I'd like to just clarify for everyone what I know and have done in ham radio.

I was very active in local clubs and field days, was in ARES and RACES, had portable "Go" kits and all that. I realize now that what put me "off" ham radio was not so much the lack of knowledge or interest, it was that ham radio transitioned from cutting edge global communications tool to local emergency backup system fairly quickly, and more importantly, all of the really cool stuff moved into the commercial area and away from the hobbyist.

I mean, really, when my son can video chat with me from a cheap "netbook" when I'm in Amsterdam, sending text at 9,600 baud isn't really all that thrilling.

Where my interest was/is right now is in building ad-hoc long and short range medium-band interoperable wireless data networks that could replace/augment standard internet infrastructure in an emergency and allow for the use of standardized software such as web browsers & instant messenger clients.

Anyway I'm looking at Winlink and such. Fairly neat stuff, and it's really exactly what I want to be doing with Ham radio.