******   S.O.A.P.R.A.   ******   
              Southern Oregon Amateur Packet Radio Association
                     
                     May Meeting Minutes for 05/13/00

             Scheduled Meeting at Providence Hospital, Medford.
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        Called to Order: 10:00 AM  Gene Burchfield, KO6DW, Presiding

Present:

Sean Smithers  N7ZWU    Frank McCrackin  WB6LMA   Gene Burchfield  KO6DW
Steve Grajeda  WB6YQP   Bob Leonard      KD6DG    Leonard Coleman  KB7TSX

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Minutes of previous meeting were read by Sean, N7ZWU
Motion to accept by Steve, WB6YQP. 2nd by Leonard, KB7TSX.


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Treasurer's Report: by Steve, WB6YQP

As of April 30 we had $1177.25 in the bank, no deposits, cash of $15.31
for a total of $1192.56. There are bills due for a power supply for
$169.95 and the ORRC dues of $15.00.

Motion by Leonard, KB7TSX to accept. 2nd by Frank, WB6LMA. Accepted.

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Tech Report:

King Mtn.  OK
Soda Mtn.  OK
Hamaker    OK
Sexton     OK

Keyboard Network

KOPE still down.

JOCO Power supply failed. Site owner has been notified. We will have
the power supply checked for replacement.

Hamaker had power problem. Backup system needed repair.

CJ antenna needs to be raised.

SCARA Node. Mahogany site has been sold. The new owner has no problem
with it being there. Hasn't decided what to do with building. The
building seems to belong to CDF or USFS. Can repair existing building,
can't tear down and replace.

JARS will have a meeting on the 18th.

The JARS Swap and Potluck will be on the first Sunday in August.


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Old Business:

Dave Putman - Albert was contacted, not sure at this time what the
status is.

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New Business:

General discussion on use of packet in emergencies. ARES - the
government entities served are very interested in receiving
printed material as can be provided by packet.

Program standardization. Users tend to have experience with
diverse programs. Can't just sit down and operate.

During the fires, we were using Keyboard and backbone traffic.
BBS's are preferred by Salem OES, however they have delays.

During the San Francisco earthquake, handheld radios and
mobile packet systems were the only way of communicating.


Discussion on our path north. At this time we are dependent
on a King <-> Prairie <-> Salem link that is pretty weak.

Scott Mountain could provide a direct link to Salem if we
had a node there.


Discussion on programs. Dumb terminal programs like Telemate,
Qmodem, Procomm, YAPP allow for the most consistent
interoperability.

Hostmaster II is a Kantronics specific program that has good
characteristics.

File transfers with the YAPP protocol can transmit JPEG
picture files. Anything that can provide fax-like
capabilities? Scan the original and send copy that way?

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Meeting adjourned: 11:55 AM

Sean, N7ZWU
SOAPRA Secretary.

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/ex