Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!umich!sharkey!wa8tzg!wwm From: wwm@wa8tzg.mi.org (Bill Meahan) Newsgroups: comp.society.development Subject: Re: Summary: Who is on the net? Message-ID: <1991May29.205004.762@wa8tzg.mi.org> Date: 29 May 91 20:50:04 GMT References: <1991May28.183943.16259@convex.com> <1991May28.204751.11309@news.larc.nasa.gov> Organization: What, ME Organized? Lines: 37 In article mas@arcsun.arc.ab.ca (Marc Schroeder) writes: > >On the subject of possibly accessing the net with packet radio: > >I am not a ham, but I delved into it at one point out of interest. I was >particularly fascinated by packet radio. However, at the time it seemed to >me that speeds were too slow to serve any practical purpose - especially >to access the internet. > >This all would have been back in the 80's, when most of the hams I knew >were operating at ~1200 baud.. and then there was some propagation delay >to be dealt with, as I recall. > >My question is this: Has packet radio progressed enough in the last few >years to serve as a _practical_ communications medium? Could it realistically >compete with more standard methods? > > Marc. From a TECHNICAL standpoint, yes. Local VHF links at 56Kb are starting to become common. Experimentation with 2Mb and up networks has yielded good results. HOWEVER There is a real killer to the idea of extending USENET around the world via ham packet: IT ISN'T LEGAL! Current US law and the WARC treaties make it impossible to use packet to drop e-mail/newsfeeds into the rest of the world. Regardless of the TECHNICAL feasibility of this proposal, until the LAWS are changed, it won't happen. -- Bill Meahan (WA8TZG) | Programming is simple: wwm@wa8tzg.mi.org OR | uunet!mailrus!sharkey!wa8tzg!wwm | All you have to do is put the right "Home for Cybernetic Orphans" | numbers in the right memory locations!