Amateur TCP/IP Packet Radio Network

What is the AMPRnet?

The AMPRnet is the amateur equivalent of the internet, except the rates of transmission are much, much slower. Most of the AMPRnet is supposed to be made up of air links and these links are restricted to a maximum of 1200 baud. The hf links are even slower, 300 baud. These rates are alarmingly slow. You might wonder how such a network can function at all. Smoke signals might be faster...

However, much of the AMPRnet piggy-backs over the internet very much like a VPN (Virtual Private Network) except the amateur lines are not private. This greatly improves the long-haul traffic handling and it is just the "last mile" that is the bottleneck in the system, that 10 miles or so to your radio location...

The AMPRnet protocols extend the normal AX25 packet transmissions with the full support of TCP/IP. This greatly enchances the functionality of the network. Telnet, FTP, ping, even http are all supported and often built into the clients such as JNOS or TNOS. The price is greater "bandwidth" or simply put, larger packet transmissions which sometimes don't get through on the air.

On average, though, the AMPRnet is a very useful and busy network! As a Ham Radio Operator, you can have access to the world via the 44.xx.xx.xx links to just about anywhere! If you are not yet "attached" to this network, it is certainly worth the effort to do so... To find out more, please see the ampr.org index page.