RoseAndRaindrop : May 30th 2001
Scribe: ColinDabritz
Reprinted from a post to the MailingList and edited by AdamShand
There was a pre-meeting talking about setting up a low power FM radio station, possibly loosely associated with PersonalTelco. There were lots of good ideas discussed but no one seemed to really want to take the lead role on this. SamChurchill said that there are no low power stations available in Portland so talk went off on other tangents (pirate radio, am radio, internet radio etc). The rough desired concept is we get some space on a tower and some frequency bandwidth and then we can send an audio shoutcast stream to a Linux box connected to the antenna. Anyone with a computer, and a mic could potentially be a DJ. Because this is really a side project a new MailingList has been created dedicated to discussion on this.
The Main Meeting
KrisAmundson volunteered to be treasurer, AdamShand set the motion and LonnieWormley seconded it.
- Location seems good, bill was plenty high to get the room free. Good food/service IMHO, but boxy and loud. Good for socializing but perhaps PCC would help meetings better.
We have selected OurLogo and a MissionStatement. This means we can move forward with a presentation and such for a NonProfit organization.
AdamShand is arranging a small technical meeting with people from LOTS of the other community wireless projects on the weekend of the 23rd of June.
AndrewClapp brought a couple samples of home-made wireless (directional) antennas. I belive he said 14 db gain and $10-20 (using a pringles can as the reflector!). Really neat stuff. You can see more on his homepage.
- Eugene was shooting video of the event, hopefully we'll get this on the website as a Real Video stream.
- We talked about one important fact here. The reason that WE will be successful and dozens of upstart companies have failed is that we AREN'T FOR PROFIT. We don't really have a bottom line. We will save big on not having to buy red sharpies for our financial records....