ARRL Michigan Section Digital Radio Group (DRG)

DRG Meeting June 4

                 *** Meeting Announcement ***
                             for the
             Michigan Section Digital Radio Group (DRG)

           Date/Time: Saturday June 4th Noon-2pm

           Location:  I.R.A. Hamfest
                      Hudsonville Fairgrounds
                      Hudsonville, MI
                      (Directions at the bottom of this message)

    *** ROOM ***
             We will be meeting in the same room that the VE EXAMS were
             held earlier in the morning.  Ask any IRA member (they
             all have badges) if you need assistance finding the room.


           Agenda Items:

   1) Discuss with MARC representative(s) a working relationship for
      the following:
       o Establishing a liasion with MARC
       o Share frequency usage information
       o Inform MARC of freqs currently in use
       o Clear through MARC freqs we wish to use on "link" bands

   2) Working Group Reports:
       o Networking
       o Frequency Coordination
       o Operational Standards
       o Training

   3) MI-DRG.org domain name & Webpage status.

   4) Collect from each member their "public" contact data to be placed
      on the website so that 'Joe Ham' can reach them.

   5) Summarize SSID standards.

   6) Livingston County S.E.T. results using WL2K & Conventional Packet.

   7) Status of JNOS TCP/IP network & Hamgate's.

   8) Go around the room anwering:
       o "What is the status of my Districts network?"
       o "What problem areas are we experiencing?"
       o "What are we planning in the near future?"
       o "How is Packet being used in SKYWARN in my area?"

   9) What do we currently have to offer?
   *** As your homework, please collect all Node and BBS Calls/SSID's in
       use in your District, what frequencies they are on, links to other
       nodes, protocols used, etc. for inclusion in the Michigan Packet
       Node Database.

  10) Set Date and Location of the next Quarterly DRG meeting.
       Suggested locations include: Traverse City & Sault Saint Marie


Meeting called to order at 1209 PM

In attendance:

N8MG - Marty Mendelson (SEC)
WA8EFK - Dale Willaims (SM)
WB8AZP - Jim
WA8RLI - Red Duggan
N8AVX - Jim Smith
W8DFG - Dennis
WD8DJB - Dave
N8LRF - Ray Larabee
WZ8N - Rick Mark
KC8OVR - Ron
KA8IXC - Skip 
W8HVG - Abe (IRA)
KC8VAD - Jon
KA8E - Glenn Wright (D2 rep)
N8CML - Ron
WB8TKL - Jay Nugent (Chair, D2 rep)
WB8I - Don
KC8TLJ - Chuck (Vice Chair, D3 rep)

Began talk with an introduction of the MIARC representatives and filled them in
on our attempts to reestablish a Packet network in the state.

Introduced ourselves to the representatives.

Talked about our conveying frequency usage such that we can make sure that we do not
have issues with other allocations.

Networking -

Frequency Coordination - WB8TKL,

Operational Standards - WB8TKL, WA8RLI

Training - N8AVX

Need resources for training, if you have any pertinent links or current 'in-stock'
books that are of interest to help people understand. (TAPR Conference Books, ETC.)

Would like training person/s for each district?

MI-DRG.ORG - Unanimous decision, always looking for information to add or correct what
is currently available.

Eventually the individual groups (Network, Freq. Coord., Operational Standards, Training)
will maintain a sub-page within the DRG Web Site.

Skipped agenda items 4 and 5

Jon Harris of Livingston County went over quickly what happened in the digital realm
during their Exercise back in May.

5 JNOS TCP/IP Livingston, Alcona, ?

District 3 Meeting June 16 talked about briefly and we encourage all districts to do
the same in having an informational meeting within your district.

Net-ROM???

Discussion from each of the Districts about what they have up currently.

Meeting moved quickly along as there was a scheduling conflict with the MIARC meeting.

Next meeting set for September 24 Traverse City.

(Secretaries NOTE!!! - Due to the quickness with which we were rushed through this meeting
the notes are unfortunately a little scattered. There was w scheduling misunderstanding
when the arrangements were made and near the end of the first hour we had a visitor join us
to say we had to relinquish the room to the Michigan Repeater Council. We did find
a quiet area to kind of finish up the meeting).

To summarize, we are moving along slowly and now have the confidence of the Repeater
Council it seems. We are also looking for individuals who are currently knowledgeable
about Packet to assist us in coming up with some standards and training issues.
Realizing that concrete standards can cause more problems than they fix we are trying
to be open to the current accepted standards of MYSYS, JNOS, AX25, NetROM and several
others of which I do not have at hand currently. In may ways these are all very good
systems and have their own individual followers and also work well together.
What is a problem is if someone from one system goes to another county using another
system. What do we do to help them come up to speed on the new system?

Some discussion in the weeks following via email bring up some other issues which I am
sure Jay and his staff are or will be taking a look at. These concerns have been voiced
by people who are not a part of the DRG but are aware of the efforts that the DRG are
working on. If you have some concerns or comments please voice them to your District
Representative or send them to Jay. For more info on how to contact any of the
DRG Representatives see the DRG website at www.mi-drg.org.

Respectfully submitted late (June 30, 2005),
Marty N8MG
DRG Secretary