2400 Hz standard). And hams went back to there old
hobby, combining radio and computers. The lesson is that there are up
and downs with the technologies we are using to communicate via radio
waves.
If you where right, CW would have disappeared for years. But, if you
listen to 20m or 15m bands this is not the case. Although CW is no more
used by official services, there are still quite a lot of hams enjoying
this old technology. Morse code is not dead.
We can extend the comparison to other communication media, although once
again, the goal of hamradio is not to provide a mean of communication.
In the old ages people could only write and send letters to remote
friends. Then came the telegraph and the telephone. Did the paper mail
disappeared?
Thus, it is possible that in 1999 you observe a reduction in the use of
packet radio in the States, but you cannot say that packet radio is
dead. Within a few years, our radio are going to be all digital
technology "inside", and one day, the transmissions are going to shift
from analog to digital also, like GSM cellular phones we are presently
using (you probably know that they transmit small packets of digitized
voice and soon datas at high speeds). Then, packet technology will
indeed replace the analog one presently used by hamradio. Thus you
should rather say that analog radio is being dead and packet radio is
alive forever, as everything we are using in telecommunications is
becoming digital.
Vive la radio d'amateur numerique !
73's de Bernard, f6bvp
President AMSAT France
http://www.ccr.jussieu.fr/physio/f6bvp/
tel +33(0)147 540 408 - fax +33(0)142 274 462
