> Ricochet... The basic model rental price is right, and they offer flat-rate > internet service @ 29.95/mo. Great, except that the coverage is limited as > of now. Considering that I will likely be spending a lot of my time in the > Pac NW, where most of their coverage is based, this is not necessarily a > terribly limiting factor. There are also airports scattered about with > service, apparently. Comments? Where they have service, it's great. I use one in the SF Bay Area all of the time with good success. There are some places where either the net or the reception is worse than others and thus transfer rates are low, but the packets still get through. > Amateur (packet) radio... I played with packet a bit a few years back, at > 1200 baud. Since then I've had scarcely any encounter with it. Most of > the web pages I've gone to are circa 1996, which is hardly up to date. > What is the status quo with packet? I had gotten a look at some internet > gateway listings, and it seems the coverage is extensive enough to render > this a definite option. Setup cost for a 9600 baud system (which would be > fine) seems to be close to the cost of a CDPD modem, for instance, but the > fact that there are no usage fees is what makes this look so much better. If you're conducting anything business oriented via email, you cannot use packet as it is part of the amateur service. I use it for APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System) but not for normal communication. I've heard mention that packet is losing favor, and your analysis of the web sites might indicate that as well. -David
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