N5PVL
06-12-2007, 01:04 AM
Announcing at new article at USPacket, The Hinternet Concept (http://www.uspacket.org/hint.htm).
Questions whether providing internet services is a wise or appropriate activity for amateur radio hobbyists.
kb2vxa
06-14-2007, 08:44 PM
Hi all,
Charles Brabham, N5PVL and a handful of others like myself have been saying the Internet's involvement in Amateur Radio has been a mill stone around our necks and getting heavier all the time. Long before the Winlink e-mail robots came along Pactor 3 showed promise in BBS forwarding being superior to Pactor 2 and a giant leap foward from 300bd packet. Not an objection was heard simply because of the way HF forwarding has always been done, on schedule and on a listen first basis. It's the deaf, dumb and blind robots that cause trouble, let me make that perfectly clear, don't paint it all with the same brush.
Back to the Internet, decades ago blocks of IP addresses were reserved for Amateur use and they too showed promise where real time is critical such as in DX K2K QSOs and DX clusters, APRS, etc. where store and forward simply won't do. In crept abuse, the "need for speed" concept crept into packet BBS forwarding and the plug 'n play sysop was born. Traffic was short circuited by land line lids causing RF BBSes to shut down, the lights were on but nobody was home. The latest casualty is a friend in SoCal, an ex land line lid who tried his hand at HF Pactor only to die at the hands of his old "friends".
The battle continues now behind the scenes, Packet Wars is at a low boil but I expect to see the same rebuttal here I used to see on the BBS when they try to convince me it just ain't so. OK, I'll post it here just to show my thoughts on the matter, my permanent tag in my packet BBS signature.
73 de Warren
KB2VXA@NJ2AR.#CNJ.NJ.USA.NOAM
Station powered by JCP&L atomic energy, operator powered by natural gas.
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Preserve the integrity of our network.
Stop Internet forwarding, use RADIO!
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