Wayne.B wrote in
:

I was under the impression that a Pactor II was capable of operating
in packet mode.

Is that incorrect ?



I've never had contact with that proprietary modem so can't answer your
question. Packet is open to any manufacturer, so I suppose it should be
possible with a Pactor II modem.

The packets APRS uses are the broadcast packets just sent out in the blind.
There's no ACKs so you never know whether anyone received them or not or
whether they crashed with someone over your horizon. So, it sends them out
often. AIS' time-slot scheme is far superior to APRS in this respect.
It's nice to know everyone else's transmitter is quiet while you're
transmitting. But, unlike APRS, every packet station is a digipeater you
can put in your path, plus the packet repeaters all with the same tactical
callsign that go off if you're in their range. APRS propagates very well
through these, as is evident by findu's very long range, mostly on VHF.