</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Is there a resurgence of the node operators and packet radio ? Or is there some one trying to sell software to the crowd a day late and a dollar short?[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
There is a resurgence of interest and activity in packet, in most areas of the U.S., that has been building up over the last four or five years. Some areas are seeing new nodes go up every month, while others are just now getting back on the air again, or maybe just now starting to think about it.
The fastest-growing, most advanced packet network in the U.S. is the Northeastern FlexNet network - http://www.northeastflexnet.org/ #- They've set up over 140 new FlexNet nodes since they started a few years back - and one of the reasons this packet net has done so well is that stations that insist upon maintaining non-ham links ( Packet/internet gateways and BBS E-mail forwarders #) are shut out from participation in the network. They simply do not allow the incorporation of non-ham links and this policy has served this group very well.
They also use FlexNet, the most advanced packet radio system available. There is a lot of good information about FlexNet at their web-site, listed above.
Not all packet networking groups maintain web-sites, in fact most of the smaller ones do not, but still you can see a representative sample of what hams are doing today at USPN's "Network" page. This page lists links to known packet networks in the U.S. that maintain up-to-date web pages. A more comprehensive listing is in the works.
To view this list, go to USPN (http://www.uspacket.net) and press the "Network" button on the left.
A lot of the newest packet activity has been oriented toward emergency communications and ARES use. Of these networks, almost all model themselves to a some extent on the largest, most successful amateur packet radio emergency communications network, SEDAN (http://www.sedan-central.org/). ( SouthEastern Digital Association Networks )
One packet network to avoid modelling your efforts after would be TexNet, the only large-scale packet radio network in the United States to completely go under and disappear from the face of the Earth. A few years prior to their disappearence, they decided to use Internet links between nodes, instead of the 440 MHz 9.6kb RF links they had successfully used for years.
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"> I pulled all my stuff off packet here in No. Cal.about 2 or 3 years ago as there was an influx of lids who tried to tie the nodes into the internet against the wishes of the node operators,so the nodes just folded up their tent and left, which drove the stake into the heart of packet at least the normal 2 meter type,a shame too except for SSB that was the last good use for the 2 meter band.
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Some of the same people who got hold of your network got hold of TexNet, looks like. At one time, there were over 100 TexNet nodes, then - #POOF! #
I could go on and on about packet, but this is supposed to be about the Paxon tutorial at USPN, so I guess I ought to take a break.
If you decide to start up the packet net again in your area, be sure to set things up so that the same folks who messed it up in the first place are firmly prevented from doing so again. Just write "No non-ham links, or links to non-ham links allowed" into the charter. Enforce it without exception, and you'll do OK.
Charles Brabham, #N5PVL