[ARRL-OK] Packet radio

Fri, 23 May 2003 00:12:58 -0500

For over ten years and continuing there is a very reliable, 9600 uhf
backboned rose
system in sw okla from wichita falls thru lawton velma pauls valley and on
to ada.
it works very well for station to station qso's and mailbox operations.  If
you
never tried it please dont take someones elses opinion of how it works.

The network more than not has a reliable path down to the dallas area also
with
a 96k backbone.

A lot of the disappointment with packet was caused by failing to realize the
limitations it had to start with, and the failure of some of the connecting
nodes in the network to "stay put" rather than  trying the latest craze.

Aprs hasnt helped either, its overbuilt in a lot of places, and is not
as good a packet for the exchange of information.

So if you want packet qso's and personal mailbox info exchange put up
something like
don1 or seokc in okla city again and leave it there, explain to everyone
that a
talkie and rubber duck in a metro area is asking for trouble, and then
provide some
realistically doable and useful apps like the mesonet, maybe swap and shop,
an ares
net check in on a consistent basis and I think there are sill people that
would use it.

J.P.
kb5ojr

PS before you think I'm foolish to keep it on down here it costs me around
15.00 a month
for electricity, I get stuff in my mailbox everyday, and I have found that a
reply from a
packet message gets faster response than mixing it in with internet email.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Jim Glover
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 9:09 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [ARRL-OK] Packet radio

Packet's demise has been a real mystery to me.  I dabbled in packet for
a while in the late 90's.  At that time there were still a good handful
of stations on the air in the OKC area, and I gather the situation with
plenty of super-nodes sort of topped out around then.  However, by then,
it had become difficult to find anyone at their keyboard to talk to.
There were plenty of systems running some sort of BBS to poke around
on, and you could leave most users email or at least a message if they
weren't there, but it was difficult to find anyone to talk to.

I recognized the potential for emergency communication using packet, and
I suppose, just more or less told myself, well, I'll keep this capability
in my hip pocket for when a big emergency comes up.  Meanwhile, it's
all dried up, and is blowing away, from what I hear.

The only factor I can put my finger on that makes any sense to me is
that APRS has taken some of the attention away from packet.  I've been
told that some of the people who were once active in packet switched
transceivers and/or TNC's over to APRS frequencies.

Other than the switch to APRS, I just don't get it.  VHF Packet seems
to have so many advantages:

--More than one QSO can occupy a single channel during a given time
period.  This is good for channel throughput.

--The nimble-fingered may even engage in more than one QSO at a time.
It's not necessary to wait for one QSO to end before beginning another.
This is good for operator convenience.

--The ability to digipeat means that modest stations can contact other
modest stations in the same area.

--The ability to digipeat also broadens the overall area over which
people may communicate.

--Error correction enhances the accuracy of communications.

--With the ability to connect to a station and leave a message, it becomes
possible to communicate whether the other party is currently present at
their station or not.

--Lists, directions, instructions, circuit diagrams and lots of other
useful things can be much more conveniently exchanged as computer files
than over voice.

So why have hams lost interest in these advantages?  I've heard lots of
theories, but few of them add up, for me.

Theory:  People who want to communicate via keyboard now do it on the
Internet.

But:  PSK31, RTTY, and other keyboard modes thrive on HF.  Why not on VHF?

Theory:  The difficulty of keeping a well-connected, physically high
node on the air got too difficult/expensive.

But:  People drifted away from spending much time on packet during a
time when plenty of the super-nodes were still up and running.

Theory:  It's too expensive to have all that extra equipment.

But:  The extra equipment is cheaper than ever.  Moreover, if only the
folks who have TNC's and such gathering dust in a corner would get back
on the air with them, we'd have plenty of packet activity.

It's easy for me to understand how and why the super-nodes eventually
went away, once no one was using VHF packet anymore, anyway.  What I
don't understand is why people decided to quit using it.

I do note that VHF use in the OKC area is way down, in general.  Back in
the late 90's, about 5 short years ago, it could be difficult to find an
unused repeater in the OKC area.  There was expansion to 440.  These days,
most repeaters stand idle most of the time.  I don't understand this
phenomenon, either.

Is it because 5 wpm code has made HF accessible to most of us who are
genuinely interested in spending time on the air?  Have most folks who
just want to talk to someone migrated to HF?  Are the folks who might
otherwise have been using packet now using PKS31 on HF?

Maybe that's the ticket!

Hey, wait... the demise of packet was well underway by 1998, and the 5
wpm thingy didn't happen until, what, 2000?  5 wpm may help explain the
quiet on VHF, but it doesn't seem to explain what happened to packet.

There goes another theory.

73,
Jim  WB5UDE
_______________________________________________
___________________Information __________________________
ARRL Oklahoma Section Manager - John Thomason, WB5SYT [email protected]
Oklahoma Section Web page http://members.cox.net/arrl-ok
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