• 6:00PM - Introduction to Personal Telco for new comers

• 6:30PM - Intro to RF and Q&A by Dr. Morris Engelson (MorrisEngelsonHandouts)

• 7:30PM - General Meeting: Talk by DonPark on

We hold monthly meetings. Typically there will be one or two short presentations, a question and answer session followed by general chit-chat. It's all very relaxed so please feel free to come join us.

[http://www.yourpalbill.com/tripplan/ Find your way] via TriMet to

{{{It's A Beautiful Pizza 3341 SE Belmont Portland, OR (503) 233-5444}}}

If you would like something to this page please feel free to add it, just be sure to add your name next to it so we know who put it there.

• AdamShand is the group director

• LucasSheehan is meeting facilitator

• SamChurchill and LucasSheehan keep the MeetingNotes

May Personal Telco Meeting Notes

• Location: ItsaBeautifulPizza

  • Scribe: SamChurchill

* The June PersonalTelco meeting was at the same place (It's a Beautiful Pizza), but a different location. The owner of Beautiful Pizza has just moved across the street but got slapped with a $36,000 "moving fee" by The City That Works. Was in all the papers.

It's not hard to find PersonalTelco meetings - just look for a satellite truck. Amusingly, a 1958 vintage fire truck pulled up during the meeting. The owner, who bought his vehicle on E-Bay, is planning to drive it to Burning Man. He says it's a great vehicle for picking up his kids after school.

Anyway...

The Van was positioned on the North side of the street and aimed at Psychonautical Supplies where PersonalTelco has a node. The plan: webcast the June meeting live. [http://www.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/ChristianSeppa?action=highlight&value=CategoryHomepage ChristianSeppa] brought a video camera, tripod and mikes. The video was compressed using Real Producer, then run up the mast on the van using a 14db gain Yagi, which is captured at PsychonauticalSupplies then relayed up to MattWestervelt's RealVideo server in Seattle. Matt, who works as an administrator at RealNetworks in Seattle, generously offered his server facilities.

It would have worked, too. But it was a hot day, the M-1 box got too hot to touch and the signal started to fade and skip. So we abandoned the live video plans. Christian taped the proceedings and is posting it on Don Park's server, here. The new location at Beautiful Pizza proved to be very noisy, (in an analog, beer-drinking sense). But the talk by Dr. Morris Engelson on Radio Frequency was enthusiastically recieved by all (who could hear).

June Personal Telco Meeting

* Adam explained briefly the mission of PersonalTelco.

* First Timers: Nigel asked for hands of first timers with about 8 people raising their hands. Each person explained their interests.

* Morris Engelson: Dr Egleton, who was the chief RF guru at Tektronics, had a handout and delivered the featured presentation; a primer on Radio Frequency. It included the basics of modulation (AM, FM and Phase Modulation) and how digital signals get compressed and transmitted (PSK, Direct Sequency, COFDM, etc). How and why the FCC does what it does was also covered. He was entertaining and covered the field in a manner that was engaging and illuminating. I found myself listening instead of taking notes. However most of his talk covered basic RF theory and practice which can be researched on the web. Here is his biography and more notes on his talk.

--- BELOW IS OLD STUFF TEMPORARILY USING AS TEMPLATE---

* Future Nodes: A discussion on future nodes mentioned BillyReeds on MLK and DanRichardson mentioned how his node illuminates the new Hollywood Library Branch. Dan got a nice thank you note from a stranger who moved into the new apartments directly above the new library (The Bookmark) and found his AP. That person also attended the meeting.

* Wireless distribution: A discussion of handoff and a wireless distribution system followed. Adam passed around the Musiki M-1 device, a tiny box that runs HostAP. Musiki also makes the M-3 with multiple slots for different radios.

* SpecialOps: Nigel made a recruitment speech for The SpecialOps team. SpecialOps duty includes field work installing (and maintaining) nodes such as the one being installed at Billy Reeds.

Past SpecialOps Team members include: AdamShand, DanRichardson, MichaelCodanti and DonPark. Current active SpecialOps Team members include; AndrewWoods, JerrittCollord, NigelBallard, and JohnGreet.

Want to be a Special Ops team member? It requires advanced Linux (DebianLinux), networking and wireless skills with 1-2 hours week. Help is also need for documentation so users can figure out what to do in case something goes terribly wrong. Think you can hack it? Don Park has more: http://klickitat.yi.org/~donp/ptpops/

* Non Profit Status: Apparently the designation of PersonalTelco as a non-profit is on again. The process of filling for a 501(c)7 is being investigated. A 501(c)7 is a public, non-profit but is different from a 501(c)3 in that the organization can't give tax exempt status for donations. The process is apparently simpler. PersonalTelco has about $700 in the account and donations via the web site are being investigated. It would use PayPal. SamChurchill asked if it was safe. Adam believed since the connections used SSL that it shouldn't be a problem.

* Lonnie Wormley brought in the definitive PTP T-Shirts. This is a VERY cool T-shirt and only goes for $17-$20. Now is the time to get one! Lonnie also made some small black bumper stickers for Nigel - "Got Wi-Fi?"

* Adam Shand will speak at PLUG on Thursday, June 6th.

* A Public Safety Communications Conference runs June 4-7 at the Marriot, 1401 SW Naito. Interoperability will be discussed. Free.

* A Wind Power show will be held at the Convention Center June 2-5. Exhibition is free to the public.

* Hilltop Repeater: Discussion of a radio repeater or node on a high hill was discussed. Two people, Dave Jensen and John Mackie said they could help. Dave Jensen is on the East Side of the the West Hills, overlooking Beaverton and high on the hill just under the radio towers. Unfortunately your scribe did not get Dave Jensen's email or phone number. Dave, please contact Erik!

John Mackie is a ham operator who has a repeater on a tower on the hills. He was planning to control it remotely via 900 MHz but now is thinking about 2.4Ghz. Adam and others thought this was an ideal situation; a repeater or access point on a tower would be near ideal. Once again your scribe did not get an email or phone number for John Mackie. He is the chief engineer at KBOO and has been a radio engineer for 20 years.

* Community LAN software: A question was raised how Boingo, Joltage, Sputnick, NoCat and Open802 were similar or different. Adam explained the differences briefly but basically Boingo is an aggrigator of access points with a flat fee. Joltage is similar. Sputnick is a commercial (and non-commercial) software package that lets coffee shops set up commercial APs, NoCat is the access software that PersonalTelco and others use while Open802 is the flashware that is being tested on largely obsolete USR APs (no computer required).

* Presentations: While this meeting did not have an official presentation, a discussion of future presentations included; How to build a node, Radio Frequency Tutorial, NoCat, Install Fest and others.

The meeting ajourned about 9pm and reassembled outside around the SatelliteTruck. Much fun was had by all. Erik and Nigel requested that anyone interested in van painting should see them. PersonalTelco must remove the channel 6 designation before it is used publically.

- Sam Churchill