Yes, ham radio is still very much a "thing". But to me, the one "thing" it never has been is the purchasing of closed, proprietary software that can be turned off at whim by the developer.
To me, ham radio has always been a unique hands-on opportunity to learn what's "behind the knobs" of a piece of communications hardware (or now, software). Even if you don't build (or write) your own stuff, even if you're primarily interested in using it to talk to others, it still gives you (or should give you) the oppo
I'm in the process of packing up my house, preparing to move, and I found a 5-1/4" disk in a box. The label says it's Phil Karn's KA9Q TCP/IP stack, copyright 1987. A friend of mine and I used it to learn TCP/IP networking by squirting modem tones thru radios back in 1988. It was kind of a weird time in my life. I wasn't really college ready, so I had a bunch of work to do in a junior college just to get in to a University. I could have very easily given up and wandered away and become an electrician.
Hey, if you can read that disk, could you put it on the net somewhere? I didn't keep copies of all the earlier versions of my software. It'd be neat to see which one you got.
Hey, if you can read that disk, could you put it on the net somewhere?
I'm afraid I'd be hard pressed to come up with even a 3-1/2 inch floppy drive at this point, even if I wasn't packing up my house. I'm not sure it will be readable. It was stored in a 5-land garage for 10+ years, and an inland 6-land garage for the 10 years prior to that. If I can't find a way to read it, I'll toss it in the mail to your station address.
Ham Radio? (Score:0, Funny)
That's still a thing?
Re: (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm in the process of packing up my house, preparing to move, and I found a 5-1/4" disk in a box. The label says it's Phil Karn's KA9Q TCP/IP stack, copyright 1987. A friend of mine and I used it to learn TCP/IP networking by squirting modem tones thru radios back in 1988. It was kind of a weird time in my life. I wasn't really college ready, so I had a bunch of work to do in a junior college just to get in to a University. I could have very easily given up and wandered away and become an electrician.
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You're welcome!
Hey, if you can read that disk, could you put it on the net somewhere? I didn't keep copies of all the earlier versions of my software. It'd be neat to see which one you got.
Re:Ham Radio? (Score:2)
Hey, if you can read that disk, could you put it on the net somewhere?
I'm afraid I'd be hard pressed to come up with even a 3-1/2 inch floppy drive at this point, even if I wasn't packing up my house. I'm not sure it will be readable. It was stored in a 5-land garage for 10+ years, and an inland 6-land garage for the 10 years prior to that. If I can't find a way to read it, I'll toss it in the mail to your station address.