Did the internet kill packet radio?

[KB0YOJ]

I remember about 7 years ago I got my first tnc(MFJ-1270C). I was so excited to get into packet radio I drove three hours just to pick it up. By 10'oclock that night I was on. A whole new world of ham radio was open to me. For about two years I bounced back and forth between packet and ARPS. Then uncle sam moved me and for about five years my hame station was reduced to a dual band ht. Now that I have been stable for a while now I decided to break out the tnc again and see what advancement have been made. Everthing setup ready to go and........nothing. Just a few blips of traffic. Packet was once so crowded that was crazy. So I fired up the aprs program, reconfig. the tnc and input all the settings in the program and waited. The traffic was a little more active but not nearly the same as it was a few years ago. What happened? Am I just in the ham radio black hole(Harnett County, NC) or is the hobby not as active as it once was.

[k8tmk]

Actually, no the internet did not kill packet radio in itself. It was already dead. We used to have a lot of fun chit-chatting, etc. until many people had to boost their so-called ego by putting up network nodes and bulletin boards. Pretty soon, that's all there was.

Randy, K8TMK

[newsphotog]

Apparently my club has a packet repeater committee. But I'm not sure we still have a packet repeater? Never heard of one around here. Never even heard any talk of packet radio around here other than APRS.

[AlabamaRS]

Also D STAR is the "latest & hottest" stuff ... for now

[KB0YOJ]

What attracted me to ham radio was the diffrent modes other than voice. I have done APRS, Packet and SSTV. APRS, SSTV and FSTV are exciting modes of communication. I just hope that more hams take advantage of these diffrent modes.

[projektdotnet]

Could check out PSK31, it seemed to be doing pretty good on field day.

[W9RXR]

I don't think the Internet killed packet radio. The slow speed of packet radio killed packet radio.

At 300bps on HF and 1200bps on VHF, AX.25 packet was never designed to carry a lot of data. However, that didn't stop folks from putting up BBS's and it didn't stop BBS users from flooding the system with large emails and binary files. I never did keyboard-to-keyboard packet, but those users were probably the ones using packet as it was intended. That's not to say that you can't move data via packet, but when you consider that a simple Microsoft Word document consumes thousands of bytes, you just can't use packet the same way you use the Internet.

Nowadays, the BBSs seem to have disappeared and many of the digipeaters are gone, too. In some areas, keyboard-to-keyboard is still active. And, there's still APRS, which I think is growing.

[DirtyLarry]

The county I live in and the counties around me all operate packet nodes. They are mostly there for emergency stuff. I haven't played on them in a good while.

[DirtyLarry]

I just realized you were in Harnett County. I know they used to have a node set up in Raleigh at the State EOC. I would think there would be something around Fayettenaum as well. But right in your county its hard to tell. How close are you to Sanford? I have a friend there I QSO with occasionally. I can try to remember and ask him.

[k9rzz]

It's just part of the natural progression. Anyone remember 2 meter RTTY repeaters?

[mancow]

My friends and I used to use it quite a bit back in the 1994 era before the internet was really established. It was kind of like having the internet before anyone else did. I bought a 386 Epson for a grand with a whopping 120 Mb hard drive and thought I was really in heaven. I took that mobile with the KPC3 and it was the equivalent of an aircard at the time. Man, we really thought that was something...texting back and forth mobile from the car!!!

But, it was a neat deal and was handy. It was cool to come home after classes and find the mail light on the KPC3 lit and there were messages from friends just like email we are all used to now.


EDIT: wow I feel old

[mtindor]

The interest of the internet may have killed packed, but the speed of the internet killed it first. We never saw affordable gear that would run 9600+ in the early days.

Here in East Ohio a bunch of us ran NOS variants and ran TCP/IP over AX25. If you thought 1200 baud simplex was slow, encapsulating TCP/IP over AX25 just added to the problem. A couple 1200 baud nodes with full IP capabilities, connected from Carrollton up to Brookefield @9600 RF, then from Brookfield to Poland OH @56K RF and then from Poland OH to YSU @56K RF. But it was fun. We would then access other internet gateways that were scattered across the US and elsewhere. UAKRON had a nice gateway as well. A nice NETROM network was up and running as well - I wish I could remember all the names of the involved people.

The guys over at WB3BOI over in WPA ran a chat gateway out of Duquesne U physics lab. I used to dial up into a LInux box there at 9600 baud and download floppies for Linux (back when kernel patchlevels were 0.99pl14 rofl).

