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Old April 13th 07, 06:18 AM posted to rec.radio.amateur.equipment
Dick Dick is offline
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 70
Default Anyone still use packet radio?

On 12 Apr 2007 10:16:15 -0700, "Nobody" wrote:

Actually, no that is not a bad thing for the masses. It is the end of
ham radio for anything other than talking about your guns, cars, or
aliments to other old farts. I am one of those old farts who has no
illusions about the worth of ham radio in this world of modern
reliable instant inexpensive world wide communications.

Packet Radio has been reduce to APRS and a few DX clusters. I got rid
of my packet station in favor of Internet based DX clusters 4 years
ago. APRS is a completely useless waste of radio spectrum. The only
real use of Packet is as a means of accessing and gathering remote
data. However, there is little ham interest in this type of activity
due largely to the fact that most sites that have power from the grid
also have Telco access which means Internet. Most repeaters are idle
now, even during drive time. SoCal used to be jam packed with repeats
on 2 meters and 70 cm during drive time. There are more cell phones
in use at the TRW and other local swap meets than hand helds. During
the evening there is more activity on 2 meter simplex than there is on
the 2 meter repeaters.

The Internet and Cell phones have reduced ham radio to an old guy's
hobby. The Internet provides reliable world wide communications for a
low monthly price eliminating the need for ham radio's traffic
handling system. Even the slowest dial-up Internet access leaves
packet radio in the dust. Chat rooms make random world wide
conversations with people possible by anyone without requiring a test
to prove that you can memorize a bunch of answers to questions without
having to understand anything. Portable Cell sites have eliminated
the need for ham radio emergency communications. Internet connections
in concert with portable cell sites have eliminated the "Health and
Welfare" traffic as well. Both portable cell and associated Internet
access allow anyone to be trained to handle emergency traffic as well
as health and welfare - no license needed. Cell phones have
eliminated any of the freeway accident reporting needs formerly
provided by hams through repeaters at "drive time".

In summary, Ham Radio has joined the model trains, boats, planes and
other old guys hobbies as something to pass time away but which
contributes nothing of value to the advancement of knowledge or
humanity.

There is virtually no interest in ham radio by the current generation
of kids and young adults -- hand held radios and repeaters are archaic
to them (and rightly so) since they walk around with world wide
reliable telco and internet access for pennies a day without having to
prove that they are worthy of some arcane title.


Most of the time when people make statements like the above, they have
spent little time in actual emergency communications. Nor do they
understand why we still need amateur radio in emergency situations.

Emergencies in our part of the country, as well as many other areas,
are usually forest fires. Telephones, cel phones, public service,
television, the internet, etc. rely on telephone lines and mountain
top locations. When there is a major fire, those things are toast. I
have yet to see any portable cell towers available in our county.
Even when the phone lines manage to stay alive, they are soon taken
down with too many calls to and from the area trying to calm
relatives. This has happened time after time in major emergencies.
So you have no telephone, no cellular telephones, no internet and no
communication between public service entities like police and fire.

Our county, the largest in the state, has state-of-the-art public
service communications with links all over the state. But guess what,
every single police department, sheriff's department, Red Cross,
Salvation Army etc. has an amateur radio station permanently installed
in their facilities because they know some day they will need us. Why
do you think the Office of Homeland Security is currently spending
millions of dollars equipping ARES/RACES stations throughout the
country? It's because the government knows that all the expensive
equipment in the world can be taken out with a major emergency.
That's also why amateur radio continues to hold on to a major portion
of the frequency spectrum. It's sure not so a bunch of old farts can
play radio and talk about model trains.

With regard to packet radio. Yes, it has seen better days. Most
ARES/RACES organizations are going to WinLink 2000. But APRS is sure
not obsolete. If you send out several Jeeps on a search and rescue
mission, and want to know their exact location at all times, what else
will give you that information?

No young people entering amateur radio? How do you explain all those
that are testing for their license every month? Last week we had two
11 year-olds, and a 13 year-old all pass their technician licenses.
And their father drove them 100 miles to get to our testing location!
It's true there are more older people in the hobby today than young,
but there is still a steady stream of teen-agers and even college
students coming into the fold. It's a matter of how the local
amateurs present the hobby to them. If you don't work at getting
people interested, then you aren't going to get new hams. It's as
simple as that. We use things like IRLP and balloon flights tracked
with APRS to interest young people. If the only thing you show them
is how to use an HT, they will just show you their cell phone and
smile.

Some day, when ALL communications are via satellite, and nothing on
the ground can be destroyed by flood, fire, earthquake, tornados,
terrorist attacks, etc., then amateur radio will lose its value to the
country for backup emergency communications. Until then, people will
continue to depend upon amateur radio even when they don't realize it.

73, Dick - W6CCD

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