"tim gorman" wrote in message
...

snip

Good luck with your endeavors to get this going. While packet seems to be
mostly dead in my part of the country, there are a few die-hards using it
for comm support in emergency situations.

In the interest of accuracy, I'll have to correct Tim's characterization of
packet users in the US as "a few die-hards", as if packet had been replaced
by something better and only a few weirdos would still bother with it in
these modern times.

The fact is that nothing either better or worse has come along to replace
packet radio, and there are thousands of enthusiastic packet users in the US
today, with more hams becoming involved (or re-involved) with packet every
day.

Packet operation in the US is growing very fast right now, with old networks
being refurbished or upgraded, and new ones showing up where none have been
before. One packet net in the northeastern US has installed over 140 nodes
in the last five years or so, another packet net started more or less from
scratch a few years ago and now covers an entire state. Another new packet
net in the central US is just getting started.

There has been an upsurge in interest in emergency digital communications
since the terrorist attacks, partly because of interest generated by federal
grant money that is available for some of these efforts, but the renewed
growth and interest we are seeing in packet today pre-dates the terrorist
attacks by several years. Hams across the US have been dusting off their
TNC's, or getting on the air with the new TNC's and the soundcard packet
stuff in ever greater numbers for several years now, and the trend has been
speeding up, not slowing down.

Tell us about your network!

Charles Brabham, N5PVL
Director: USPacket.Net
http://www.uspacket.net