[NTLUG:Discuss] wireless network

[Jack Snodgrass]

On Tue, 22 Jul 2003 21:18:32 -0500, terry wrote:

> Jack Snodgrass wrote:
>>I had the FCC come to my house once when I did 9600 Baud 
>>Packet Radio. I was the first one in the DFW Area to set 
>>up a 9600 Baud packer radio link.
>>
>> They wanted to know what the 
>>'static' was that I was broadcasting. They thought it was 
>>interesting that I'd send a burst of static... and then the 
>>other end of the link would send back a burst of static. 
>>I'd respond it and went on and on.  I was located in 
>>Grapevine and the other end of the Link was in Denton. 
>>
>>The FCC has unmarked cars. The directional antennas that they 
>>use are built into the columns that the car roof sits on. 
>>Pretty stealthy. I would have expected a truck with lots of 
>>antennas....
>>
> Interesting ...
> How long ago was this?

it was around 93... give or take a couple of years.

> What did they do to you?

nothing. we just talked. The local FCC guys had never heard
9600baud packet before. It was a pretty wide signal, so with 
a voice radio, you just heard burst of static. You had to 
modify your radio to bypass a lot of the voice filters in 
order to run 9600b. The 1200b stuff ran ok with the normal 
voice filters enabled. He thought that it might be 9600b 
packet but wasn't sure. He was just confirming. He wanted 
to know where the other end of the link was.... he said he
knew it was north of our location, but becuase the single
was just small burst... it was hard to pinpoint. 

> What frequencies did you use?
it was 2mtrs. 145.something. It was close to a freq that the head FCC
guy used. That where/why he heard it and had one of his guys check it 
out. 

> Were you licensed to transmit on those frequencies?
> ( CQ DE KJ5ZR )
yea.... but 9600b in the 2mrt range was bit of a gray area.;) 
this was part of a Internet Wormhole that I had setup at UNT. 
We'd hit UNT with 1200b or 9600b, use a Tunnel over the Internet 
to other sites at different parts of the world/country and pop
back out over the air. It was pretty slick. 

73's de ex kf5mg