In article ,
Fred McKenzie writes:
In article ,
(Bill Gunshannon) wrote:

This group seems as dead as the 2 Meter Packet Frequencies around here
but I'll ask here anyway.

Is packet radio dead? Has the proliferation of Internet and Cell Phones
made it so meaningless that no one is doing anything anymore?

I have been pretty much out of Ham Radio for a long time but now
that retirement has reared it's ugly(?) head I find myself with
time and a renewed interest.

I am monitoring all the 2 Meter Packet Freqs here (in the home of
K3RLI) and hearing nothing. Not even the dubious DX Cluster traffic
that used to go on around here!!

Is there any interest in old fashined packet radio any more or should
I just put it all back in a box and relegate it to the cellar once more?

Oh yeah, Is Howie Goldstein, N2WX around here by any chance? I would
still like to get a copy of the source for the "Howie Code" that ran
in my DR-200's back in my digi-peating days. And a copy for the TNC-2
as well if there ever was one. I have always wanted to experiment with
it and if packet is pretty much dead then there is probably no problem
with me doing some stuff on two meters around here. Especially if I
could find some kindred spirits who shared some of my interests.

Bill-

I am over seven years into retirement, and my memory is getting a bit
dim. I have an old PK-232 stashed somewhere. Many times I have thought
about firing it up, but haven't found time yet. I would need to build
some adapter cables first!

At one time I had 2 PacComm TNCs with "The Net" firmware, connected
back-to-back between the 144 and 220 MHz bands.

Let's see, I have a TNC-1, a couple of TNC-2's, a KAM, a newer version
KAM, a PACCOMM 220, a couple DR-200's and even one of those early
VE-something or others that didn't do AX.25 because it hadn't been
invented yet. :-)


I recently reprogrammed an old FM rig that had 441.000 MHz in it from
back in the 90s. My notes indicate that was a Packet Backbone
frequency. Sure enough, I can hear a steady chatter of packet signals
there. I'm listening through a magnet mount antenna stuck to the top of
some metal shelves, here in central Florida.

Like I said, I programmed all the 2 meter packet freqs into a scanner
and let it run all day yesterday and heard nothing. I guess if everything
has moved to vhf maybe the locals won't mind if I experiment on 2 meters
again. Hmmmmmm.... What ever happend to ROSE. There was another system
that showed promise but lost out to politics.


According to the FCC, N2WX renewed in May, and is living in Sarasota,
FL. You might take a look at http://www.tapr.org. If you search
their archives for N2WX, you will find several related articles. Their
software library is at http://www.tapr.org/software_library.php.

I have tried a couple of email addresses but never got an answer.
I really don't plan on calling his house. I have asked this question
before in NetNews and other places. I would have thought he would
have seen one of these requests or had someone mention that I was
looking for him. Maybe he just dfoesn't want anyone to work with
his old code any more.


I don't know if PacComm is still in business, but their website is on
line at http://www.paccomm.com. A note at the bottom of the home page
says "Last updated 7/19/2004".


Yeah, PACCOMM is still there. I have asked them three times now and
my reply each time was, "let me look and see if we still have a copy
of the code around anywhere." That is usually the last I hear. I
fear this is yet another piece of computing histoy that may have been
lost.

bill
KB3YV

--
Bill Gunshannon | de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves
| and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton |
Scranton, Pennsylvania | #include std.disclaimer.h

In article ,
(Bill Gunshannon) wrote:
Is packet radio dead? Has the proliferation of Internet and Cell Phones
made it so meaningless that no one is doing anything anymore?

The lack of activity in this group may more reflect the death of
Usenet than anything else. Very few Usenet sites exist outside
of Universities and commercial providers these days.

There are still people experimenting with the Internet protocols
(TCP/IP, etc) over ham radio. Little of it takes place at 1200 bps
anymore; most folk are running 9600 bps or faster, some are using
converted wireless equipment to achive multiple megabits ("HSMM"). And
there is the new 56kb/s digital radio from the folks in the northwest.
There are a lot of folks running Linux and many of these use the
soundcard in their computer as the modem - no TNC required.

For more info, check out the Linux-Hams mailing list, the TAPR
website http://www.tapr.org and the AMPRNet http://www.ampr.org.

Best regards
- Brian WB6CYT

In article ,
(Brian Kantor) writes:
In article ,
(Bill Gunshannon) wrote:
Is packet radio dead? Has the proliferation of Internet and Cell Phones
made it so meaningless that no one is doing anything anymore?


Hi Brian,
Now there's a blast from the past.

The lack of activity in this group may more reflect the death of
Usenet than anything else. Very few Usenet sites exist outside
of Universities and commercial providers these days.

Gee.... That's where I thought it always was. (As one who used to
run a pretty good Usenet Site at a University until they turned me
off for "using too much bandwidth". :-)


There are still people experimenting with the Internet protocols
(TCP/IP, etc) over ham radio. Little of it takes place at 1200 bps
anymore; most folk are running 9600 bps or faster,

Certainly haven't found any around here.

some are using
converted wireless equipment to achive multiple megabits ("HSMM"). And

That was something I wanted to do. Wondered if one could change the
code in the box (I have a bunch of boxes with third party code based
on Linux available) to make them run AX.25. Seemed like one could
set up some pretty good high-speed point-to-point links with the WAP
boxes.

there is the new 56kb/s digital radio from the folks in the northwest.

