You can do a lot with ham radio. Some guys still do packet. Plus cw is still a very viable option. Not to long ago some guys relayed a message from a boat on the Chesapeake Bay across country to a ship ai Long Beach(I think) in something like 21 minutes. Nice topic 3/4.

Digital over ham radio is still active... Check out this link:

http://www.w1hkj.com/

One of the local ARES groups uses it. I've even used it on 2 meter over a repeater.

It all looked Greek to me..... I am still old school when it comes to radio. The packet/digital communications was in the 144.000 to somewhere in the 145.010 area. I really don't remember. Almost like chat, you type in what you are sending to the person you want to send it to and press send.

I have not had any experience with the other modes on HF or VHF.