[1] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

amateur packet radio
     
         pr the use of packet radio by amateurs to
        communicate between computers.  pr is a complete amateur radio
        computer network with "digipeaters" relays, mailboxes bbs
        and other special nodes.
     
        in germany, it is on hf, say, 2m 300 and 1200 bps, 70cm
        1200 to 9600 bps, 23cm normally 9600 bps and up, currently
        most links between digipeaters and higher frequencies.  there
        is a kw short wave packet radio at 300 bps, too.
     
        satellites with oscar orbiting sattelite carring amateur
        radio transponders mostly attached to commercial satellites
        by the amateur satellite amsat group carry packet radio
        mailboxes or digipeaters.
     
        there are both on-line and off-line services on the packet radio
        network: you can send electronic mail, read bulletins, chat,
        transfer files, connect to on-line dx-clusters dx=far
        distance to catch notes typed in by other hams about the
        hottest international kw connections currently coming up so
        you can pile up.
     
        pr uses ax.25 an x.25 derivative as its transport
        layer and sometimes even tcp/ip is transmitted over ax.25.
        ax.25 is like x.25 but the adressing uses ham "calls" like
        "dg8mgv".
     
        there are special "wormholes" all over the world which
        "tunnel" amateur radio traffic through the internet to
        forward mail.  sometimes mails travels over satelites.
        normally amateur satellites have strange orbits, however the
        mail forwarding or maibox satellites have very predictable
        orbits.  some wormholes allow hams to bridge from internet to
        ampr-net, e.g. db0fho.ampr.org or db0fho.et-inf.fho-emden.de,
        but only if you are registered ham.
     
        because amateur radio is not for profit, it must not be
        interconnected to the internet but it may be connected
        through the internet.  all people on the completely free
        amateur radio net must be licensed radio amateurs and must
        have a "call" which is unique all over the world.
     
        there is a special domain ampr.org 44... for amateur
        radio reserved in the ip space.  this domain is split between
        countries, which can further subdivide it.  for example
        44.130.. is germany, 44.130.58. is augsburg in bavaria,
        and 44.130.58.20 is dg8mgv.ampr.org you may verify this with
        nslookup.
     
        mail transport is only one aspect of packet radio.  you can
        talk interactively as in chat, read files, or play silly
        games built in the packet radio software.  usually you can use
        the autorouter to let the digipeater network find a path to
        the station you want.  however there are many sometimes
        software incompatible digipeaters out there, which the router
        cannot use.  paths over 1000 km are unlikely to be useable for
        real-time communication and long paths can introduce
        significant delay times answer latency.
     
        other uses of amateur radio for computer communication include
        rtty baudot, amtor, pactor, and clover.
     
        a huge hamradio archive ftp://ftp.ucsd.edu/hamradio/.
     
        usenet newsgroup: news:rec.radio.amateur.packet.
     
        2001-05-12
     
     
see also:
packet radio digipeaters electronic mail ax.25 x.25 transport layer 
tcp/ip internet ampr-net domain nslookup 
chat real-time rtty baudot amtor 
pactor clover lt;a huge hamradio archivegt; usenet lt;news:rec.radio.amateur.packetgt; 

Packet Radio >> P Words
Packet Radio, definition of term: Packet Radio
packet+radio_pag1.html

Amateur >> A Words
Amateur, definition of term: Amateur
amateur_pag1.html

Radio >> R Words
Radio, definition of term: Radio
radio_pag1.html

Packet >> P Words
Packet, definition of term: Packet
packet_pag1.html

Radio Station >> R Words
Radio Station, definition of term: Radio Station
radio+station_pag1.html

Radio Transmitt >> R Words
Radio Transmitt, definition of term: Radio Transmitt
radio+transmitt_pag1.html

Radio Wave >> R Words
Radio Wave, definition of term: Radio Wave
radio+wave_pag1.html

Radio Spectrum >> R Words
Radio Spectrum, definition of term: Radio Spectrum
radio+spectrum_pag1.html

Radio Announcer >> R Words
Radio Announcer, definition of term: Radio Announcer
radio+announcer_pag1.html

Packet Boat >> P Words
Packet Boat, definition of term: Packet Boat
packet+boat_pag1.html

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