Packet radio was my first introduction to the Internet and Linux(late 1993). I was on a weekend campout as a Boy Scout and the local ham club did a demo for us. Already being a (young) computer nerd, packet radio was the most interesting part to me. A few months later I took the test and received my first ham radio license. Thanks to digipeaters and an Internet gateway (for the "converse" server), I was able to sit in my (very rural) home and chat with folks on other continents a couple of years before dial-up was even available in my area and my station's hostname and IP address are still present in the ampr.org DNS zone twenty years later. --n9wwv
This field has been getting some traction again here in Slovenia. Let me link you this incredible guy from Slovenia: http://lea.hamradio.si/~s53mv/ and his replacement for the old AX.25 protocol http://lea.hamradio.si/~s53mv/nbp/nbp.html which among other things allows for quite extraordinary data speeds (up to 10Mbps)
And it is live in Slovenia and doing great so far. http://nbp.rservis.net/ (click "place NBP markers")
Most anything you'd want to do with this is illegal due to FCC rules against encryption colliding with the need for computer security and now the recent push for https everywhere.
While there are some exceptions to the rule, yes this is a problem. But much of what you are going to do with amateur radio links is amateur-related with a custom software stack.
Non-amateurs probably see this as a way to connect to the internet, while amateurs don't really see that as the point. There will be direct connections in some ways, but the same mindset that makes hardware from the ground up is going to be more interested in creating software stacks from the ground up and making gateways rather than simply using modern internet software on an amateur internet.
> When the big one hits, this might be the only Internet left. Unfortunately you have to have a license to use Ham Radio.
"The big one" implies nobody's going to care about licensure or not using the public airwaves for encrypted communications.
Which implies that, if it's less than the big one, the amateurs should have the basic good sense to leave the airwaves to the professionals, and not clutter the frequency bands.
In many cases, "amateurs" are the professionals. At a local university, all electrical engineering students are required to get a ham radio license. Many radio engineers are also licensed amateurs (how else do we get an amateur repeater on a 750 foot commercial tower?). It is designated as "Amateur" by international treaty, and that refers to its purpose, not necessarily the people involved.
For example, if you read the original article, I certainly wouldn't call the people doing all of that work "amateurs" in any sense other than the laws that apply.
Edit: I'm sorry, I can't leave this one alone. Amateurs do not "clutter" the bands. They have specific frequencies they can use that do not interfere with military or other use. And as a first responder, I can tell you that a lot of "professional" radio usage is very unprofessional to the point of causing problems and even endangering lives. There are many cases where an experienced "amateur" can make much more efficient use of bandwidth than many professionals.
> the amateurs should have the basic good sense to leave the airwaves to the professionals
That's pretty unfair. Amateurs often help out with communications after natural disasters, and historically have often been the first to setup radio communication in areas struck by natural disasters.
Situations were HAM operators can get packet radio through but cell phone towers and land lines remain down are not unimaginable or unprecedented.
(edit it's possible we're confusing each other's meaning. "amatuer radio operator" typically implies "licensed amatuer radio operator", in the same sense of licensed amatuer pilots. It's possible (even very common) to be licensed but not a professional.)
Kind of funny because a friend of mine was doing Packet Radio TCP/IP around the time this article was written. He was an Amateur who installed some of the first "professionals", police cars with this technology.
> Unfortunately you have to have a license to use Ham Radio.
Fortunately, amateur licenses are easy to get and you can do most of what you would be able to do on a modest budget with an amatuer license (with some exceptions) :-)
Although many new hams still learn and use International Morse Code as it is very efficient and gets through a lot of noise. Also, individuals can build and actually understand simple CW transceivers. It's a very basic technology that works across nationalities and languages once you learn the q codes, abbreviations and prosigns. No computers or networks required, just a bit of knowledge and practice.
