"user" wrote in message
...

TAPR has been doing a good job in the last couple years with kits.
The DSP-10 is a MAJOR undertaking, and they did great with it. The
DSPx and KDSP10 are also very nice - I've been playing around with them
the last few days. I've had a T238 for quite a while, and it's perfect.

So, I'm MORE than happy with them as a kit vendor. When it comes
to general packet radio, then, no, I don't look to them as a leader.

Yes, TAPR has been good about the kits and technical articles for some time,
but they are not really a packet radio organization as their name and
web-site implies.

The popular conception that TAPR is a packet radio organization is
incorrect. TAPR has no interest in packet radio and does not support it.
Many of the movers 'n shakers involved in TAPR despise packet radio in fact,
and several are downright rude to hams who express an interest in it. The
fact that TAPR marketed the TNC2 kit long ago has nothing to do with what
they are now.

I think we can safely allow Gene Story to be the TAPR poster-child with his
response here, displaying the sort of attitude about packet radio that you
can expect to find within TAPR.

USPacket.Net is a genuine packet radio organization, dedicated to that
aspect of the hobby. We do not feel that it is necessary to run down other
aspects of amateur radio, in order to promote packet. Naturally, we at USPN
would not want hams to mistakenly go to TAPR for packet information, only to
be discouraged or derided by TAPR folk who share many opinions with our
poster-boy Gene, here.

It would be just as inappropriate for hams to go to USPN looking for kits or
highly technical articles, as we do not offer any. What we do offer is
support and usable, useful information for hams who are interested in
amateur packet radio and most especially packet radio networking in the USA.

Gene Story accused me of "hating" TAPR in his nastygram-post, but my
feelings about TAPR do not run that strongly. As a technical organization
that puts out kits, TAPR does a great job. What I do "hate" though, is to
see hams being confused into thinking that TAPR is a packet radio
organization when they are not.

Personally, I applaud TAPR's reassessment of itself. It is accurate, and now
only a name change is needed in order to reduce any remaining confusion as
to what TAPR is, and what it does for the hobby.

Charles Brabham, N5PVL
Director: USPacket.Net
http://www.uspacket.net