Internet today what's left for hobbiests 2417

Whilst in theory that is true in practise it is not. so true. Much of human progress is based on incremental design If you look at Ham radio as other have done, in the past if you were going to design a new radio you could look at existing designs, decide what you thought needed ot be changed, and then build a transmitter-receiver or whatever. So every one who, for example built a G2DAF SSB station could vary it as they wanted...

Now much of the progress has been into the digital domain. Whilst the circuit might be available you won;t get to see the software source code. Just look at the two most widely used internet tools, ECHOLINK complete closed box systems. ECHOLINK is a complete pain because it won't work well in a NAT environment with multiple users, and because its closed no one can modify the protocol so the servers store port numbers.

At least with Echolink you can build your own interface boards. With IRLP there is very little you can do. they even specify the exact version on Linux you have to run. You have to buy the link hardware from them. How this is "self training in Radio Communications" is beyond me..

So its hard to see how we might make progress, any one who wants to dabble has to start from scratch.....

Dave