I recently came across this old map of the various packet nodes in Ireland back in 1994 (Click on the image to see the full size version).
In today's world of smartphones and tablets, it's easy to forget about what a big deal packet radio was back then. In 1994, most people weren't on the Internet and the only source of information was via email at work or via magazines and books.
The killer 'app' at the time if it could be called that, was the DX-Cluster. When it was working properly, it allowed people to see for the first time what was happening on the bands and what others were hearing.
From what I remember, I started using packet radio back in the early 90's with an old DIGITAL computer terminal, a PK-88 TNC and a really old PYE 2m radio.
1994 may well have marked the peak of packet radio in Ireland. A few years later as more people got access to the Internet, the packet radio network went into decline. The 1200 bits per second speed back then seemed fine at the time but it was arcane compared to say a dial up modem let alone the megabit fibre connections of today.
Today, packet is used mainly for APRS (Automatic Packet/Position Reporting System) where stations sent out an identification bursts every few minutes. A map of Irish stations on APRS can be seen HERE.
