January 12th, 2010 Update
North Florida Digital Group Presents D-Star Introduction and Training Academy February 6th, 2010 08:30 til 17:00 EDT Tallahassee, Florida This update contains the information of the meeting place, event times, list of presenters, nearby hotels, campgrounds, eateries, GPS coordinates and web sites. The next email will go into detail of the syllabus and information to be covered. (((There will be a drawing for an Icom 2820 D-Star radio at the end of the Academy. Winner must be present. ))) ****************************************************************** About the North Florida Digital Group D-Star Introduction and Training Academy admission cost. The NFDG is a small group of amateurs who are passionate about D-Star. We are presenting the Academy to enhance the D-Star program and provide a learning experience to new hams who want to learn about D-Star, get started and current D-star users who want to become more proficient. We are asking all attendees to please donate $8.00 per person to help defray the cost of presenting this program. The NFDG has unwritten the cost, and the guest presenters are doing so at their own expense to see that these goals and objectives are met. By sending the following information and a check or money order in the amount of $8.00 before January 22nd, 2010, we can get a head count and start finalizing the meeting room size and plans. Sorry, we cannot handle credit or debit cards. After Jan 22nd, continue to pre-register by email and on arrival, pay at the door with US postal money order or cash only, (no checks at the door, please) ====================================================== Name: Callsign: Street: City: State: Zip: E-Mail address: Phone Checks and Money Orders should be made payable to: North Florida Digital Group Mail to: North Florida Digital Group c/o Don Bartnik 2919 Pound Dr Tallahassee, FL 32312 [email protected] for further information. An E-Mail confirmation will be sent to your E-Mail address. We are a non profit organization and if you would like to donate more than the asking price, we would appreciate your gesture. The NFDG wants to thank you for your interest in the academy and we look forward to seeing you. ********************************************************* Now, it is the time to make your reservations. Come and learn from the best!!! Ray Novak, N9JA | Division Manager IcomAmerica-Amateur and Receiver Products; Fred Varian, WD5ERD, IcomAmerica Technical Support & member of K5TIT, (Texas Intertie Team, who got D-Star started in the USA); Robin Cutshaw, AA4RC, Developer of the DVDongle(s); Scott Honaker, N7SS, Educator & author, wrote D-RATS article in QST; John Davis, WB4QDX, Georgia Section DEC, co-founder of Ga-Dstar.org, assisted getting D-Star on Georgia Public TV towers, co-founder of SE WX net and very experienced in grant writing. Ed Woodrick, WA4YIH, Georgia Section ADEC, co-founder of Ga-Dstar.org, dstarinfo.com, D-Star calculator, co-founder of the SE WX net, and very Experienced on solving technical and operational issues with D-Star. Buddy Morgan, WB4OMG, ARRL TS, WCF Section. Experienced with weak signal operations, especially in the 1296 band. ****************************************************************** Meeting location; The Tallahassee Automobile Museum located at the I-10 exit #209. I would encourage you to come a day early or stay over and visit the museum on Sunday. The address is 6800 Mahan Drive, Tallahassee, Florida. Contact phone number is 850-942-0137 and the fax number is 850-576-8500. For museum information, go to www.tacm.com and [email protected] . The museum has a complete roof top solar panel power supply. The museum is a very popular and worthy attraction to visit. Included is a 45 minute mini tour of the museum on lunch hour. A full tour would easily take 2 to 4 hours to enjoy all of Mr. Moore's collection. The meeting room has wide digital screens around the room and complete audio services. There is no bad seats anywhere. There will be active ongoing demonstrations of the various D-Star functions thruout the day. Event time is 08:30 EDT to 17:00 EDT Saturday Feb 6th, 2010 Plan on getting into Tallahassee Friday afternoon and join us for an ice breaker from 19:00 EDT til 21:00 EDT. Location TBA and will be posted at each hotel and on the talk-in freqs. GPS coordinates for the museum are: 30-29'10" north and 