One thing the AX25 headers do is ensure Part 97 (or your local equiv.)
compliance. No doubt, there are other ways of ID'ing, but this one
does tend to be compatible with most existing hardware. I think the
prior arguments were that the key-down/key-up delays tended to swamp
out that overhead.
>I remember reading a discussion about this recently -- does your
>part 97 actually say you must use AX.25 for packet? That's a bit surprising.
I really doubt it does. At one point, i thought about sending raw Apple
LocalTalk packets, and just having each Mac (or compatible PC) emit an
ID packet every five minutes. It runs at a decently fast speed and
requires no external hardware other than level shifting to whatever the
modem/radio used.
I haven't had a chance to digest the original material, so this is just
a quick follow-up on the easier question(s).
-- KD6PAG (Networking Old-Timer, Satellite QRPer)