karn@thumper.bellcore.com (Phil R. Karn) (12/31/89)
I was interested to read of the claim that the BBS in Estonia is the first in the USSR. This is incorrect. Earlier this year, an amateur packet radio bulletin board system was established in Moscow with the callsign RA3AT. I believe it can be accessed over HF radio through a HF/VHF gateway switch also in Moscow. Amateur packet radio technology was first known to have been used in the Soviet Union during the Soviet/Canadian SKITREK arctic expedition of 1988. Donated amateur packet equipment was also delivered to Moscow a year ago for use in Armenian earthquake relief efforts. I also know that my TCP/IP package for the PC has found its way into the USSR, so it probably won't be long until we see the first Soviet site on the (amateur radio) Internet. Maybe I can persuade them to name one of their machines "kremvax". :-) Phil
sfmtmoscow@cdp.uucp (01/02/90)
Yes, correct. But Estonia BBS is the first for public access. It is very long story about packet radio in the USSR. Right now there is a net in Armenia for coordination of several projects. Leo Labutin was the first who open a packet link between Soviet Amateur Center and the Institute for Automated Systems. Now we plan to continue these experiments, but after we received a permission from Soviet PTT and frequency. (Not amateur frequency.) Thanks, Andrei
dave@lll-crg.llnl.gov (Dave Hughes) (01/02/90)
In article <2494@accuvax.nwu.edu>, karn@thumper.bellcore.com (Phil R. Karn) writes: > I was interested to read of the claim that the BBS in Estonia is the > first in the USSR. This is incorrect. Earlier this year, an amateur > packet radio bulletin board system was established in Moscow with the > callsign RA3AT. I believe it can be accessed over HF radio through a > HF/VHF gateway switch also in Moscow. Well Phil, I knew, from my contacts with the local packet radio ham community - such as Andy Freeborn, President of the Tuscon group (TAPR) and Bdale Garbee - that there had been such packet radio bbs set up in Moscow. But it requires a ham license! And for years I have struggled with the contrast that modem users can be anybody, while packet radio users have to be licensed hams, or use pretty pricey commercial systems. So, yes the Packet BBS was the 1st - but only for a closed group. The Estonian BBS is 1st for just about anybody. I did something about that, by going out to get a business packet radio license for my area, and then assembling amateur-design packet controllers with low cost commercial radios. And *then* doing a 'patch arrangement' whereby the base station, instead of terminating with a computer (BBS) terminated with a properly configured modem, so I could go out to any other modem-answering system. (In fact we have had a company make a set of packet controllers with radios and modems to our specifications under our label). An 'extender' of phone modem communications via packet to a field or mobile location. Rather than just phone to phone, or radio to radio. But computer to radio to radio to phone to computer. Which seems to me to be one of the few practical answers for a lot of countries which do not have good enough telephone service. As well as many places in the US where either phone service is poor, party lines exist, or costs to extend phone service is prohibitive, or the cost of phone service itself is prohibitive. Such as in about every school in the world. If that Estonian BBS was packet-radio connected to Moscow at say, 9600 baud, terminating in a radio-packet-modem-Moscow-phone callable direct dial from the US, the noise would be less of a problem, and even the costs would be less (direct dial rather than operater assisted, which is about $7.00 for the first three minutes). But what is it going to take to get recognition that packet radio as (1) a general communications service (2) as an extender of phone-modem service is a desirable communications policy goal, not only for the US (FCC) but for PTT's elsewhere? And get laws and regulations amended accordingly. The solution cannot be for everyone to go get a ham license, code or no code - since one cannot do business over such nets, or encrypt to give even rudimentary privacy. (And the Estonian BBS is for business more than anything else.) You hams have done a wonderful job inventing the technology of packet radio, but the Berlin Wall of Licensing-Use-Policy is still up. Dave Hughes dave@oldcolo.uucp