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#1
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Anyone still use packet radio?
Just curious how many out there still have active 2m packet radio in
their area? Aside from APRS, I don't think anyone is listening... and even that seems to be fading here. I've been rather inactive for the past 7-10 years and it seems packet has dissapeared in that time! Anyone have any creative ideas? I honestly can't come up with any use for it that I can't already do over the internet... My laptop even has built in EVDO on two cell networks (redundancy!). What more can I ask for? PS. 3 month old TH-D7A for sale J |
#2
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Anyone still use packet radio?
On 2007-04-12, Joey joey29034atyawwhodotcom wrote:
Just curious how many out there still have active 2m packet radio in their area? Aside from APRS, I don't think anyone is listening... and even that seems to be fading here. I am not sure about that (aprs I mean). In Ireland there seems to be alot of activity. Maybe its only by a small number, but it looks busy. I've been rather inactive for the past 7-10 years and it seems packet has dissapeared in that time! Anyone have any creative ideas? Well the only thing that hasn't been sent is pr0n..that seems a money-spinner on cell networks. I honestly can't come up with any use for it that I can't already do over the internet... My laptop even has built in EVDO on two cell networks (redundancy!). What more can I ask for? I remember going to a radio meeting(probably the only meeting i went to!) , dunno, about 7-8 years ago. I argued that Internet was good for ham radio, while alot of people (waay more experienced than I) argued the opposite. It'll kill DX, Packet etc. I argued the opposite. It'll give people opportunity to find information, access to other sides of the world, as if they were in their backgarden. A little bit of both seems to have happened. Is that a bad thing? PS. 3 month old TH-D7A for sale How about you and me have a chat http://www.runningwithbulls.com/blog/contact-us/ thanks, bernard |
#3
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Anyone still use packet radio?
I wish I could find a use for it, but all good things come to an
almost-end, I guess I can't say the internet has been bad for amatuer radio... look at IRLP, echolink, etc. success. It seems everything comes back to voice traffic.... look at VoIP on the internet, we have a big fast data network, and guess what? we want to TALK on it (or download p0rn. lol) I guess my voice capable HT will never be obsolete! And that's why i keep it up and running... J On 12 Apr 2007 07:22:20 GMT, blue box thief "blue box wrote: On 2007-04-12, Joey joey29034atyawwhodotcom wrote: Just curious how many out there still have active 2m packet radio in their area? Aside from APRS, I don't think anyone is listening... and even that seems to be fading here. I am not sure about that (aprs I mean). In Ireland there seems to be alot of activity. Maybe its only by a small number, but it looks busy. I've been rather inactive for the past 7-10 years and it seems packet has dissapeared in that time! Anyone have any creative ideas? Well the only thing that hasn't been sent is pr0n..that seems a money-spinner on cell networks. I honestly can't come up with any use for it that I can't already do over the internet... My laptop even has built in EVDO on two cell networks (redundancy!). What more can I ask for? I remember going to a radio meeting(probably the only meeting i went to!) , dunno, about 7-8 years ago. I argued that Internet was good for ham radio, while alot of people (waay more experienced than I) argued the opposite. It'll kill DX, Packet etc. I argued the opposite. It'll give people opportunity to find information, access to other sides of the world, as if they were in their backgarden. A little bit of both seems to have happened. Is that a bad thing? PS. 3 month old TH-D7A for sale How about you and me have a chat http://www.runningwithbulls.com/blog/contact-us/ thanks, bernard |
#4
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Anyone still use packet radio?
On Apr 12, 12:22 am, blue box thief "blue box
wrote: On 2007-04-12, Joey joey29034atyawwhodotcom wrote: Just curious how many out there still have active 2m packet radio in their area? Aside from APRS, I don't think anyone is listening... and even that seems to be fading here. I am not sure about that (aprs I mean). In Ireland there seems to be alot of activity. Maybe its only by a small number, but it looks busy. I've been rather inactive for the past 7-10 years and it seems packet has dissapeared in that time! Anyone have any creative ideas? Well the only thing that hasn't been sent is pr0n..that seems a money-spinner on cell networks. I honestly can't come up with any use for it that I can't already do over the internet... My laptop even has built in EVDO on two cell networks (redundancy!). What more can I ask for? I remember going to a radio meeting(probably the only meeting i went to!) , dunno, about 7-8 years ago. I argued that Internet was good for ham radio, while alot of people (waay more experienced than I) argued the opposite. It'll kill DX, Packet etc. I argued the opposite. It'll give people opportunity to find information, access to other sides of the world, as if they were in their backgarden. A little bit of both seems to have happened. Is that a bad thing? PS. 3 month old TH-D7A for sale How about you and me have a chat http://www.runningwithbulls.com/blog/contact-us/ thanks, bernard 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. |
#5
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Anyone still use packet radio?
