In article ,
Rob writes:
Bill Gunshannon wrote:
In article ,
Rob writes:
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?

Over here, classic packet radio and TCP/IP over packet radio are
completely dead. The only thing left is APRS on a single channel
on 2m and 70cm. There still are digipeaters optimized for APRS
and often with a connection to Internet, but all the NET/ROM nodes,
BBS systems, DX-clusters etc seem to be turned off.

By "over here" I assume you Europe, yes?

Yes, in particular the Netherlands.
In Germany I think there is something left.

Is PA0VRZ still around? :-)


Is that the KISS code or the original TNC2 firmware?

Actually, neither, althought I wouldn't mind having the original TNC2
source as well as what I want to play with will require changes to
that code as well.

The "Howie Code" was a different kind of connection code much like
NETROM but it actually preserved the originators callsign from end
to end. It is what ran in the DR100 and DR200 digipeaters from PACCOMM.
I ran a couple of them doing dual band gatewaying and providing rather
extensive coverage from a mountaintop in New York (north of NYC) for
several years in the early 80's. I always thought that it was never
given a real chance to show its capabilities or develop.

Ok, I played with some TNC clones but as my main interest was with
TCP/IP which had to use KISS mode, and KISS mode performed very poorly
on busy channels (which we had in those days), we quickly formed a
group and designed an SCC card with external modems, plus modem that
worked with it. This meant the PC had full control over the radio
and the TNC was no longer required. So I have little expertise on
TNC firmware.

I did digipeating and played with IP quite a bit but it saw much
resistance around here and I wasn't interested in playing politics.
When I first moved back to Northeastern Pennsylvania my job was to
put the first University (actually, the first anything) on the
Internet. Gave me a lot of leeway. I had a connection between my
house and the University that provided Internet access in the late
80's before was even one ISP. I used to love going to ham club
meetingsd and listening to all the people discussing why it was
technically impossible when I was already doing it. :-)


My desire is to use software that already existed at the time the packet
BBS's were coming into being. These other methods were never given any
consideration either although I had some luck with my early experimentation.

In those days I wrote software that emulated a TNC on a virtual COM
port, so it was possible to run an early BBS (W0RLI, AA4RE) on our SCC
cards. Later I wrote an emulator for the G8BPQ hostmode, allowing newer
BBSes like F6FBB to run in multiuser mode. All the software ran on
a single PC with DOS, Desqview (multitasker), QEMM (memory management)
and performed as a NET/ROM node, IP router, BBS and DX cluster.

Yeah, there really were good old days. I always enjoyed ham radio
more over there than here. And other than wanting to experiment
with packet again I think I will be brushing up on my CW and will
probably not even hook a microphone up to any of my rigs.

bill
KB3YV formerly DA1WO (1978-1979 just east of Venlo)

--
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