[aprssig] TM-D700A MANAULS ECTS

[Wes Johnston, AI4PX]

Really and truely.... there was a day before aprs when everyone used
connected mode packet.  Many of the things that Julien mentions bring
back to mind the tools we used in those days.  Not that they were bad
tools at all, but we have become so accustomed to having our PC's or
d700's decode each packet for us and many of us have forgotten about
the other modes available in a TNC.  Or how to run a TNC from a
terminal program.  (anyone remember using monochome TTY terminals for
packet?  I had a Wyse).

I can remember when I was fascinated watching the guys in the
Chattanooga TN area jokingly give their TNCs aliases like Saturn,
Jupiter and Mars and changing their UI paths to route packets thru all
three in a big unconnected UI frame chat room.  It never dawned on me
(or them at the time) that they could have named all the digipeaters
with the same alias... that inspiration I suppose goes to Bob B.

I'm sure many newcomers to ham radio might not even know that
connected mode once existed commonly on air.  And knowing conv mode
and connected mode would certainly aid in their understanding of the
path specifications we use now in aprs.  I mean heck, I had completely
forgotten about mailboxes and hadn't thought about using one for
literally 10 or 11 years.

Heck I still remember being excited to come home from work and see the
mail led blinking on the TNC and reading messages from friends in
germany.  Of course it took days to get a message thru the bbs systems
(thanks ALLUS forsale messages) and by the time the satellite keps
made it to my local bbs they were over a week old usually, but still
it was exciting!

Much of Julien's information is old hat to many on this list, but I'd
say that 1/3 of the people would appreciate the reminder of all the
hoops we can make a TNC jump thru, and another 1/3 are newbies who can
stand to be exposed to this info anyway.

Keep it coming Julien... it's a good effort!
Wes