Florida Amateur Digital Communication Association
Promoting packet radio in the State of Florida
Mail Address:
L. E. "bud" Thompson
1131 Abady Court
Deltona, FL 32725
MINUTES OF FADCA ANNUAL CORPORATE MEETING
FEBRUARY 14, 2004 (ORLANDO HAMCATION)
(A list of those in attendance is at the end of these minutes.)
A quorum being present, President Sinbine called the meeting to order at 1705Hrs.
President Sinbine stepped down from the Chair and V. President Welcker assumed the gavel calling for nominations for the office of president. John Green, WA4MOZ, nominated Bill Sinbine, N4XEO; the nomination was seconded. No others being offered, nominations were closed, and V. President Welcker indicated he would accept a motion for a unanimous ballot. John Green moved for a unanimous ballot which was seconded and passed.
President Sinbine called for nominating petitions for directors in even-numbered districts whose terms are expiring. There being none, President Sinbine appointed all current directors in even-numbered districts who had responded earlier to nominations to continue serving in their present capacities.
President Sinbine noted that he had not heard a response from Eric Owen, KD4MZM, Director in District 6. Sec/Treasurer Thompson noted that under the by-laws, the president may appoint a new director to replace one who has not responded and for which there has not been a nomination petition. It was also noted that both District 6 and District 1 presently do not have active directors.
A short report was given on the recently-held FADCA Directors' meeting and it was noted that minutes of that meeting along with these minutes will be posted on the FADCA web site early next week.
Sec/Treasurer Thompson announced completion of the FADCA, Inc. re-instatement with the state of Florida, the opening of a new FADCA checking account, that the year-end financial statement had been posted on the website, and a treasurer's report reflecting additional funds collected since the first of this year will be posted this coming week.
A general discussion on the growing LAN and backbone coverage of the network included the recent return of several TABAY LANS, a new test LAN/digi at Clermont, and much interest in District 6 from Ft. Myers to Sarasota. It was noted that once the Orlando switch is moved to a better location and the Clermont site is converted to FPAC, all that is needed is a backbone link to Tampa to complete a cross-state like from Melbourne/Orlando/Deland/Daytona to Tampa. Gary, KC5QCN reported possibilities for a tie between Clermont and Tampa at Plant City or at Bartow. Two cross-state links are presently active in the southern part of the state. When the Orlando switch is relocated, coverage from Boca to Jacksonville, part of which will be at 9.6kb, will be 24/7. With the new switch at Clermont the area along the Central Florida ridge from 30-35 miles south of Clermont to Gainesville should be well covered with LANs and backbones. The most needed links remain westward from Gainesville to Tallahassee (and beyond).
N0IA commented that we need more LANS and a lot more links to better cover the populated areas of the state. He noted the growing FADCA bank account and suggested FADCA could help with some equipment and perhaps funds for areas where there was little or no local club support for a switch. (Of course technical help is just a FADCA e-mail reflector request away.)
Doug, KN4YT, reminded the group that John Fleming of the State Warning Point (SWP) had indicated ARES/RACES ham groups could use the TCP/IP serial port on the E-Satcom units in most of the counties. This could be another layer on the Florida Layered Network. President Sinbine appointed KN4YT and KC5QCN as an ad-hoc committee of two to investigate the possibility and see if they can get E-Satcom working between their EOCs and report back through the FADCA e-mail reflector. N0IA indicated that Rick, KN6KB might be able to give some technical assistance on the project.
KC5QCN reported that he and Chuck Hast, KP4DJT would soon be trying to configure a LINUX FPAC box. N4XEO reported he had good success up to the point of trying to work with the single, rather than two configuration files used by DOS FPAC. KC5QCN will keep the group informed though the FADCA e-mail reflector.
A discussion on establishing reliable NTS message routing on the packet network included Earl Leach, WX4J, reminding all that summarily passing NTS traffic from one BBS to another is not proper support for NTS. N0IA referenced two packet articles on the FADCA web site that explain the basics of routing NTS messages as well as the status in Florida at the time the articles were posted. N0IA also advised the group that there must be more NTS-trained people on packet to take responsibly for processing NTS messages once they land on a Home BBS. WX4J volunteered to develop a list of NTS people who are interested, which ZIPFIVE and/or NTSXX messages each can process, and the Home BBSs on which the ZIPFIVE and/or NTSXX messages should be left. N0IA volunteered to compile a list of participating Florida packet BBS, their location and LAN, and any ZIPFIVE they can properly handle. WX4J and N0IA will compile an NTS routing scheme for Florida Zip codes and for NTS traffic going out of state.
N0IA noted that it is important for each LAN to have a store-and-forward BBS for local users to call 'home' as well as for proper routing and processing of NTS messages. In the near term, such a BBS would likely be a focal point for digital messaging in support of EMCOMMs.
N4XEO indicated he thought FADCA should have some informal get-together on a quarterly basis as had been done earlier in the more active days of packet. KC5QCN suggested he would like to see one of these 'meetings' be a working group to help install a switch at Bartow to make the link between Clermont and Tampa.
President Sinbine asked the Sec/Treasurer to suggest a few dates in about three months for a get- together and start a FADCA e-mail reflector thread.
N0IA suggested anyone interested in digital communications, FADCA member or not, should subscribe to the FADCA e-mail reflector.
There being no more business before the group, President Sinbine adjourned the meeting at 1800hrs.
Respectfully submitted,
Lore, E. 'bud' Thompson N0IA
Secretary/Treasurer FADCA
ATTENDEES
FADCA ANNUAL CORPORATE MEEETINGFEBRUARY 14, 2004 (ORLANDO HAMCATION)
CALL NAME E-MAIL
N0IA Bud Thompson budt@cfl.rr.com
N4XEO Bill Sinbine n4xeo@flbb.net
N3PPC Charlie Crook ccrook@cfl.rr.com
KN4YT Doug Christ kn4yt@yahoo.com
WX4J Earl Leach wx4J@juno.com
AB4YK Chet Carruth ab4yk@juno.com
W2IQE Max E. Norman w2iqe@arrl.net
WB4MOZ John Green wb4moz@arrl.net
W1NPR Freeman Crosby mail@fcrosby.colm
KC5QCN Gary Sessums kcqcn@hamclub.org
WB4KGY Doug Welcker wb4kgy@bellsouth.net
N4KOX Russell Oder oderr@bellsouth.net
K4TFJ George Dunkan Huntsville, AL
KF4BXT Keith Kotch kf4bxt@arrl.net
AE4MR Dave Armbros ae4mr@arrl.org
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