
SB TAPR @ ALLUS $TAPR916.001
NEWS: Nominations Sought for TAPR Board of Directors

Please use BID: $TAPR916.001

Tucson Amateur Packet Radio  9/16/94

TAPR is governed by a 9-member Board of Directors.  Each member of 
the Board serves a three year term. Three positions are up for 
election.

Board members are expected to attend the annual Board meeting 
held in conjunction with the annual meeting.  They participate 
in the decision-making process and provide guidance to the 
officers.  They receive no pay and must defray their own 
expenses to attend meetings.  Board members should be prepared 
to be active in the continuing Board deliberations, which are 
conducted via the Internet.  Active participation in TAPR 
activities by Board members is important to the furtherance of 
the objectives of TAPR. The officers of TAPR are elected by the 
members of the Board at the annual Board of Directors meeting.

To place a person in nomination, please remember that he or she must be
a member of TAPR.  Confirm that the individual is willing to have their name
placed in nomination.  Send that person's name (or your own if you wish to
nominate yourself) along with your call and their call, telephone numbers,
mailing address, and Internet address.  The person nominated should submit a
short biographical sketch to be published along with the ballot.

Nominations and biographical sketches should be submitted to the TAPR
office no later than December 10th, 1994.

More details may be obtained by contacting headquarters:
Tucson Amateur Packet Radio
8987-309 E Tanque Verde Rd #337 * Tucson, Az * 85749-9399 * 817-383-0000
TAPR@TAPR.ORG

/EX

SB TAPR @ TAPR $TAPR916.002
NEWS: TAPR 1995 Annual Meeting

Please use BID: $TAPR916.002

Tucson Amateur Packet Radio                         September 16th, 1994
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            TAPR 1995 Annual Meeting, March 3rd, 4th, & 5th
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TAPR 1995 Annual Meeting

March 3rd, 4th, & 5th, in St. Louis, Mo.
Hosted by MoAmPS (Missouri Amateur Packet Society)

Join some of the brightest and most enthusiastic of today's packet
developers/users, with a weekend full of Packet Radio and Digital
Communications talks, presentations, SIG meetings, and two SPECIAL Sunday
Workshops.  In addition an advanced DSP symposium is planned for Friday
afternoon and evening for software developers of DSP systems.

TAPR (Tucson Amateur Packet Radio), a non-profit research and development
corporation, works on the advancement of  digital communications and
education.  This year's annual meeting will be the first held outside of
Arizona and presents a unique opportunity for those unable to travel to
Tucson to attend meetings.

An advanced DSP (digital signal processing) symposium will be held Friday, 
March 3rd.  This is for those working with DSP technology currently, and 
not a session for introductory topics.  

The annual meeting formally begins Saturday morning with presentations 
and papers, as well as discussion on other projects of interest throughout 
the day.  Issues concerning packet networking and BBS operation are also 
anticipated.  A banquet will be held Saturday evening and will include a 
prize drawing. After dinner, Special Interest Groups will meet and discuss 
issues.

On Sunday, two workshops will be held.  One will focus on Error Correction
Techniques, by Phil Karn, KA9Q, while the  second will focus on development
of software/hardware for the TAPR/AMSAT DSP-93, by Bob Stricklin, N5BRG, and
Frank Perkins, WB5IPM.

These are exciting times for digital communications and TAPR.  This year's
meeting should be a super-charging event for everyone who can attend!

Call for Papers
Papers are welcome from everyone.  Although there is limited time during the
weekend, all attempts will be made to allow those present to talk. Deadline
for submission of papers is Monday, February 7th, 1995.  Contact the TAPR
office to request an author's information package.

Meeting Place and Hotel
The TAPR Annual Meeting  presentations, meetings, and workshops, will be
held at the St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley.  Lodging will
be at the Henry VIII Hotel and Conference Center, 4690 North Lindberg Blvd,
St. Louis (Bridgeton), MO, 63044, Phone (lots of them): 800-325-1588,
800-392-1660 (in MO. only), 314 731-3040, or FAX 314 731-4210.  Rooms rates
are reasonable.  It is approximately 4 miles west of St Louis Lambert Airport 
with shuttle service and approximately 10 miles (all freeway) from the 
college.  A block of 50 rooms will be held until February 4th, at which time 
those rooms will be released for general booking.  If you are planning to 
stay at the hotel, it is highly recommended that you book your room prior 
to February 4th, 1994.

