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There is a web-site that is replaying Usenet from exactly 30 years ago
(currently late 1981). The site is:

http://www.olduse.net

The old-style VT/ANSI terminal interface is a nice touch. I don't
recognize the software it is emulating. It's not rn, for example. Is
it readnews? It appears to closely resemble the Elm mail client.

If you prefer to use your own newsreader, the site also supports an NNTP
server at:

nntp.olduse.net

I checked out net.ham-radio. The only user name I recognized was Phil
Karn, KA9Q (though I did recognize references to non-Usenet third
parties like Dr. Tom Clark, W3IWI, and King Hussein of Jordan, JY1). At
that point, if you were on Usenet, you either had a UUCP (dialup,
Unix-to-Unix Copy) connection, or were at a University or military site.
Even the user who was relaying ARRL bulletins was receiving them
manually on a fixed schedule via HF radioteletype, capturing the text on
an early Heathkit PC, and uploading the text to the newsgroup. There
were a lot of references to "read this magazine" or "read this
newsletter" for more detailed information external to the newsgroup.
The World-Wide Web would not invented until over a decade later, and
dial-up UUCP links did not support easy file retrieval. Even if you had
a direct TCP/IP link to the larger Internet, so-called "anonymous FTP"
sites like Simtel20 at the White Sands Missile Range were not as
information-rich as websites today, and their contents were not keyword
indexed. As recently as the early 90's, I recall some users like KA9Q
even going down to the FCC reading room on M Street in Washington DC to
read hardcopy comments on petitions.

The ARRL may have had a cable address, and like any other office could
receive telegrams, but I believe that 1981 predates any E-mail presence
for the League, even via CompuServe or MCIMail. The arrl.org domain
wasn't even set up until the early 90's.

This is a far cry from today, where amateur radio organizations have web
sites with huge on-line databases of information, multiple departments
reachable via E-mail down to the specific person, and their bulletins
are automatically relayed to the rec.radio.* newsgroups when they are
received over a broadband TCP/IP connection via E-mail directly from the
sources.

- --
73, Paul W. Schleck, K3FU

http://www.novia.net/~pschleck/
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In article ,
Paul W. Schleck wrote:

There is a web-site that is replaying Usenet from exactly 30 years ago
(currently late 1981). The site is:

http://www.olduse.net

The old-style VT/ANSI terminal interface is a nice touch. I don't
recognize the software it is emulating. It's not rn, for example. Is
it readnews? It appears to closely resemble the Elm mail client.

If you prefer to use your own newsreader, the site also supports an NNTP
server at:

nntp.olduse.net

I checked out net.ham-radio.

Paul, is there a way to view net.ham-radio from the abovementioned
web interface, or does one have to use the NNTP interface? The web
interface is currently showing a message list from net.unix-wizards,
and I can't find any way to change it.


Patty

In Patty Winter
wrote:

Paul, is there a way to view net.ham-radio from the abovementioned
web interface, or does one have to use the NNTP interface? The web
interface is currently showing a message list from net.unix-wizards,
and I can't find any way to change it.

The "g" command will prompt you for a newsgroup; the "h" command will
display help, showing the various commands.

--
Bert Hyman W0RSB St. Paul, MN

In article ,
Bert wrote:

The "g" command will prompt you for a newsgroup; the "h" command will
display help, showing the various commands.

Oh, good heavens, I never thought to try keyboard commands on the
web interface!

Thanks, Bert, I have it now.


Patty

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In Patty Winter writes:


In article ,
Bert wrote:

The "g" command will prompt you for a newsgroup; the "h" command will
display help, showing the various commands.

Oh, good heavens, I never thought to try keyboard commands on the
web interface!

Thanks, Bert, I have it now.


Patty


Yeah, I thought at first that it was an embedded Java applet, but it
appears to instead be a JavaScript application to emulate a glass TTY
"dumb" terminal running a plain-text screen newsreader.

What's fascinating is the economy of words in these old articles, mostly
no more than a paragraph or two, that still convey a lot of useful
information. Now, I'm sure that part of this is due to the limitations
of communications capacity and data entry schemes in affordable
computers of that era (glass or even paper TTY's, transfer of data on
low-capacity floppy disks, etc.), but some of it is certainly also our
historic training and inculturation as radio operators to be clear,
brief, and to the point. I think that we can still learn from these
early examples of "on-line" interaction.

