Minutes of the Wood County Amateur Radio Club - January 2003
Our annual ‘Kick-Off” meeting held in January has been held in various eating establishments in the area for the past several years. Last night was no exception as approximately 35 club members and their families met for dinner at Maggies Restaurant in Perrysburg. Bob WB8NQW led off the meeting by asking the assembled to introduce themselves and their family members or guests in attendance. The menu was served as family style, and included baked chicken and swiss-steak, along with green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, dinner rolls and an assortment of salads and fixings. Dinner was served in the guest room which was still decorated for the Christmas holidays. It was a great meal. Along with the great food was the addition of Esther’s delicious homemade candies. Presented on a large glass platter, it not only looked appetizing, it was. Thank you Esther.
Soon after the meal, the outgoing President Bob, WB8NQW read the list of names of those persons who were nominated for the various offices for 2003. No new names were offered and it came to pass that the following persons were elected to the WCARC offices.
Bob Boughton – President
Shawn Hudson – Vice President
Bill Wilkins - Treasurer
Chuck Dicken - Secretary
Bob N1RB, discussed briefly the hamfest dilemma being the weekend following the 4th is much to close the holiday. There might be another date available and Bob will report on this. There was a strong encouragement to the membership to decide if the hamfest will continue or monies be donated to the club to continue with expenses.
Bob then spoke about how Eric Larson (EMA Director) wants to tap a new RACES Director. Bob Johnson K3RC (retired) has volunteered for the position? Steve McEwen added that examples of what is needed or wanted by EMA and the desire to be involved by the membership and at what level of activity.
Outgoing President Willman said his goodbyes after 2 years of service and only having a small regret of not having more programs during the meetings.
A motion to adjourn until next month was made by John AA8XS, 2nd Esther N8QMV.
NET ROSTER:
Tuesday Evenings
9:30 p.m.
February 11 WD8ICP
February 18 N1RB
February 25 N8QMV
March 4 AA8XS
March 11 KB8QEW
March 18 WD8ICP
THE NEXT BIG THING…
High-speed multimedia
hamming via the "Hinternet" could be the next big thing for Amateur
Radio. That's the hope of the ARRL High Speed Multimedia(HSMM) Working Group,
which is adapting the highly popular IEEE 802.11b Part 15 wireless Internet
protocol to Part 97 amateur operating.
"We expect it to be
nothing less than revolutionary!" says John Champa, K8OCL, who chairs the
ARRL HSMM Working Group--a subset of the League's Technology Task Force. The Working
Group's new "High-Speed Digital Networks and Multimedia" page http://www.arrl.org/hsmm/ recently premiered
on the ARRL Web site.
Champa's team is calling the
specific techniques, software and hardware involved "the ARRL 802.11b
protocol" to distinguish it from the unlicensed, commercial protocol.
Systems employ direct-sequence spread spectrum techniques and operate in the
2.4 GHz range. The term "Hinternet" (ham + Internet), Champa says, is
a user-friendly way to refer to the
development of high-speed
Radio Local Area Networks (RLANs) capable of simultaneously carrying audio,
video and data signals.
"The development of the
ARRL 802.11b protocol will significantly enhance Amateur Radio, especially with
respect to emergency communication and support of public service
activities," Champa predicted. He and his HSMM Working Group colleagues
also expect that it will attract many technically oriented users of the
Internet and wireless LANs to get their amateur
tickets.
In addition to emergency
communication, Hinternet applications could include two-way streaming video,
full-duplex streaming audio, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications
such as eQSO, EchoLink, iLink and IRLP, and digital voice. As on the wired
Internet, communication can be point-to-point, point-to-multipoint and
multicast at high bandwidth.
"An emergency volunteer
equipped with a laptop or a wireless PDA (personal digital assistant) with a
microphone and a small video camera now has the tools to be a mobile set of
eyes and ears in the midst of a communications emergency," says Working
Group member Kris Mraz, N5KM.
In Michigan, the Livingston
County HSMM Experimenters Team already has three HSMM access points--called
"APs" in the commercial world--and about a dozen stations on the air
centered on 2437 MHz. Another group of Amateur Radio 802.11b enthusiasts has
recently organized in the San Antonio, Texas, area.
Although other amateur
allocations also would be appropriate for Hinternet operation, the use of 2.4
GHz was an easy choice, since Part 15 WiFi (wireless fidelity) devices already
operate in that part of the spectrum, and inexpensive commercial equipment is
widely available. Acting on an ARRL petition, the FCC has proposed elevating
amateurs to primary at 2400 to 2402 MHz.
Champa says that taken in a nationwide context, the meaning of the term Hinternet goes deeper than just an amalgamation of words. "In nautical terms the word hinterland is 'the land beyond the coast,'" he said. "And so it is with us. 'The Hinternet' is the radio net beyond the Internet."