The Northern California Packet Association

News

NCPA On-line Meetings

The NCPA also meets electronically (internet remailer) most of the time. The goal is to make it easier for people to attend meetings without having to drive a long distance. This also allows the NCPA to deal with issues on a continuous basis instead of having to wait for the next general meeting. As with regular face-to-face meetings, the remailer is open to all interested persons. The NCPA remailer address is: ncpa@ncpa.hamdigi.net.

One may subscribe to the remailer on the NCPA mail list web site.

About that petition to the FCC -- definition of a repeater

The NCPA was involved in a frequency dispute with a D-Star owner. The D-Star owner wanted to put his D-Star repeater on the packet duplex pair in the 2 meter band. However, the frequencies of that pair are in the forbidden zone for repeaters. The owner insisted his D-Star wasn't a repeater. The NCPA believed it was, but could not convince the D-Star owner.

This is what led to the NCPA requesting a clarification from the FCC as to the definition of a repeater. The FCC agreed with the NCPA's interpretation. Here is the FCC's response (69 k PDF file).