Just curious how many out there still have active 2m packet radio in their area? Aside from APRS, I don't think anyone is listening... and even that seems to be fading here. I've been rather inactive for the past 7-10 years and it seems packet has dissapeared in that time! Anyone have any creative ideas? About three years ago I retired and moved from California. Packet activity there seemed "sparse" at best. I had been deeply involved in packet radio in the beginning, but my interest faded, as did packet radio, with the growth of Internet activity. When I moved to Oregon, I was surprised at the extent of Packet activity in the Pacific Northwest. Oh, it isn't like it used to be in the early 90's, but it exists, and the networks are pretty good. The domimnent reason it still survives is probably emergency services. ARES and RACES groups are pretty strong up here, and apparently Packet radio is one of the key portions of ARES communications. In fact, I'd say that the newer TelPac nodes are the primary reason Packet remains a viable communications use for emergency services. The mere fact that now we can easily send, and receive packet radio messages from areas without any other communications services, and route them to the Internet, and receive them from the Internet, makes it a pretty neat resource. Ed K7AAT |
#6
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Anyone still use packet radio?
Ed wrote:
The domimnent reason it still survives is probably emergency services. ARES and RACES groups are pretty strong up here, and apparently Packet radio is one of the key portions of ARES communications. In fact, I'd say that the newer TelPac nodes are the primary reason Packet remains a viable communications use for emergency services. The mere fact that now we can easily send, and receive packet radio messages from areas without any other communications services, and route them to the Internet, and receive them from the Internet, makes it a pretty neat resource. Ed K7AAT Add to that APRS and Weather watch using packet. Bob N9LVU |
#7
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Anyone still use packet radio?
I for one am still useing Packet and run a beacon on 145.07 vhf.
We have a statewide system with the main digiptrs on tops of Haleakala and Maunakea so coverage is near statewide. They use APRS, but all the worlwide params are effective as the params settings etc are standarized all over the world. Different types of software and different types of TNC's are not a problem. They may offer addnl cmds in the params, but the essentials are still standardized! Joe/KH6JF (Honolulu) ************************************************** ************************ * Ham since 1937 HiSchool Sophomore ex W9ZUU, KP4EX, W4FAG, KH6ARG KH6JF * * WW2 Vet since Sep 1940 to just After VJ day. US Signal Corps AACS * ************************************************** ************************ |
#8
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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 -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com |
#9
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Anyone still use packet radio?
Dick,
I do not follow your ranting and theorizing of Ham radio nor useage of Packet, PSK, and other forms of msg handling. As we all know by now, the WWW is not infalible, nor the CellPhone industry nor many of your other theories. After 70 years with AARS/MARS etc I for one am proud to be a member of Ham radio and all its requirements. And yes Hams have access to the Space Ship as I understand it. So accept my dissent to your comments!!!!! Joe/KH6JF ************************************************** ************************ * Ham since 1937 HiSchool Sophomore ex W9ZUU, KP4EX, W4FAG, KH6ARG KH6JF * * WW2 Vet since Sep 1940 to just After VJ day. US Signal Corps AACS * ************************************************** ************************ |
#10
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Anyone still use packet radio?
I have no idea what you are referring to in my message. Please list a
couple of the specific points in my message, and what you disagree with. Nothing I mentioned are theories, nor is it ranting. I can't believe you even read my message. It would help if you would leave at least part of the message you are responding to. Dick - W6CCD On Fri, 13 Apr 2007 10:12:47 -1000, Joseph Fenn wrote: Dick, I do not follow your ranting and theorizing of Ham radio nor useage of Packet, PSK, and other forms of msg handling. As we all know by now, the WWW is not infalible, nor the CellPhone industry nor many of your other theories. After 70 years with AARS/MARS etc I for one am proud to be a member of Ham radio and all its requirements. And yes Hams have access to the Space Ship as I understand it. So accept my dissent to your comments!!!!! Joe/KH6JF ************************************************* ************************* * Ham since 1937 HiSchool Sophomore ex W9ZUU, KP4EX, W4FAG, KH6ARG KH6JF * * WW2 Vet since Sep 1940 to just After VJ day. US Signal Corps AACS * ************************************************* ************************* -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com |
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