There’s been a lot of activity in the past month in several different areas regarding communications support.

• On 23 May 2009 the *KANSAS*, *NEBRASKA* and *WYOMING* were all put to use in support of ARMAD 2009.  We were able to express our appreciation to those that serve in the Military as well the First Responders.   ARMAD 2009 provided another opportunity to test the networks in a real time situational event.   Definitely appreciate all those that helped.

• Severe Weather 15-18 June 2009 there’s been a number of weather fronts that have moved through the Great Plains lateley.  Seems that the *NEBRASKA* is getting the most utilization when it comes to severe weather nets.   *KANSAS* is getting some usage as a relay point, but there are still some issues that appear to need to be addressed (the network resources are working fine though).

• There’s been some discussion about the possibility of having a Asterisk Server Party where we can build up some Asterisk RF Gateways for easy deployment to repeater sites as well as having transportable server that can be used in emergency operations.   For those that may not know, Asterisk  is a software package that has the capability to manage radio and telephone communications.  With all the many features available Asterisk has become to be known as a Communications Tool Chest.   For more information about Asterisk RF Gateways visit AsteriskRadio.net

• The Digital Exploration continues,  we now have access to D-STAR via a private node configuration.  It can be accessed via radio and phone.  For more information please contact us via InfoQuest.

• Range Test - we need some operators in the Wichita area that can help us with some range testing of the 145.470 and 147.060  Let us know where you are able to reach the systems.  Remember a kerchunk won’t work, a voice transmission is required before the system will respond.

Thanks again to those that are helping with everything.