[ih] Origins of Go-Back-N

[Bill Ricker]

On Sun, Nov 14, 2021 at 4:08 PM Jack Haverty via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> There was a protocol used between two stations to move a message. It was
> partly formal protocol,  partly informal traditions.
>
> A message was similar to an email today but only had one destination.
> Q-codes were used, as well as short interactions between stations.
>

Change WAS to IS.
The ARRL National Traffic System still exists and functions.
It's a backup system i hope we never need in the mainland USA,
but it remains useful after e.g. Caribean hurricanes.
  http://www.arrl.org/chapter-one-national-traffic-system

interference or staiic, the receiver might send "AA <something>".   "AA"
> meant All After, i.e., he received everything up to the <something>,


And indeed, it is pronounced ALL AFTER on "phone" (voice) modes.

> This was all part of a rather elaborate continent-wide system which
> created a wide-area radio "internet".


Still operating. Transcontinental Corps (TCC) moves "Traffic"
aka Radiogram Messages between Regions 0-9; Region nets
feed TCC and route messages to metro areas, and local nets
(often on FM voice repeaters but also cloud-warmer HF CW Morse
and AX-25 Packet Radio message boards)
get the message to a Ham NTS operator in the local phone
dialing region of the addressee.
TCC and Regions can use both "Original Digital" Morse Code and
modern digital modes.
(Which is easier than in pre-deregulation days! but local public relations
are still good)

  It was legally limited to US
> destinations, but included military installations such as GITMO
> (Guantanamo Bay).


There is now a list of countries with which State Dept has negotiated Third
Party Traffic Agreements.
And in disasters, they usually get a short term waiver with other countries
to
get their Red Cross "I'm ok but the phone's out" messages delivered to
stateside relatives.

  Much of the messages handled were for military
> service people communicating with their families.


Yes, NTS had good relations with MARS (Military Amateur Radio System) in
the old days,
and delivered for / routed to MARS stations for soldiers overseas.
(MARS stations were run as a hobby-service by soldiers on their personal
time.)

MARS also provided free phonecalls home via HF AM or SSB to phone-patch
(again seeking a Ham volunteer in local dialing area if possible, but
SEN Barry Goldwater K7UGA's MARS stations AFA7UGA & AGA6BG,
staffed by volunteers at his mansion 7x24, would place the tollcall from
there
if no one in the right Area Code or local dialing area could be found.

  In the era before
> cell phones and the Internet, amateur radio was sometimes the only way
> to communicate.
>

Yes indeed. And when the infrastructure is down, the Sat Phone or Satellite
Internet
is the only alternative still.

> Sounds a lot like the Internet?
>


> I was the "radio expert" we used at MIT in that project to build an
>

If you haven't followed, you'll be relieved to hear that W1XM/W1MX
successfully rallied alumni etc to save the Green Bldg Radome
(which EE and Meteorology Depts were ready to remove, and
would have likely have compromised the W1XM VHF+ station).

I was located in EPA - Eastern Pennsylvania.


73 OM de N1VUX EMA

-- 
Bill Ricker
bill.n1vux at gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/n1vux