What is Packet Radio (history)
Data packet technology was developed in the mid-1960's and was put into practical application in the ARPANET which was established in 1969. Initiated in 1970, the ALOHANET, based at the University of Hawaii, was the first large-scale packet radio project. Amateur packet radio began in Montreal, Canada in 1978, the first transmission occurring on May 31st. This was followed by the Vancouver Amateur Digital Communication Group (VADCG) development of a Terminal Node Controller (TNC) in 1980.
The current TNC standard grew from a discussion in October of 1981 at a meeting of the Tucson Chapter of the IEEE Computer Society. The project progressed from these first prototype units to the
TNC-1 and then finally to the TNC-2 which is now the basis for most packet operations worldwide.