-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

There is a web-site that is replaying Usenet from exactly 30 years ago
(currently late 1981). The site is:

http://www.olduse.net

The old-style VT/ANSI terminal interface is a nice touch. I don't
recognize the software it is emulating. It's not rn, for example. Is
it readnews? It appears to closely resemble the Elm mail client.

If you prefer to use your own newsreader, the site also supports an NNTP
server at:

nntp.olduse.net

I checked out net.ham-radio. The only user name I recognized was Phil
Karn, KA9Q (though I did recognize references to non-Usenet third
parties like Dr. Tom Clark, W3IWI, and King Hussein of Jordan, JY1). At
that point, if you were on Usenet, you either had a UUCP (dialup,
Unix-to-Unix Copy) connection, or were at a University or military site.
Even the user who was relaying ARRL bulletins was receiving them
manually on a fixed schedule via HF radioteletype, capturing the text on
an early Heathkit PC, and uploading the text to the newsgroup. There
were a lot of references to "read this magazine" or "read this
newsletter" for more detailed information external to the newsgroup.
The World-Wide Web would not invented until over a decade later, and
dial-up UUCP links did not support easy file retrieval. Even if you had
a direct TCP/IP link to the larger Internet, so-called "anonymous FTP"
sites like Simtel20 at the White Sands Missile Range were not as
information-rich as websites today, and their contents were not keyword
indexed. As recently as the early 90's, I recall some users like KA9Q
even going down to the FCC reading room on M Street in Washington DC to
read hardcopy comments on petitions.

The ARRL may have had a cable address, and like any other office could
receive telegrams, but I believe that 1981 predates any E-mail presence
for the League, even via CompuServe or MCIMail. The arrl.org domain
wasn't even set up until the early 90's.

This is a far cry from today, where amateur radio organizations have web
sites with huge on-line databases of information, multiple departments
reachable via E-mail down to the specific person, and their bulletins
are automatically relayed to the rec.radio.* newsgroups when they are
received over a broadband TCP/IP connection via E-mail directly from the
sources.

- --
73, Paul W. Schleck, K3FU

http://www.novia.net/~pschleck/
Finger for PGP Public Key

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (SunOS)

iD8DBQFO77Cj6Pj0az779o4RAihjAJ4q4Ugwc3BBFnwO3Uq5Yn FKgxsO2wCeOFSb
YwlNOEk7hk5TuNpKZ0YYVrE=
=KBpX
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----