Group members will have to forgive a few members here who appear to harbor some personal hostility regarding the SkipNets, and Packet radio in general. To find out more about the SkipNets without getting flames stirred up here, please contact me off-list for details.
As it stands today, the Skipnets transport miscellaneous bulletin traffic to keep the system exercised. There is some personal messaging, but there is a great deal of underutilized capacity for more point-to-point messaging between amateurs. No non-ham or 3rd-party traffic is transported by the Skipnets, but ham-to-ham communications are definately encouraged. A new HF network roughly modeled on the SkipNets is currently under development, but the first servers will probably not appear for some months yet. There are still numerous issues to resolve. In the mean-time, participation in the SkipNets are a good way to get up to speed on the basic concepts behind a global, independent, all-ham radio communications network. Again, due to the hostility here, please take all comments and questions off-list. Contact me personally at: n5...@uspacket.org - Or stop by at http://www.uspacket.org where there is a forum. 73 DE Charles, N5PVL
