I first discovered packet radio back in the early 90s, just after getting my amateur radio license. Although I enjoyed talking to other hams on the radio, the digital side of the hobby really did interest me.
Personal computers and internet access were fairly new at the time, well they were to me. I was lucky enough to buy a second hand Goldstar 80286/12 which came with an early version of MS-DOS and Windows 3.0. At the time, this was the best thing since sliced bread and I was fascinated.
I already had a suitable radio, an Alinco DR-112 that was on the 2 meter band, so I just needed to be able to connect the radio to the computer. I bought a Terminal Node Controller, which is similar to a modem, from a company called Siskin Electronics in Hythe. They also made up some connecting cables so I was good to go.
At the time, I lived in Hedge End nr Southampton and it was fairly good terrain for VHF communications. I now live in Salisbury which is surrounded by hills so getting an RF signal out isn't so easy.
Anyway, I now had the hardware for my packet radio station. I was also close to a a few Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) that I would want to connect my computer to via RF. If I remember correctly, GB7SOU and GB7XJZ were in the Southampton area and GB7SUN was in North End, Portsmouth.
At that time, it was a brilliant way to communicate and there were many people using the local BBSs.
There was also some great packet software about at the time but one of the best, for me, was Winpack. It was written Roger Barker G4IDE and was very popular. If I remember correctly, it would download the message headers from the packet BBS and allow you to view the ones that you were interested in reading..
Packet Radio : 30 years later
Fast forward to 2025 and I find that there is still some activity about. I recently connected to the APRS website https://aprs.fi and there are people still using packet radio.
Luckily I have a dual band collinear antenna mounted outside and I've been able to monitor some of this activity. I've been using an Anytone AT-D878UV11 Plus on 144.800MHz and some fabulous TNC software called Dire Wolf. The software has been written by WB2OSZ and this is being used with APRSISCE/32.
I will update my packet radio journey when I get some more time.
Andy - G7MJV