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M1CUK > USERS 12.06.09 01:23l 163 Lines 7854 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : B70946M1CUK
Read: GUEST
Subj: Re: Last men standing
Path: IZ3LSV<IK2XDE<DB0RES<ON0BEL<GB7FCR
Sent: 090611/1634Z @:GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU #:28399 [Blackpool] FBB-7.03a $:B70946M1
From: M1CUK@GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU
To : USERS@WW
G6KUI wrote:-
> Dave VK2AWZ wrote a fairly long bulletin, but he failed to grasp what
> the real problem is. Like most others he has only partly taken part in
> Packet Radio, being a taker and not a helper in the infrastructure.
Not everyone has the same level of interest in packet, some people
simply want to exchange a few messages with friends and when their local
systems closed down they found that there was no point in leaving radio
/ tnc on 24/7 as they simply sit there wasting electric with ZERO People
making use of them.
ZERO Traffic through the kit = not worth leaving it switched on,
Even I have found this to be the case and have shut ports on the bbs as
they were unused for over a year, pointless them being on wasting
electric and in 1 case having a radio go faulty and replace it, just in
case someone wanted to use the port, in the end I switched it off and
sold the radios / tnc's that were no longer needed, there was simply no
point in them being on / available 24/7 as there was ZERO people
intrested in using them,even though they all provided good coverage of
the area and were all good clean signals with no interference problems,
all of the ports had been inspected a few times by Steve Parkinson when
neighbours complained that I was causing them TVI, In the end when the
kit was tested it all passed and the bbs wasnt the source of their
interference, it was their own central heating system / pump relays
causing them the problems, but it was very nice of them to blame me and
call the RA out and then have to pay for their visits to check / certify
the kit here was all working as it should be, what made it really funny
was they did it three times and had to pay for each visit :)
so I knew the kit I was running was working well and that it was always
a good clean signal, but even that wasnt enough to keep the ports busy,
At the very start of runing gb7fcr there was over 250 regular RF users
of the bbs and the radio ports were busy most of the time, but things
changed / major nodes closed and access was becoming more and more
difficult, now theres only 2 RF users and 1 RF bbs connecting, the other
96 users are all telnet and most from areas that used to have good RF
coverage and most were RF users at one time
> The one thing that I can't understand is why most people don't run a
> packet node. This to me is the best way of taking part.
lack of interest from everyone else, everyone I know that ran nodes in
the area said that it was a waste of time having them on, Things took a
real nose dive when the best sites in the uk were taken over and the
rents increased from a pepercorn rent to stupidly expensive comercial
rents, once that happend the best nodes closed down, closely followed
by the other nodes that then had no where to connect out to bar the bbs
or the dxcluster nodes.
> Here in the UK a lot of people who had difficulty making an RF
> connection to a BBS, gave up completely with RF when they migrated to
> telnet internet access. Why did they do this ? .
Because rf conections were reduced severely, loads of nodes in the north
west / north east of the country closed down when site rents went
through the roof on all the best sites, Dont forget that is the same
time as when the 1st telnet systems started to become available, All the
best nodes providing decent coverage were closed, I lost over 70% of the
nodes I could connect to within a 6-7 month period, loosing those nodes
meant that I lost over 150+ regular packet users that used to connect in
via RF.
But I had seen this comming and like several other sysops had the
forsight / sense to make the systems available via telnet (at that time
my link was via 128mb isdn link so it used to cost me a small fortune to
provide the access, but it was either that or shut the bbs down for lack
of users) By providing a fast / reliable data access point for telnet
users the bbs became very popular and I made an effort to contact people
who had lost their RF links and offered each and every one of them that
had internet access, telnet access to the bbs, at least it kept them on
packet and the bbs was kept very busy.
> My only only answer is because they are selfish individuals and don't > want to help others.
that is your opinion fine, your entitled to it, same as I and others are
entitled to think that your attitude sucks in regard to packet users, in
fact I am suppriesed that with an attitude like yours you have any users
at all!
> Surely it would have been much better if these people had helped
> provide local RF connectivity to others when they decided to go the
> internet route by providing a node so that other local RF users could
> use their internet connection to gain access to the packet network.
not at all, many people dont want to allow anyone access to their pc's
and to run an ax25 to internet gateway they would have to set their
system up with a node program that is capable of passing packets to the
internet, many of the "older generation" wouldnt have a clue how to do
it anyway and many wouldnt do it because of the very poor attitude of
some people on packet
they also have to make sure their firwall allows the packets through and
that they keep the system secure and away from their own info.
here I run 2 seperate networks with 2 seperate adsl links as I keep all
my own internet access seperate from the bbs
> Or maybe they just do not ( or do not want to ) understand how packet
> radio works.
Most people understand and more to the point they understand the
limitations of the system, and their own limitations, something you seem
to have forgoten all about.
> In most other aspects of amateur radio everybody is on an equal
> footing, but in packet radio most people that came into it
> just wanted to be second class amateurs and not fully take part.
You really are a berk at times, without USERS there wouldnt be a need
for a bbs network in the 1st place, at times you really do show yourself
to be an idiot that should think before posting, I was hoping that we
had lost most of the idiot element from packet, your posting just goes
to show that element is still there :(
> They decided to be just USERS and to not get fully involved.
See what I mean, If they were not users then they probably wouldnt be on
packet in the 1st place, not everyone has the desire to set a system up
so that they can leave kit sat there doing nothing day in day out.
it wont be long before I close the last 3 RF ports on GB7FCR as the
number of users dosent warrant leaving them on
1 user on 2mtrs
1 user on 4mtrs
1 bbs on 70cms
once those 2 users loose intrest or the radios pack up and the other bbs
gives up the ghost then the radios/tnc's will be shut down and the kit
sold off to aid in the running of the telnet side of the bbs which is
more popular than ever, its busy all the time and has over 80 regular
users that all want to keep in touch with their friends via packet
I havent had a single new user on RF despite the fact the bbs had
several ports giving a wide coverage of the area for over 2 years, and
slowly but surley the RF ports that have gone silent have been switched
off and the kit sold off on ebay as there was no point in keeping
several radios / tnc's sat gathering dust, if the intrest was there the
RF ports would be
busy, but theres little to no intrest in packet over RF, at least not in
this part of the country..
73
Trev,
SysOp gb7fcr.#16.gbr.eu
E-Mail trev@gb7fcr.co.uk
Packet Radio <-> InterNet Gateway
RF & Telnet access
BBS Web Site http://www.gb7fcr.co.uk
WinPack Web Site http://www.winpack.org.uk
Message timed: 17:33 on 11 Jun 09
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