- --
73, Paul W. Schleck, K3FU

http://www.novia.net/~pschleck/
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On 12/20/11 1:18 PM, Paul W. Schleck wrote:

What's fascinating is the economy of words in these old articles, mostly
no more than a paragraph or two, that still convey a lot of useful
information. Now, I'm sure that part of this is due to the limitations
of communications capacity and data entry schemes in affordable
computers of that era (glass or even paper TTY's, transfer of data on
low-capacity floppy disks, etc.), but some of it is certainly also our
historic training and inculturation as radio operators to be clear,
brief, and to the point. I think that we can still learn from these
early examples of "on-line" interaction.

I spent some time reviewing net.general, which at that point in time was
low enough volume that everyone was expected to read it. In general the
same economy of words is true, tho there's some complaining that
excessive volume wastes precious bandwidth. One image file attached to
one email in today's world would probably be more bytes than a month's
worth of Usenet back then, but people were actually paying long-distance
charges to make it happen.

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be anything new on the server
now. Maybe this is due to a gap in the data that he's "re-playing" or
maybe it's a symptom of something more serious.

It sure is a different world today than it was 30 years ago, in many ways.

73, Steve KB9X

Paul wrote:
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In Patty Winter writes:


In article ,
Bert wrote:

The "g" command will prompt you for a newsgroup; the "h" command will
display help, showing the various commands.

Oh, good heavens, I never thought to try keyboard commands on the
web interface!

Thanks, Bert, I have it now.


Patty


Yeah, I thought at first that it was an embedded Java applet, but it
appears to instead be a JavaScript application to emulate a glass TTY
"dumb" terminal running a plain-text screen newsreader.

What's fascinating is the economy of words in these old articles, mostly
no more than a paragraph or two, that still convey a lot of useful
information. Now, I'm sure that part of this is due to the limitations
of communications capacity and data entry schemes in affordable
computers of that era (glass or even paper TTY's, transfer of data on
low-capacity floppy disks, etc.), but some of it is certainly also our
historic training and inculturation as radio operators to be clear,
brief, and to the point. I think that we can still learn from these
early examples of "on-line" interaction.


Ummm, no.

Posts were kept short and to the point mostly because in the early days
USENET was propagated by UUCP, which for those that don't remember,
was direct dial up, low speed, modem communications usually incurring
telephone long distance charges for the calls.

The long distance calls were usually batch queued for the middle of the night
when the telphone rates were lowest.

Verbose posts were not looked upon favorably and if a UUCP node persisted
in using up a lot of telephone time, they could find their node dropped
by those that had to pay the bills.



--
Jim Pennino

Remove .spam.sux to reply.

In article , Steve Bonine wrote:

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be anything new on the server
now. Maybe this is due to a gap in the data that he's "re-playing" or
maybe it's a symptom of something more serious.

I hope it keeps progressing. A few more years, and my postings will
start showing up. :-) (I think I got on Usenet about 1985.)


Patty

On 12/21/2011 1:59 PM, Patty Winter wrote:
In , Steve wrote:

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be anything new on the server
now. Maybe this is due to a gap in the data that he's "re-playing" or
maybe it's a symptom of something more serious.

I hope it keeps progressing. A few more years, and my postings will
start showing up. :-) (I think I got on Usenet about 1985.)


Patty

As long as it's before the renaming, I'm safe! ;-)

Hmm, come to think of it, maybe not: there was a Usenet interface at
Northeastern in 1981, and my ID might be out there.

I wonder if w1ac.ampr.org appears anywhere?

Bill, W1AC


--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)

In Patty Winter
wrote:

In article , Steve Bonine
wrote:

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be anything new on the server
now. Maybe this is due to a gap in the data that he's "re-playing" or
maybe it's a symptom of something more serious.

I hope it keeps progressing. A few more years, and my postings will
start showing up. :-) (I think I got on Usenet about 1985.)

Google's group search can find posts in the net.* hierarchy, although if
you select "sort by date," the search always fails to find anything.

http://groups.google.com/advanced_search?q=&

--
Bert Hyman W0RSB St. Paul, MN