|
Finally, after months and months of agonizing searching, listening to our network on every machine I could hear, hopping around every node that I could possibly connect to, analyzing the bulletin list on my home bbs (ve7nsr) once a week for two months running, and reading those bulls that I thought would be interesting, I have figured out why we have run out of steam.
If Karl Marx (one of the Marx brothers) were a packeteer, he would have long ago observed that the technical side of amateur packet radio contained the seeds of its own destruction. How so, ask you? Well, the answer lies in history, as usual. So journey with me now to those wonderful days of yesteryear….
I just pulled my MFJ 1270 manual from the shelf. It was the first edition (1986). This was the era of the Commodore 64, the Vic 20, the IBM PC Jr., the Radio Shack model 100, and their computer, and of course the original 128k Apple Mac.
The manual spends lots of space getting you to interface your serial port to the tnc, and then the tnc to the radio. After which, it describes how to connect to another station and how to send information, and how to disconnect. It goes on to explain the benefits of digipeating and of multi-connects. In each example, the manual speaks of "….connecting to your friend or friends". There is only passing mention of BBS's, but rest assured they were around in their primitive forms. The original VE7KIT BBS ran on MBL (wa7mbl wrote it) software. It allowed ONE and only ONE connect at a time. That meant if someone was reading messages while connected to the BBS, you had to wait 'til he was done and disconnected before you could get on. We were all on one frequency in those days, so you knew exactly who was on and when, and what they were up to.
Amidst the clatter of the bbs, it wasn't uncommon to see a 3-way in the background between P1GGY, Y1D, and SP1T. We 'SDed' (disturbed the fecal matter), ate together, went to the Tacoma hamfest together, and built a rudimentary form of the network together. I think the record for a VicWay PackBarf was 22 present.
The VicWay grew into VAPO, and VAPO grew to almost 150 souls at its peak. I was at the last meeting, and we had maybe 30 present (correct me if I'm off by more than 10). Most of the original guys are gone, doing other things, I guess. So, what happened?
The answer is Store and Forward! We went with the technology (who could resist?). The BBS went from the humble Heathkit location to operating through a high profile repeater atop Mt. Seymour. Then, distributed local BBS's throughout the lower mainland -- all on different frequencies (the cellular concept). Multi-connect, multi-tasking, client-server operation. YAPP gave way to TPK, which in turn gave way to WinPack. You could die, and if your wife/partner/sweetie, didn't know enough to turn off the switch in the basement, you could still be on the air -- downloading bulls, and deleting same after 'x' days. Dead men asking for sync -- holding hands with Jesus -- what a concept!
The backbone went from 300 baud H.F. to the Internet. The number of bulletins went from maybe 20 per day to over 100 (and on a good day 150). PackBarf went from an informal breakfast of builders and users to a sysop meeting. And keyboard to keyboard qso's disolved into nothingness along with a sense of community.
So now, since you didn't have to be present at your station to play packet radio, you
|
|