084-9'45" west. ********************************************************* There are two (2) hotels within walking distance to the museum, and one (1) on east side of I-10 is less than 3/4 mile away. The advantages are the close proximity to the meeting and you can leave your car parked on the property. Country Inn & Suites, located at 3080 Walden Road, Tallahassee, across Mahan Drive from the museum). For reservations, email [email protected] . Phone number is 850-942-2244, and fax is 850-942-2055. The rooms are under the block name of North Florida Digital Group and cost $71.00 and includes wired or wifi internet, hot breakfast and free parking all day on Saturday. All rooms have interior entrances to hallways. GPS coordinates are: 30-29'01" north and 084-9'38" west STAYBRIDGE Suites is located just east of I-10 exit #209. Address is: 1600 Summit Drive, Tallahassee. (just off Mahan drive). This facility is more business orientated and has internet service, complete kitchen, meeting rooms and two price ranges. Room block name is North Florida Digital Group. [email protected] is our contact. Phone is 850-219-7010 and fax is 850-219-7001. A single bed & sofa bed for one person or couple is $89.00 and a suite with two beds, kitchen, internet and kitchen for $104.00. Full hot breakfast is available. All rooms have interior entrances to hallways. GPS coordinates are: 30-28'59" north and 084-9'46" west Best Western Seminole Inn, located at 6737 Mahan Drive, Tallahassee. Phone number is 850-656-2938 & fax is 850-656-6380. email is: [email protected] . Hot continental breakfast is served and has wifi. Saturday parking is free and available. It's a short walk to the museum. Block name is North Florida Digital group and the rate is $64.99. This is the only hotel in the group which has outdoor entries to all the rooms. GPS is: 30-28'59" north and 084-9"46" west There are many more motels and hotels thruout Tallahassee. We only contacted the ones near the event. Please note that Mahan Drive is also US90. For the RV folks, The Tallahassee RV Park is located about 800 feet west of the museum at 6504 Mahan Drive, Tallahassee. Rates for this event are $36.00 for full 50 amp service and pullthru. WiFi is available. Mention the NFDG event. This is a very nice park and has easy access. www.tallahasseervpark.com and email to the manager is [email protected] GPS is: 30-28'52" north and 084-10'20" west **************************************************************** Eateries for the Academy: We will have a booth setup first thing in the morning with menus available for you to call and order. Most all of the major restaurants are 4 to 7 miles towards town. Lunch hour will be 75 minutes long, allowing time to eat out. Famous Dave's Bar-B-Que, one of our favorites, will deliver one time for all who call in orders for $25, shared by all who order. They are located at 1926 Capital Circle NE, Tallahassee. Phone 850-222-7427. Subway, Quiznos and Waffle House are nearby. Publix supermarket is also nearby and has a great deli and an ATM machine. ****************************************************************** There is a full D-Star stack available in downtown Tallahassee. Call sign is K4WAK Frequencies are: 146.835-600 Kc, port C; 443.450+5Mc, port B; 1293.000-20Mc, port A DD on 1253.000Mc. Simplex. This is an open system, both for inbound and out bound linking. We ask that after your link QSO; break down the link so others can use it. We encourage callsign routing usage. For those who are on analog, check your ARRL repeater directory. On 2M, the popular local freq is 146.655-600Kc, PL 94.8 e/d. The NFDG supports the analog 443.400+5Mc, PL 131.8 e/d repeater with echolink node #3950. Amateurs on both analog repeaters and the D-Star repeaters will be able to assist you enroute and while here. ********************************************************************************* For further information not covered, contact Donna, [email protected]. Note, information about course program will be posted very soon in another email. Remember, Friday evening Feb 5th, 2010, 19:00 EDT to 21:00 EDT will be a social get together TBA, and the Academy is on Saturday Feb 6th, 2010, 08:30 EDT/07:30 CDT to 17:00 EDT/16:00 CDT. Also, keep in mind, an ICOM 2820 D-Star radio drawing at the close of the session. Winner must be present to win. As spokesperson of the NFDG, I thank you for considering this event and hope to see you here. Paul, KJ4G
