To: All Islanders
The TNC recently received notice from the FCC relative to the 10 year
renewal of their business band license WQIY244. Wow, its been ten years
already. The TNC supports two repeaters on Santa Cruz Island. One at
Diablo Peak and the other at Valley Peak. Same frequency, different
PL's. In addition their system consists of two fixed based stations plus
several mobiles and many HT's. Their entire system was designed and
built during the wide-band era which evolved into narrow-band. Rebanding
required a total replacement of their repeaters. This repeater system
has outlasted all other forms of radio communications systems on the
Island including a heavy investment of cellular equipment which
eventually was abandoned by two cellular providers. The radio repeater
system (mobile relay) was designed built and maintained all during this
period by radio amateur personnel.
FCC licensing is quite challenging especially when dealing with license
modification and station relocation. To the uninitiated this is very
time consuming and technical language that is not always understood. The
opportunity was again taken over by our personnel and a new license was
acquired through the frequency coordinator.
Today I received some kind words from Scott Meyler the new Island
Program Coordinator for TNC. He is very appreciative of our service to
TNC by taking off the pressure in handling the licensing. My personal
thanks to all of you out there that have played a part over the years in
helping TNC with communications and personnel safety. There is a lot of
good-will here that will help maintain our presence on SCI well into the
future.
Bill Talanian
K6TZ Trustee