I also grew up in a time of pre-internet, pre-packet and pre-chat
room, pre-twitter and all the rest. While it might be interesting to
visit that time again, even for a short period of time, I just don't
see it happening.
Consider recent world events as an example of a government trying to
shut down the Internet. They pulled the plugs on routers, links, etc.
in an effort to shut things down. Despite all that, folks still
managed to connect to the outside world. Therein lies the problem.
There would need to be a concerted, world-wide effort to try and
everything down. And not everyone wants to see that happen. To what
end?
There is no magic 'off' switch to shut things down, then once the
experiment is over, hit the 'on' button to return things to their
previous (working) state. It would be a massive undertaking by a lot
of people to turn everything off. Once its powered down, it would be
a similar, massive effort to start things up again. What about links
that have been put in place, and have been long since forgotten about?
What if the person who put it in place in now a silent key, or is
using facilities that he no longer has access to/control of. As an
example - put in an Internet link at work, then retire. If/when it
fails, someone may notice and build a new route to work around the
failed link. Until that happens, it "just works", so no need to touch
it.
What happens if after all the effort to shut down a whole bunch of
gear, it does not start back up again? Chances are there WILL be
problems.
There was a recent article about how its a bad idea to reboot a unix
server (unlike a Windows server) as a troubleshooting aid. Namely -
they get powered down so rarely, chances are config files may have
changed/been deleted/whatever, and the machine will fail to start up
clean if/when its powered down. More effort to clean up problems that
well - just don't need to be looked at until they NEED to be looked
at.
I usually run un-assisted, but even so, packet has an effect on my
efforts. Just tune the bands, and look for a pileup. Spend a few
minutes finding the object of all that interest (even without looking
at the cluster), and presto - target acquired sans packet.
I do like the idea of "OK everyone - close your eyes and don't USE
packet this weekend". Good luck with that. Because that is really
what you are telling (not asking) people to do. And, I just don't see
that happening.
Tom - VE3CX
On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 9:30 AM, N7mal <n7mal@citlink.net> wrote:
> I don't often, if ever, agree with Hans, K0HB, but this time he has hit the
> nail on the head.
> More than 20 years ago I was an early packet-cluster sysop. That means there
> is a whole generation of hams who know nothing but the clusters. Then
> there's another generation of hams who have just become 'flat-out' lazy in
> their contesting and DXing efforts. They have completely forgotten the term
> S&P. If their local cluster goes down they hyperventilate. No I'm not
> nostalgic for the good 'ole' days because I'm connected to VE7CC 24/7. I
> also don't think turning off technology will mean the end of ham radio.
> Put me down as 100% in............
> 73
>
>
> MAL
> N7MAL
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