The early to mid 90s were the heyday of packet. It was a great time.

Mike

[n9iur]

I Don't think Internet Killed Packet..
I think we Let itwither..It's not dead..It justr needs a little attention, and Im not talking about APRS..
I don't understand APRS anyway..Im a rag chewer, and APRS won't let you do that, all I see APRS used for is seeing where everyone is , but ya still cant talk to them.??
anyway..I still have a packet station up and running, with a gateway out to 10 meters ( now that 10 is open agn )..I think all we need to do is, put our stations back on the air, let them sit there and see who is around, talk to the hams in your area, get them to put there stations back up, and pretty soon packet won't be dead!!
it will never be as big as it used to be, but then thats a good thing to me..I Used to run a BIG node stack back in the mid 90's, and didn't allow BBS traffic..the stack was just for key boarding ONLY. and im still all for just that..I know here where I live ( S/W MO. ) there are a few stations getting back on the air now..I poked a little interest in them again, and got a few Good O'l rag chew sessions going, and pointed out the great part of it..you don't have to be sitting at your Station to see who is out there, and you can even leave Mail for most of the stations..ya can run Packet, and still talk on the radio.
anyway..It's not dead as long as we don't let it Die, or get consumed by APRS...so get out your TNC's hook um Up !!!..call your friends, and if ya have an extra TNC, loan it to a Newbie, or a friend that sold his TNC
or for that matter..use the sound card interface stuff out there now..but it's Not Dead..it's still waiting on you to Power it up..so go play with the old stuff..it's still around and growing again.
for those of you that need a good Program for the AEA or Kantronics in ( Host Mode ) I run Creative Services Software Home , It replaces the Old KA gold, or Host Master programs..all menu driven, and works with the new Computers..
So..Hope to see some of ya back on Packet, and if your around S/W MO ( Joplin ) Area, look for N9IUR on 145.03, and 145.01..
73 Rick N9IUR

[newsphotog]

Originally Posted by n9iur

I Don't think Internet Killed Packet..
I think we Let itwither..It's not dead..It justr needs a little attention, and Im not talking about APRS..

At a recent board meeting for my club, I asked the chair of our repeater/packet committee if we still had packet systems set up here in Des Moines. He said we did. Not only that, it turns out we have multiple systems set up in the city! Once he said that, everyone in the room (even including the old-timers who have been around this area forever) were wanting to get the frequencies.

It sounds like people are still interested in playing with packet radio, but yes most of us did let it wither away. All we need to do is remind people that it's still there.

[MOTEX]

When dozens of companies are selling data transmission systems that work on the ham bands
that can deliver 45Mbs, packet looks like sending smoke signals

[KD8CPP]

I dont think so. We have a statewide packet network on 145.690mhz in West Virginia that gets used all the time. We have weekly statewide and local nets, a chat room, and we rag chew too. Not to mention the 2 winlink and cross band nodes that are on the network too.

[N1BHH]

There are many packet nodes and networks around the country today, some areas more heavily active than others. The internet augments it in the northeast from what I have heard of it. I don't use it but it is very active. Just listen around 145.01 and the other 20 kilohertz frequency steps near it and you will hear that familiar "gizwerp" sound blasting away. There are many other frequencies where it can be heard, so I wouldn't be saying it's the end, it's still going strong here.

[UPMan]

Thread wins the Irony Award.

(Packet Radio technology was a major precursor to the routing methods used for the Internet as we now know it. Same basic technology, different medium. Hmm. Maybe the better answer is "No. Packet Radio became the Internet.")

[KB9LIQ]

UPMan is right. Most new forms of radio comm's would not be where they are without the internet. D-star and APRS are using the internet to get signals out to other areas but what is going to be bad is one day the internet maybe damaged in a major emergency and then where will we be? If a major earth quake would hit southern Illinois we could be without power for months not just weeks. So much depends on the internet that we don't even think about, but you can bet the terrorist know this.

[N_Jay]

Originally Posted by UPMan

Thread wins the Irony Award.

(Packet Radio technology was a major precursor to the routing methods used for the Internet as we now know it. Same basic technology, different medium. Hmm. Maybe the better answer is "No. Packet Radio became the Internet.")

WHAT!!!!!

No, AX.25 was developed AFTER and FROM X.25, the protocol the Internet was based on.

Come on, UP Man, you are not that young!