[Ares-races] Packet

[Ralph Milnes]

I'm looking for input.

Our municipal ARES-RACE group has been fooling around with packet over the 
last couple of years.

What we found was:

1. There are few other ARES-RACES units to talk to with packet .. the 
County or State OEMs don't seem to be into it. The Red Cross units don't 
seem to have packet support from their ARES units. We'd more or less be 
talking within our little group.

2. It would be hard to maintain a packet network locally .. we just don't 
have that many packet-capable and outfitted operators.

We sense that packet or other digital modes might be useful in emergency 
communications -- it's accurate, uses less frequency time, can run 
unattended, suited for archiving and hard copy print-outs ---  but there 
just doesn't seem to be "critical mass" of operators or interested 
ARES/RACES units around here.

What's it like elsewhere?
Is there a truly useful role for packet in emergencies (vs. voice)?
If you're using it successfully, how'd you do it?
Anybody have experience using packet in actual emergencies? for what?
Is it worth it to keep working on "growing" packet?
Anything you can think of to help make it grow? ARRL support? easier 
software? easier hardware?


73,

Ralph KC2RLM