4 ms·

It’s frustrating that they paint the unused space as evidence of of abandonment, but the reality is that it’s been impossible to use any of this address space!

entropea 7y ago
I didn't even know about it until yesterday! It's kept quiet and secret I guess. As a ham for 10 years now, I totally would've used this for projects if I could've got allocated space. I believe http://hamwan.org/ http://hamwan.org/ is on 44.0.0.0.
- dev_dull 7y ago
  Hanlon's razor says to give this organization the benefit of a doubt, but to see this space go up for sale makes me sad.
- cstejerean 7y ago
  Well it’s not too late, they only sold a /10 of the /8
- mac01021 7y ago
  As someone who does not know any more about ham radio than can be inferred from "Contact" and "Stranger Things", I'm curious to know what kind of projects you would have used it for.
  - TrueDuality 7y ago
    There are a lot of digital interconnect systems operating on HAM bands. Personally for me I've been part of the ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services) network for a while. A lot of that volunteer work is getting communication up and running to people in places that have been hit by natural disasters. Normally this involves HAM with mobile rigs driving into the affected areas and acting as a hub to get messages out. Currently this is a voice service "Hey WXXX, I've got a message for the Adam Smith at phone number 555-555-1234. Jane and her family made out of the flood and are unharmed. They're going to try and find a ride to your home in the next couple of days." This is very error prone and would likely benefit from having a reliable digital service available. It would be valuable at least IMHO to have repeaters that operate as part of the ARES network be vetted and given a tunnel to a public address like this. It's not much but having a recognized digital presence that could be used as an identifier not only for contacting loved ones in distress but also by organizations such as FEMA to distinguish random emails from volunteers on the ground trying to get specific assistance might be useful. This was kinda just my first wish list item when I thought of how I could use some public space so maybe there are better ideas out there.
- Zardoz84 7y ago
  I didn't ham radio (beyond building a regenerative receptor), but my father was very active on 80's. Him and a few others, build a computer network using ham transceptors and something called "digipiper". I remember saying that had a small BBS on it, running on a 286.
- dfawcus 7y ago
  Well, I've known of it for 30 years. Since starting with AX.25 to a TNC, then playing with KA9Q NOS. So it isn't really a secret. As I understand it, the range was supposed to only be used for Ham to Ham comms, so if routed (generally tunneled) over the Internet, was only supposed to be to other Hams. Certainly there are people with ACLs expecting that 44.0.0.0/8 will never be sent to the Internet, nor received from the Internet. So it has in effect been a bit like a shared RFC1918 space, but for Hams alone. Moreover those in the know probably have it in their Bogon filers, I certainly do. So it may not yet be as usable as Amazon hope.
  - icedchai 7y ago
    People considering it a bogon are simply wrong. 44.0.0.0/8 has been routed on the internet for decades. If you register a subnet, you can even announce it with BGP just like any other. Also note that ampr.org (not www.ampr.org) resolves to a 44 IP.

entropea 7y ago

I didn't even know about it until yesterday! It's kept quiet and secret I guess. As a ham for 10 years now, I totally would've used this for projects if I could've got allocated space. I believe http://hamwan.org/ http://hamwan.org/ is on 44.0.0.0.

dev_dull 7y ago
Hanlon's razor says to give this organization the benefit of a doubt, but to see this space go up for sale makes me sad.
cstejerean 7y ago
Well it’s not too late, they only sold a /10 of the /8
mac01021 7y ago
As someone who does not know any more about ham radio than can be inferred from "Contact" and "Stranger Things", I'm curious to know what kind of projects you would have used it for.
- TrueDuality 7y ago
  There are a lot of digital interconnect systems operating on HAM bands. Personally for me I've been part of the ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services) network for a while. A lot of that volunteer work is getting communication up and running to people in places that have been hit by natural disasters. Normally this involves HAM with mobile rigs driving into the affected areas and acting as a hub to get messages out. Currently this is a voice service "Hey WXXX, I've got a message for the Adam Smith at phone number 555-555-1234. Jane and her family made out of the flood and are unharmed. They're going to try and find a ride to your home in the next couple of days." This is very error prone and would likely benefit from having a reliable digital service available. It would be valuable at least IMHO to have repeaters that operate as part of the ARES network be vetted and given a tunnel to a public address like this. It's not much but having a recognized digital presence that could be used as an identifier not only for contacting loved ones in distress but also by organizations such as FEMA to distinguish random emails from volunteers on the ground trying to get specific assistance might be useful. This was kinda just my first wish list item when I thought of how I could use some public space so maybe there are better ideas out there.
Zardoz84 7y ago
I didn't ham radio (beyond building a regenerative receptor), but my father was very active on 80's. Him and a few others, build a computer network using ham transceptors and something called "digipiper". I remember saying that had a small BBS on it, running on a 286.
dfawcus 7y ago
Well, I've known of it for 30 years. Since starting with AX.25 to a TNC, then playing with KA9Q NOS. So it isn't really a secret. As I understand it, the range was supposed to only be used for Ham to Ham comms, so if routed (generally tunneled) over the Internet, was only supposed to be to other Hams. Certainly there are people with ACLs expecting that 44.0.0.0/8 will never be sent to the Internet, nor received from the Internet. So it has in effect been a bit like a shared RFC1918 space, but for Hams alone. Moreover those in the know probably have it in their Bogon filers, I certainly do. So it may not yet be as usable as Amazon hope.
- icedchai 7y ago
  People considering it a bogon are simply wrong. 44.0.0.0/8 has been routed on the internet for decades. If you register a subnet, you can even announce it with BGP just like any other. Also note that ampr.org (not www.ampr.org) resolves to a 44 IP.