I spent some time playing with the chat room today. I am connected through a private ISP, as opposed to an employers network or a "packaged" service like AOL.

I had no trouble making the chat room on the web page work. Of course there was little activity at 11:00 AM Eastern. A few people popped in and out - which is typical for this. They will stay only if they find activity they find interesting. Only one ham call came in and he left before I noticed and could say hello.

Some tips: This is a Java Applet that runs in your browser. It connects to a standard IRC server. If for some reason you have Java disabled in your browser, it won't work. If you are behind a firewall, it may or may not work, depending on how restrictive your IT people are. They might be able to help you if they are friendly to such things.

If you don't like using the Java program, you can use a standard IRC client like Mirc or Pirch. I tried it and it worked just fine. This is actually a better way to do it if you plan on spending much time chatting.

If you think you're not sure it is working because you don't find anyone else there, try later in the evening. Maybe we can get a few people on it at the same time and try it out. Perhaps during the Foxhunts!

72,

Al AE2T