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Re: why do people persist with AX.25 when more robust modes now exist?

 

Hi David,
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Here is another map of AX.25 activity I maintain out of love for packet. This one is for North America:



With over 110,000 views in the last couple of years, I'd say there is a viable interest and resurgence in AX.25 packet.

You bring up some great questions. Packet has three great advantages over other digital modes: transparency,?error correction, and?automatic control. It is one of the first digital modes,?very easy to set up, variants of hardware and software are readily accessible, and makes a great "gateway mode" for beginners into other digital modes - and yes - it is nostalgic!

It's amazing how many VARA, IL2P and FX.25 advocates constantly feel they have to tell me that their modes are faster and better than AX.25. These "Jehovah Witnesses of Digital Modes" are absolutely correct! No argument from me. I applaud their inventors and innovations. These modes were not available to amateurs when AX.25 packet first came out. And now they are. Not the point though. Telling a packeteer to switch to VARA (which isn't even packet) because it's faster is like telling a CW operator to switch to voice because you can say more! LOL. My friend collects QSL cards for his wall. Should I tell him to collect eQSLs instead because it's cheaper? I think you see where I'm going with this...

As far as longevity, Network105 has been around since the 1980's and as long as there are TNCs, SoundCards and hams to operate them, I'm confident it will continue, just like slow-poke CW, RTTY, JS8Call, etc....
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Building and maintaining networks are fun. I ran a very successful packet contest in February. I will be doing that again with a few things other packet events up my sleeve.
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Stay tuned and have fun on packet and/or any digital mode that pleases you!
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73 de Prof. Chris Lance

Radio Station Manager
Mount Allamuchy Scout Reservation
"Keeping Packet Great!"
ARRL Life Member VOTA
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On 09/06/2023 4:28 PM EDT David, K7DMJ <davdj0nsn@...> wrote:
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Most of my attempts to using 300 baud AX.25 on 20m and 40m bands have been unsuccessful. That's just a personal observation. I know this stuff works just fine for a lot of other people. I'm probably just unfortunate in where I live (Utah) in relation to the main centers of packet activity in the US. But I'd like to know why people are still using AX.25 when there are more robust protocols like Vara and Robust Packet around. Is this because lots of packeteers are still using old hardware TNCs? Nostalgia? I managed to connect right away to a node in Utah using Vara (NS7K is on 7.0934 USB and runs BPQ32 to support a few different ports for Vara and PACTOR on HF and VHF AX.25). AX.25 on the other hand has been a dead loss for me. I'm not trying to be a smartass here. It just seems to me that the network would survive longer if more people were able to participate, which would be facilitated by using more robust modes.

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