What is the history of packet radio ?
Data packet technology was developed in the mid-1960’s and was put into practical application in the ARPANET which was established in 1969. Initiated in 1970, the ALOHANET, based at the University of Hawaii, was the first large-scale packet radio project. Amateur packet radio began in Montreal, Canada in 1978, the first transmission occurring on May 31st. This was followed by the Vancouver Amateur Digital Communication Group (VADCG) development of a Terminal Node Controller (TNC) in 1980. The current TNC standard grew from a discussion in October of 1981 at a meeting of the Tucson Chapter of the IEEE Computer Society. A week later, six of the attendees gathered and discussed the feasibility of developing a TNC that would be available to amateurs at a modest cost. The Tucson Amateur Packet Radio Corporation (TAPR) formed from this project. On June 26th 1982, Lyle Johnson, WA7GXD, and Den Connors, KD2S, initiated a packet contact with the first TAPR unit. The project progressed from thes
