Bill Gunshannon wrote:
Yes, in particular the Netherlands.
In Germany I think there is something left.

Is PA0VRZ still around? :-)

I think you mean PIxVRZ (PI1VRZ/PI8VRZ etc).
They have remained active very long but I think they are off the air.

Or you mean PA0VRC, a local amateur that has moved to another part
of the country but is still alive and kicking.
He built the local 2M repeater PI3PYR in 1977 or 1978 with some friends.

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.

We had so many channels allocated to packet that it was possible to
separate the traffic. A channel for local chat, one for the BBS,
one or two for the access of the local node, and then separate channels
for the interlinking of all the nodes.
This was part of the reasons why TNC's were no way to go and we needed
those SCC cards. Larger systems typically had between 8 and 12 channels.

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. :-)

I had UUCP at work, and later when Linux became available also at home.
Internet came later (1994 or so) and was time-tariff so it was not so
attractive for radio related applications. Not to mention that it was
strictly forbidden to make a connection between amateur radio and the
telephone network.

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

Ah, probably stationed in Germany. We had a local airbase (Soesterberg)
here but it is now closed. I worked next to it for a couple of years
and remember the overflying F15s.

Rob PE1CHL