This question comes up a bit and for some the answer is no good reason. To be honest, we are at the last stages of the rise and fall of Packet Radio. Once packet radio was hot! It was a kick to connect to a BBS, exchange messages, read posts, and do a little keyboarding with friends. As the internet and computers got more affordable, hams moved away from packet preferring to do their keyboard traffic with email. You may indeed decide its not for you. No problem. The choice is yours but to answer the question direcly:
Fun - Amateur radio should give you enjoyment. And for some of us, we find Packet another fun mode to play with now and again. We hope all your amateur radio activity is fun and hope you have fun with packet.
PBBS’s - We are fortunate enough to have two full service PBBS’s in SW MO. If you are as old as me and started out with one of the very early computers, you are aware that the early computer communities were a dialup connection to a local server of some kind. Eventually, these services would get an internet connection and charge you for use of the gateway. And eventually, no one wanted to mess with the features of the local BBS service preferring to always go to the web. What we lost however was the community the local BBS’s provided. The packet BBS’s of today provide the fun and experience of the early days of computing and bring back the community connection. And you get to use your radio too! What could be better?
APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System) is probably the most popular aspect of packet radio today. This site currently doesn’t have a lot to support your APRS endevours but we may add more as time becomes available. We are lucky to have an I-Gate in Springfield which allows users to track the world. The Springfield I-Gate is hosted by Jim Baremore, K5QQ.
Emergency Communications - My current favorite packet software is Outpost developed to meet a need for an easy to use Windows packet program to support the efforts of one of the California ARES groups. And while I have not used Outpost for EM Comm, it shows that packet has a place for emergency communications at least in some circles. Arkansas also has an extensive packet network in place for emergency communications. Packet provides a viable solution to documentable communications for emergency situations.
Satellite Communications - Space, the final frontier, has held a fascination for most of us. What could be more fun than bouncing a message off a satellite? Well maybe a phone QSO to one of the astronauts but you can’t always work all the birds by phone. I know most of you will never work the birds with packet but hey, its still a good reason to know a little about packet.
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