PTAWUG still active?

Gravedigger

Gravedigger

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Hi lads.

Is the PTAWUG group still active, or is the radio equipment still transmitting/advertising, but no-one's home?

My laptop caught a PTAWUG signal on 5Ghz the other day, not sure if the traffic still flows anymore, or has fibre killed PTAWUG?
I saw another post on here that someone who held PTAWUG together, has died?

I remember friends of mine who was big file sharer(s) and active community members of the PTAWUG sites. They were students, and were connected to the PTAWUG sites.

I really would like to connect back to a PTAWUG site and share. (I bought a 5Ghz TPLink PtP link device for a steal, those things the WISPs use)
 
Hello Mr Digger...:D

Unfortunately like video killed the radio star.. Fibre and Netflix killed the WUG.

And loadshedding.. But yeah become too much of a mission to keep the few services running for FREE.

Problem is also to replace kit (lightning kills a whole site) just became too expensive (R\$).

Finally people got families, other responsibilities and many people semi- migrated to the Cape...

Yeah was great while it lasted!

PM me where that last site was you picked up. (or you can post here). But no backbones left...
 
Probably I picked up a high site client sector. I will have to scan it again to make sure it is there.

I had worked for a WISP before, but is there anyone left to remove the radio equipment still on the high sites?

Maybe I can try to pinpoint the location of the high site with my 5Ghz skottel?
I sense a wardriving effort to be done soon...

I also remembered the other day,that I detected a faint signal of a PtaWUG client sector near my house in Centurion.

So probably a few high sites still pinging and alive, but no clients...
 
Shock to my knowledge at the time was the only one holding it all up and the servers to boot at his parent's place there in Centurion. Sadly when I was notified by his mom that he passed away there was no one left.
 
Went to the dump the other day and chucked my high site equipment that has been offline for a few years.
I guess there are still a few diehards out there but for the most part it is gone.
 
I see @protzkrog was last active on this forum in 2022 :crying:

CTWUG was also killed by cheap internet and fibre.
 
B-1 said:
Went to the dump the other day and chucked my high site equipment that has been offline for a few years.
I guess there are still a few diehards out there but for the most part it is gone.
Click to expand...
I also still have a mast full of equipment that have been unplugged for a number of years already ... now I'm getting back into Ham radio and also discovered Meshtastic so the mast will be repurposed soon.
 
Gravedigger said:
Such a shame, that I never met the man behind all the effort.
Click to expand...
B-1 said:
Went to the dump the other day and chucked my high site equipment that has been offline for a few years.
I guess there are still a few diehards out there but for the most part it is gone.
Click to expand...
dadecoza said:
I see @protzkrog was last active on this forum in 2022 :crying:

CTWUG was also killed by cheap internet and fibre.
Click to expand...

JP was a really good person, I don't know much of his personal afflictions but when I asked in 2019 how one could start a WISP and I contacted the admins (Shock) was the only one who gave equipment and helped me learn this indistry. I cannot convey to you all the greatest appreciation I have towards this fact. Running a WISP is complex business and the learning curve is quite steep if you don't know what to do it can become a nightmare. I remember my anitial conversation with him after he said the WUG would gladly help setup Pretoria WISP I was really shocked someone would help learn this and shared the same values as we do.

There was a plan to make the PTAWUG more formal and relevant, which would make it a great failover service. But at the time we were too small for it and when he passed so did all the contacts to highsites. Nowadays I find it rather difficult to get my network outside Pretoria East, but someone that has a 18m mast in the area came over the one day and said "Do you want a tower" so my hopes next year I can provide more of our services to those that need it. If you have a tower now, keep it who knows maybe I'll connect you to my network from it Haha

I always have said that our first tower would have a placard for everyone that helped me build what I am today. "Never forget those that answered the call to help"

I do recall the CPTWUG being opeartional, also might be very limited but I do remember seeing a website for it, try Google?
 
As someone who is younger and was a small child during the days of WUGs

I have been curious on the various city WUGs and how they work, what the purpose of it was and all the details

Even in Durban , I see some dishes still up and all around the area (northdene) I drive to work, this is an area with two FNOs so must have been for this purpose, some dishes have rusted over the years, and there is this one house with multiple dishes and massive ones.
 
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I loved the PTAWUG, it bridged the gap between the last time my ADSL line got stolen and wireless internet bandwidth becoming more affordable. The community was incredible, after damage to equipment people would come together to donate to get it back up and running again, usually took only weeks to get the funds together. Eventually the high site I got best signal to was moved and I no longer had perfect LOS and my connection would drop just out of useable limits too often for it to become reliable, then my LAN cable to my equipment got chewed up by a dog and I just never replaced it.
 
William1102 said:
As someone who is younger and was a small child during the days of WUGs

I have been curious on the various city WUGs and how they work, what the purpose of it was and all the details

Even in Durban , I see some dishes still up and all around the area (northdene) I drive to work, this is an area with two FNOs so must have been for this purpose, some dishes have rusted over the years, and there is this one house with multiple dishes and massive ones.
Click to expand...

I think some of the smaller dishes maybe, WANs, we have similar connectivity between our offices spread out across the same suburb. But, don't know the details of the setup.
 
dadecoza said:
I see @protzkrog was last active on this forum in 2022 :crying:

CTWUG was also killed by cheap internet and fibre.
Click to expand...
I remember seeing CTWUG dropping off. It wasn't even a slow fall down, it was very rapid. Good ol days.

I wonder if the WUG members that were on IRC Post 2015 is hanging out here on MyBroadband.

Edit: We can always kick start the WUG again, but I doubt there will be a ton of interest, Fibre is cheap and available pretty much everywhere these days
 
Genisys said:
I remember seeing CTWUG dropping off. It wasn't even a slow fall down, it was very rapid. Good ol days.

I wonder if the WUG members that were on IRC Post 2015 is hanging out here on MyBroadband.

Edit: We can always kick start the WUG again, but I doubt there will be a ton of interest, Fibre is cheap and available pretty much everywhere these days
Click to expand...
Other than for fun and maybe some redundancy, what would be the purpose?
 
I joined PTAWUG before fast and cheap internet. But then I moved and couldn't get LOS, so sold my WUG kit.

@Genisys I like the idea of reviving it, but yeah, not sure it would be more than bit of fun and for redundancy as @OCP says.
 
Bismuth said:
I joined PTAWUG before fast and cheap internet. But then I moved and couldn't get LOS, so sold my WUG kit.

@Genisys I like the idea of reviving it, but yeah, not sure it would be more than bit of fun and for redundancy as @OCP says.
Click to expand...
One may just as well create a big-ass SDWAN network over the internet and do some filesharing...
Buggest motivator behind the WUG (apart from internet access) was sharing, and was often faster downloading the latest Ubuntu CDimage from the filesharing server over the WUGnet than from overseas at a closed-tap-dripping speed with your ADSL line jiggling those bits as fast as it can over the telephone copper lines.
 
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Gravedigger said:
One may just as well create a big-ass SDWAN network over the internet and do some filesharing...
Buggest motivator behind the WUG (apart from internet access) was sharing, and was often faster downloading the latest Ubuntu CDimage from the filesharing server over the WUGnet than from overseas at a closed-tap-dripping speed with your ADSL line jiggling those bits as fast as it can over the telephone copper lines.
Click to expand...

Yes, something like a `big-ass SDWAN` is what I was thinking, if anything.
 
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