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