Perhaps taking a look at the way the Denton County Amateur Radio Association overcame this obstacle, you will find a similar solution to your dilemma.
In recent years there has been a large push towards the inclusion of Amateur Radio into Emergency Operation Plans. Through this we/the DCARA has developed a mutually benefiting relationship with Denton County Fire Marshal's Office and Emergency Services as well as several other EMAs. Including City, Health, and to a limited extent neighboring agencies. We received rack space to host our cluster at the Denton County EOC from this we received Radio Rack Space, Server Space, Feed-Line and Tower Space for a 450' Tower. We installed a full cluster with a Dedicated Tunnel on the Denton County Network. With 2 IP Addresses (one for D*STAR, the other for our DRAC). We also received redundant Inernet, Primary is Fiber, Secondary T3, Third Wireless, furthermore UPS and enough fuel for the whole site generator for indefinite run time. The county has jumped on the bandwagon as well, recognizing this technology, our Mobile Command posts now have ID-1 installed along with other D*STAR equipment. So, we have full backing. Look for an article in QST that I am writing outlining some of our partnerships, challenges, and obstacles we overcame. 73 Eric KD7CAO --- In [email protected], bea...@... wrote: > > The word that I object to the most, in this thread is the word "free". > KJ4ACN has been on the Gateway, since November of 2007. A very small > percentage > of the repeater users have bothered to join the club and financially > support the Gateway. "Ham Radio is supposed to be free", I have heard > several > times. Well, maybe Amateur Radio is supposed to be free, but internet access > is not free, at least for the West Central Florida D Star Club. Financing > the Gateway, long term, just does not seem feasible, for us. I had > conversations, at Dayton, with several other Trustees/Club Presidents. The > financial scenario at KJ4ACN seems to be quite common. I foresee repeaters > dropping off the Gateway, due to lack of funding for internet access. > Anybody got > any creative solutions? > > Buddy WB4OMG > > West Central Florida D Star Club President/KJ4ACN Trustee > **************Download the AOL Classifieds Toolbar for local deals at your > fingertips. > (http://toolbar.aol.com/aolclassifieds/download.html?ncid=emlcntusdown00000004) > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] >
