[CQ-Contest] Original application of "spotting" network

[jpescatore at aol.com]

Here in PVRC-land, or what is known as the DMV (DC MD VA), Wayne N2FB and Frank W3LPL were the movers and shakers who got Packetcluster going in 1986 or 1987. We all chipped in dues to help cover some of the costs - I remember being an original "life" member for $100, I think - in addition to having to buy a TNC and another 2m radio!
I remember us sending Cluster messages around the first time there there was a screen full of spots in a day! The old 147.42 2M FM spotting frequency stayed active for a while but the clock was ticking... Nostalgia note: the first time I opped at the W3LPL multi, ops taking a break would listen to 147.42, write down the spots on scraps of paper and bring them over to each band and either work them or hand them to the secondary op if he was sitting there. Since Frank had a very high 2m antenna, it seemed like a lot of spots!
Dave KM3T had lived down here and moved up to YCCC-land. He and I used to find packet node links to actually talk between DC and Boston - horrendously slow, inefficient and fragile. We both worked at units of GTE and had internet connectivity - found much more efficient  Internet paths to communicate over, a sign of what would come.
I was largely inactive from 1996 to 2009 - when I got back on the air, much amazing new stuff was widely in use (Steppirs! K3S! N1MM!) but I was shocked by the mess the globally connected cluster network had become, as the spoofed spots thread pointed out again. But now add Skimmers! to the list! above.
73 John K3TN