[SMCARA] [Fwd: SMLS Update]

[petebutt at comfac.com]

Forwarding stuck message - PDB

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: SMLS Update
From:    "LDG Electronics Inc" <ldg at ldgelectronics.com>
Date:    Thu, September 8, 2011 7:59 pm
To:      smcara at mailman.qth.net
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Howdy Folks,



This month marks an end to a short era of about a half decade of
experimenting with repeater coverage in Southern Maryland. About three
months ago, members of the Calvert Amateur Radio Association took it upon
themselves to change the lock on a door at the Mt. Hope Community Center in
Sunderland that did not belong to them and disconnected all of the equipment
in that room that did not belong to them.



This included the southern remote for the Southern Maryland Radio Club's
147.150 repeater, the southern remote for the Anne Arundel Radio Club's
147.105, the receive site for the Southern Patuxent ARC's 147.255 repeater,
the Southern Maryland Link System's main UHF Hub repeater  and the N3PX-2
APRS digipeater that covered nearly all of Southern Maryland.



Since the inception, the SMLS had grown and contracted, but had settled in
the past couple years with the 147.150 in Brandywine, the 145.35 in White
Plains, the 147.390 in Lexington Park and the 147.255 in Prince Frederick.
It established a four and a half county wide system that had never before
been available in a reconfigurable system. Additionally, the AARC was in the
process of establishing connection to the SMLS to be connected during times
of need. With the Hub gone, none of these repeaters can be linked. We were
very fortunate that the recent hurricane did not cause more problems and a
multi-county system was not required "this time".

In several subsequent meetings that were called by the Calvert County
government personnel to discuss CARA's actions, there has been no
resolution. The last meeting was held about a month ago with the simple
agenda of figuring out how all of the above named groups can get along with
CARA, but CARA was only able to bring up stories of differences in
personality and their technical ineptitude. In so many words they said, we
didn't know what all that stuff was, so we just disconnected all of it and
locked the door.



Be that as it may, we're now left with no SMLS. his month marks the official
end of the project. With the 146.640 repeater working well in Lexington
Park, there is no longer a need for the 147.390 repeater in the same town.
That repeater will be taken off the air in the coming weeks. We're glad that
the power stayed on during the hurricane and it was once again used for a
good purpose during a perilous time.



The fate of the other repeaters and capabilities in the system remain up in
the air (no pun intended). The APRS coverage for Southern Maryland is
largely picked up by K3NAL-1, but even then it's only local to the Lexington
Park area. Tom Clarke (W4OKW) has been instrumental in getting that
digipeater working and there may be more ways to help increase the coverage.



The 147.150 and 147.105 repeaters are now in search of sites that will serve
the southern portion of their coverage area to server their club members.
The 147.255 repeater, which had the largest coverage of Calvert county,
remains off the air and will most likely be removed.



However, as it's been said many times, change can be embraced or feared. In
this case, it's going to be embraced with adaptation. We already have had
talks of formations of new clubs and/or several clubs joining together to
have a stronger presence in the ham community and overcome the actions of
the Calvert Amateur Radio Association. There will be more plans for an
inter-county system and capabilities despite the efforts of a small group of
people that have worked very hard to prevent it.



By this time next month, the remaining groups (minus CARA) will have already
started working on the next generation of infrastructure to provide coverage
multi-county in the Southern Maryland area. While it took five years to
build the system, it only took CARA a single day to disable it and take
coverage away from hundreds of amateur radio operators in the area.



Every effort will be made to return the coverage that has been available for
years. Stay tuned for more updates soon.



Dwayne Kincaid

WD8OYG





________________________



LDG Electronics, Inc.

1445 Parran Road

St. Leonard, MD 20685

Phone: 410-586-2177

http://www.ldgelectronics.com

groups.yahoo.com/group/LDG-auto-tuners/

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