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The Hinternet Concept

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USPacket:
The Hinternet Concept
By Charles Brabham, N5PVL

We amateur radio operators are better off if we stay out of the internet services business.

What little of radio technology you might need to know in order to play isp with the WIFI stuff - the WIFI hobbyists are fully up to speed on. In fact they are way ahead of us, just as one would expect.

A few months back, for example, I read about a homebrew portable WIFI setup that featured a gain antenna on a motorized swivel that would automatically detect signals and ‘lock on’ to them by pointing the beam without human intervention. I’ve never heard of hams doing anything like that.

You have to give credit where credit is due, and understand that in the majority of cases, we would be better off to let the internet hobbyists handle the internet stuff, while we radio hobbyists concentrate on our specialty, amateur radio communications.

I feel that there is more to be gained from recognizing, respecting and working in cooperation with internet hobbyists than there is from trying to intrude into their area of expertise. The fact is that amateur radio has not offered a single innovation or service in this area that internet hobbyists cannot match. Due to this we are often seen as busybodies, resource and credit hogs who prevent more knowlegable internet hobbyists from doing the same job - better.

As amateur radio operators, every time we touch internet services, we injure and endanger our own hobby. I understand that internet hobbyists among us see this as the only definition of ‘progress’ for amateur radio, but the truth is that the various ‘hinternet’ projects have been holding back real progress in the development of amateur radio communications for decades, now.

More than that, the wrongheaded pursuit of ‘hinternet’ has brought on one regulatory threat to the hobby after another, attacking any section of PART97 that differentiates amateur radio from the internet or that might prevent a third-rate imitation of its features including email, content restrictions, encryption, and an artificial, contrived “need” for ultra-wide digital modes on HF ( PACTOR III ) that has brought us severe interference problems, divisiveness and controversy.

The hinternet concept has bred a large cadre of scofflaws within the hobby. - Scofflaws even at ARRL HQ, of all places. Scofflaws who make the CB’ers look positively benign because the CB’ers do not constantly attack the PART97 regulations or petition the FCC to eliminate any part of them.

Apparently, if we could arrainge to trade off the ‘hinternetters’ in amateur radio today for the same number of CB operators, we would be much better off.

Don’t you think that it’s about time we got over the internet and directed our attention back toward amateur radio?

I think there is a very good case for amateurs to recognize and work with internet hobbyists where issues of internet connectivity arise, dedicating the bulk of our own energies into what we do best - radio communications.

For my part, I would encourage a transfer of information between an independent amateur radio digital network and the internet, but not allow one network to transport the other one’s traffic under any circumstance beyond an extraordinary one, a dire emergency where the rules and regs become secondary in any case.

It has been noted many times that slavish adherence to a single standard tends to undercut and stifle any sort of innovation, most particularly in the digital world where a single bit placed or utilized differently can make one system incompatible with another. - The single standard being discussed here is the internet protocol, and how a fixation upon that single protocol has served to stifle, not fuel innovation within the amateur radio digital community for far too long. It’s been a dead-end rut, one that stifles our natural tendency to creativity and innovation.

Personally, I am through giving lip service to the ‘hinternet’ concept, and I’m not going to be too good about standing by anymore while others give it lip service either. - It is an ill-considered concept that has brought nothing but grief to the hobby, and it is about time that it be recognized as such.

So we can move on and get our sense of mission back in focus.

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