Old Fashioned Packet Radio
 

Many, many moons ago I used to run a dual-band digi on a mountain
in Ellenville, NY at a site belonging to WB2BQW (Howard Iko). How
long ago? One of the bands was 220. :-)

After a very long hiatus I know live over the border from there in PA
on a property that may not be mountaintop but is high enough that
thewind never stops blowing. I have been thinking of digging out my
DR-200's and setting some stuff up again just for fun. And, some
experimenting I worked on back then that might be fun to try again.
(more on that later.)

So, the questions then a

Does anyone do plain old packet radio any more (as opposed to DX
Clusters and APRS)?

I assume the 2 meter frequencies are the same, but I know the 220
frequency I used is no longer ours. What about 6 meters? Is there
a frequency for an FM digi on 6 meters?

Am I likely to even hear anyone or is vanilla AX.25 dead? I hooked
a TNC up to an HT for a few days a couple months ago and all I heard
was one station and no one ever connected to it. Would I be wasting
my time? Would anyone even care?

Just asking....

bill
KB3YV

Old Fashioned Packet Radio
 

Bill Gunshannon wrote:

Many, many moons ago I used to run a dual-band digi on a mountain
in Ellenville, NY at a site belonging to WB2BQW (Howard Iko). How
long ago? One of the bands was 220. :-)

After a very long hiatus I know live over the border from there in PA
on a property that may not be mountaintop but is high enough that
thewind never stops blowing. I have been thinking of digging out my
DR-200's and setting some stuff up again just for fun. And, some
experimenting I worked on back then that might be fun to try again.
(more on that later.)

So, the questions then a

Does anyone do plain old packet radio any more (as opposed to DX
Clusters and APRS)?

I assume the 2 meter frequencies are the same, but I know the 220
frequency I used is no longer ours. What about 6 meters? Is there
a frequency for an FM digi on 6 meters?

Am I likely to even hear anyone or is vanilla AX.25 dead? I hooked
a TNC up to an HT for a few days a couple months ago and all I heard
was one station and no one ever connected to it. Would I be wasting
my time? Would anyone even care?

Just asking....

bill
KB3YV

Well it of course varies by region, so it is better to ask at your
local club than on the internet.

Over here, AX.25 packet is dead with the exception of APRS.
However, IP networking (mostly over WiFi) is booming right now.

Old Fashioned Packet Radio
 

Bill Gunshannon wrotR:



bill
KB3YV

Bill,

Every now and then, someone talks about bringing back classic packet,
usually at 9600 baud. At least my impression is that time and the
Internet have passed it by, except for some folks who have used it for
emergency communications such as the Outpost Packet Message Manager.
Depending on you area, a new digi for APRS would likely be useful
unless you already have coverage.

Of course, in ham radio you can always play with something for your
own pleasure.

73s,

Alan
WA4SCA


--
Alan
WA4SCA