The Packet Network
I love Packet
Radio! Like with a passion.
It’s what got me into
Ham Radio, so I do have quite a soft spot for it.
The sad thing is that
Packet has been in decline for many years or, so people keep telling me.
Packet Radio “was / is”
our network, A totally Ham Radio network that does not rely on anyone or
anything else.
A great tool for use in
emergency situations for passing messages, traffic & bulletins.
I know most hams today
now use the Internet for sending & receiving emails/messages but that's not
radio, that’s relying on another network that is not ham controlled & run.
I moved from Birmingham
(UK) to Donegal, Ireland in 2005, Going from an area filled with VHF & UHF
packet to one that is none existent was very hard.
All I have now is HF to
play with in terms of packet. (Net105) on 14.105mhz lsb.
From the information I
could find or rather not find; I have not found any Irish packet systems left
?!?
Where did they all go?
& Why?
I did find a handful of
APRS stations in Northern Ireland & the south of Ireland but they are very
far away and there would be no chance of me hearing them.
So, with this in mind
I've set myself a sort of challenge.
• To Promote Packet Radio anywhere I can
• Setup a Node
• Setup a Messaging System / BBS or link to one
• Setup an APRS Node or IGate
For the last year I
have been gathering up equipment to start building a network here in north
Donegal with the hope
more people will join in.
Well... they do say
after all “If you build it they will come”
Now I’m not saying that
this network is going to be anything like packet's hay day in the 1980's or
1990's but at least it will be a start...
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