Ham Packet Radio is Dead
Karl Larsen K5DI
February 14, 1999
I got started on Packet in 1986 when I and another ham bought
the Pac-Comm TNC-2 kit. I went through the era of digipeating and
then the advent of Net-Rom from Software 2000.
We rushed around and put up netrom nodes that were simplex
single nodes even though the booklet with Net-Rom stated clearly you
should use 2 TNC and 2 Radios with antenna etc. The nodes worked
much better than digipeating. They would have been 3 times faster if
we had done it properly.
At this time there was no Internet. There was a telephone
based Fido Network which I was part of, but telephone long distance
rates were terrible! Computers were of the XC PC style with DOS
version 3.x as the operating system. I had a 300 baud telephone
modem.
It was a pleasure to have a route to distant towns via Netrom
nodes and I quit the Fido Net and became a Packet Radio BBS. Put up
my own nodes and did many things fun to try and get The Wonderful
Packet Radio BBS Network working. It ran at 1200 baud to my users and
they were many.
Ten years later the world of communications had changed to a
point we could not even imagine in 1986. The Fido Network was dead.
Everyone was getting on the Internet with new 14,000 baud modems and
downloading all manner of things over the Internet.
We Hams had upgraded part of the ax25 networks to 9600 baud
which was nice, but what it connected to was not as nice as a new web
site found on the Internet. We began to talk faster nodes and better
bbs software and...but it all not worth the effort.
In 1999 a 56,000 baud modem costs $40.00 and the local
Internet providers are putting in digital modems which allow users to
achieve about 44,000 baud over the current telephone lines. The
Internet costs $20.00/mo and in todays income that is cheap.
In 1999 the same ax25 9600 baud path is working but it's
about 8 years old now. The many users I had on my bbs are all on the
Internet and not on my bbs. The only bright spot in this picture is
that the wife complains when the ham ties up the telephone using it
on the Internet to get dx spots. So the DX Cluster makes sense to
some people.
But when I talked to AT&T about Internet service they said it
will be just a year and you can buy your telephone(s) and Internet
from the TCI cable company who is owned by AT&T. This will free the
telephone and everyone can have T-1 access to the Internet. Price
will be about the same as it is now. I now have 2 telephone lines now
and only need one if the Internet comes in via cable.
This year is the end of Amateur Radio Packet for me. I hate
to see it go, but it will go. It no longer holds anything for anyone.
I feel the problems already and it has made me less and less
interested in packet radio. It has been hard to kill but in me it's
dead now.
Ham radio repeaters are in deep trouble too. I have a
cell-phone that costs me 10 cents a minute week days and is free on
week ends. I can call 911 anytime free. The cell-phone cost under
$100 and I have a *REAL* antenna on my RV so it works better than
most current cell systems.
My last Ham Radio VHF/UHF Hand Held cost me $400.00 and it
works no better than the cell-phone.
So I plan to drop all Packet work as I write this and plan to
have it all turned off by March 31, 1999. I want to be able to
dual-boot this computer with win-98 and Linux. I want to be able to
turn it off at night. In my opinion keeping it on and operating is
just putting off the event for no good reason. I expect to have zero
users by 2001 anyway.
Best wishes
- Karl F. Larsen, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (505) 524-3303 -