For full details on Registration and Workshops contact TAPR.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tucson Amateur Packet Radio
8987-309 E Tanque Verde Rd #337 * Tucson, Az * 85749-9399 * 817-383-0000
TAPR@TAPR.ORG

/EX

SB TAPR @ TAPR $TAPR916.003
NEWS: TAPR HF SIG Formed

Please use BID: $TAPR916.003

Tucson Amateur Packet Radio                         September 16th, 1994
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            Introduction of the TAPR HF Special Interest Group
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Objectives for the HFSIG

The purpose of the HF SIG is to serve as a forum for those involved in
experimenting, and developing digital applications for HF.


Background

HF offers unique challenges and rewarding opportunities for amateur radio -
it allows for both short and long distance digital communications without
the involvement of specialized terrestrial or space-based equipment such as
repeaters, or satellite transponders.  It allows for one-to-one
(keyboard-to-keyboard), as well as many-to-one (networking), modes of
operation. These are quite different in philosophy and functional needs.

The amateur bands have seen a dramatic increase in diversity in technology
as well as increased activity in the use of digital modes.  This is due
mostly to the availability of TNCs and application of personal computers.
Basic technology, however, has not changed much since the 60's and is in
great need for innovation to meet future challenges.

Development of future technology for HF digital requires experimentation
with several topics on communications such as:

     1. Bandwidth-efficient modulation schemes, i.e. for
        increased robustness, speed, and usability. These include
        various forms of m-ary FSK, m-ary PSK, or QAM using single
        or multiple carriers. However, other technologies such as
        spread-spectrum communications also need to be explored.

     2. Application of coding theory for error detection and
        correction for increased reliability. This will require the
        use of block and/or convolutional codes.

     3. Protocols to suit new proposed modulation and coding
        schemes. Various forms of ARQ and FEC are possible. The
        possibilities for half and full duplex modes need to be
        explored.

In addition, development platforms for such experimental work will most
certainly receive attention.

     4. Programmable DSP platforms. Hardware, and software for
        application development.

     5. Host-based software. Typically this includes low-level
        I/O, CUA/SAA compliant user-interface development, but also
        a user-contributed software repository for commonly-used
        algorithms such as frame synchronization, channel
        equalization, scrambler polynomials, fast CRC calculations,
        various error-detection/correction algorithms such as Golay
        (24,12), Reed-Solomon, and trellis/Viterbi codes for
        example.


Getting involved

We require talents representing a wide range of topics such as mathematics
(coding theory, signals and transforms), software engineering (algorithm
development, real-time OS, low-level I/O, host OS), electrical engineering
(analog, digital and RF), digital signal processing (theoretical, hardware
and software), etc.  However, there also is a similar need for technical
writers, beta testers, and project management.

It is unlikely that this type of experimental work will be using any
existing TNC hardware.  A general-purpose programmable DSP platform, such as
the TAPR DSP-93, a DSP-based sound card, or equivalent would be required as
well as a fairly fast 386/486 or equivalent host computer for high-level
software development.

Besides development efforts, there will be ongoing on-the-air testing to
establish how well theoretical ideas are working in practice. It is
envisaged that there would be rapid evolution of modulation and protocol
development and thus the need for fully programmable hardware.

This introductory note is probably incomplete, however, it presents some
perspective and direction for the HFSIG. I would appreciate further
suggestions and feedback.

Subscribing

To subscribe to this mailing list send a message to `listserv@tapr.org` with
the following line in the body of the message:

subscribe list full_name

Example:
subscribe hfsig FirstName LastName



------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tucson Amateur Packet Radio
8987-309 E Tanque Verde Rd #337 * Tucson, Az * 85749-9399 * 817-383-0000
TAPR@TAPR.ORG

/EX