New as in different from the GRAPES stuff that was coming out about the
time I stopped having the time and money to play with it?

There are a lot of folks running Linux and many of these use the
soundcard in their computer as the modem - no TNC required.

I've seen that, too. But end user devices was never my main interest
I was always much more interested in the backbone.


For more info, check out the Linux-Hams mailing list, the TAPR
website http://www.tapr.org and the AMPRNet http://www.ampr.org.

Not much on mailing lists. Been to the TAPR site but it basicly read
like 1990 all over again. But then, I didn't really get past the intro.
I'll check out th AMPR site.


Best regards
- Brian WB6CYT

Great talking to you again after all this time, Brian. Is Phil, KA9Q
still active out that way or is he too deep into the commercial stuff
anymore?

bill

--
Bill Gunshannon | de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves
| and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton |
Scranton, Pennsylvania | #include std.disclaimer.h

Bill Gunshannon wrote:
Is Phil, KA9Q
still active out that way or is he too deep into the commercial stuff
anymore?

He's pretty much retired these days; I believe he's mostly into science
education (speaking at high schools and junior colleges) these days.

Last time we had dinner a few months ago he was real excited by near-space
balloon flights and using ham radio to relay video and telemetry. One of
his high-school groups had just had a rather successful flight and collected
some interesting data and video.

The HSMM folk have found that some brands of WAP can be told to operate
in the ham bands (2.4 and 5.8 GHz) at increased power and are using them
for high speed data links, both digital voice and data. And of course
there are the D-Star folk with their medium-speed digital links. There
is interest in Internet linking in both groups. A Google search on "HSMM"
will probably yield some informative info.

I regret to say that the www.ampr.org site is rather sparse right now,
as we just rebuilt it, but I hope to add more to it as the months go on.

Best wishes!
- Brian

In article ,
(Brian Kantor) writes:
Bill Gunshannon wrote:
Is Phil, KA9Q
still active out that way or is he too deep into the commercial stuff
anymore?

He's pretty much retired these days; I believe he's mostly into science
education (speaking at high schools and junior colleges) these days.

Last time we had dinner a few months ago he was real excited by near-space
balloon flights and using ham radio to relay video and telemetry. One of
his high-school groups had just had a rather successful flight and collected
some interesting data and video.

The HSMM folk have found that some brands of WAP can be told to operate
in the ham bands (2.4 and 5.8 GHz) at increased power and are using them
for high speed data links, both digital voice and data. And of course
there are the D-Star folk with their medium-speed digital links. There
is interest in Internet linking in both groups. A Google search on "HSMM"
will probably yield some informative info.

I regret to say that the www.ampr.org site is rather sparse right now,
as we just rebuilt it, but I hope to add more to it as the months go on.

Best wishes!
- Brian

Thanks for the info. I will definitely look into some of this, especially
the WAP stuff as I have a bunch and really like playing with them.

If you see Phil again tell him I said "Hi" although I doubt he will even
remember who I am. (Not sayinghis memory is bad, just that I tend to be
that guy no one remembers. :-)

All the best to everyone on the left coast. It's been 25 years since
I was last that far west.

bill

--
Bill Gunshannon | de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves
| and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton |
Scranton, Pennsylvania | #include std.disclaimer.h

Bill, good to have you back involved with Ham Radio. You'll find that things have changed, but there is a lot of exciting new things to have fun with.

Unlike some others, I don't sense any attitude other than "where are we now"? And that's a reasonable question. In PA and South NJ, APRS is the what's hot now. There is some DSTAR activity, but in general, Packet Radio in any given area is very sporadic and usually club-oriented.

Unlike the early 90's when we were all playing with Phil Karn's KA9Q, full-time connectivity to the Internet is the basis for support communications. DX cluster are mostly web-based, although you can connect to quite a few vie Telnet. The biggest reason for the Internet is to write logging data to sites like HRDlog.net or to map digital propogation via pskreporter or wsprnet.

So Ham Radio is a bit different with HF digital being the thing most highly developed now with modes like JT65-HF, PSK31 and Olivia. Even RTTY has experienced a resurgence in interest. Amsat is suffering with most of it's mainstay birds being off the air. QRP CW on the WARC bands like 30 and 17 is a hot area, one that I enjoy quite a bit. SSB is the usual collection of what-have-you. Sometimes great, sometimes decidedly not.

But the main point being, there is a lot of digital activity being enjoyed on HF these days. It seems to be in sync with the connected, digital media world that we live in, so no real surprise. As for age? Yes the older Hams who got their starts in the late 50s are into retirement now and have moved into homes that may not support large antennas, so QRP and digital or CW are their realm. Is there a reason to connect with a TNC on VHF anymore? Not really.

Anyway, welcome back into the hobby. It may not be the same as you remember, but if you bought a Yaesu 817ND, ran it into a random wire via an LDG automatic tuner, and connected it to your PC via a West Mountain Rigblaster, you can have as much fun as I do on PSK31, JT65-HF or CW as I do.

73