🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <MAS.91May29090831@arcsun.arc.ab.ca>, mas@arcsun.arc.ab.ca (Marc Schroeder) writes...
(edited)
>On the subject of possibly accessing the net with packet radio:
>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, et al.,

Yes--packet is now up to 56K.  Of course, like high speed modems of many kinds
these are very expensive.  The other issue is connectivity--you'd need to find
a phone patch repeater capable of the same speed, and might have to worry about
getting a good connection (as mentioned earlier not all AMSATS are geosynch,
in fact most aren't) for any length of time.

The challenges are great, but the potential rewards also seem excellent.

--Pete