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RATS Technical Committee
The RATS Technical Committee is responsible for the purchase, maintenance, implementation, and installation of all transmitting, receiving and testing equipment owned by the club as approved by the Board of Directors. Additionally, the Technical Committee is responsible for the exploration and resolution of interference problems and misuse of the club's equipment.
The Technical Committee also handles network hardware and security for the repeater equipment and AREDN nodes, assists with the secure storage and regular inventory of club physical assets, provides control operators and technical assistance for club activities, and occasionally assists the Board in the selection, operation, and maintenance of various technical systems used in their administration of the club -- such as this web site.
The Tech Committee consists of a small number of members bringing specific skills which align with the needs of the club and the duties of the committee. Committee seats are populated with a handful of specialists in operation and maintenance of the club's RF and technical systems, and several other members with interests and skills that are beneficial to the club and aligned with the committee's scope of work.
"Can you help me with...?"
The Technical Committee frequently receives e-mails from RATS members and others in the community requesting help with their radios or antennas, or looking for product suggestions ("what radio do you recommend?") While we often do our best to answer these questions, this is outside the scope of the Technical Committee's role. You will likely have better luck finding an answer to your question by asking at a monthly Membership Meeting or on one of the various nets. You'll be tapping into a much larger pool of knowledge. The Technical Committee is not Technical Support.
If you're having trouble with one of the club systems -- like a technical issue on one of our repeaters -- please send us a note. The Technical Committee is responsible for the maintenance of club systems and your feedback helps us do our job by alerting is to problems when they first appear.
Tech Committee Specialist Roles
The Technical Committee is currently comprised of specialists in these areas. One person may fill the role of more than one specialist position. The committee will be periodically reorganized with positions added and removed as necessary to suit the club's needs:
- RDF/QRM Team (2 seats, filled) - The RDF/QRM Team helps the committee with the resolution of interference and other direction-finding activities. They may periodically organize related club activities such as fox hunts and directional antenna-building exercises.
- IT Specialist (2 seats, 1 vacant) - The IT specialists help maintain the club's information technology systems and infrastructure, including the network hardware at our repeater site, AREDN network VPN links and WAN connectivity, club e-mail and web services, and the club's password management system.
- Yaesu System Fusion Specialist (1 seat, filled) - The YSF specialist is our club's expert on Yaesu System Fusion, including Wires-X. They are responsible for configuring and maintaining the Wires-X gateway, Virginia Room, and other functions of the YSF repeaters.
- DMR Specialist (1 seat, filled) - The DMR specialist is the club's expert on DMR, including our repeater, the C-Bridge connection, talkgroup configuration, etc.
- RF Technical Specialist (1 seat, filled) - The RF Techncial Specialists are the ones with the fancy test equipment and the know-how to use it. They perform periodic tests and preventive maintenance on our repeater systems and related equipment and provide valuable technical knowledge about all things radio.
- AREDN/Data Specialist (2 seats, 2 vacant) - AREDN specialists will be our experts helping with the build-out and maintenance of the AREDN broadband mesh backbone and its various services.
Contact Us
You can reach the Technical Committee at techcomm@rats.net, or the Technical Committee Chairman/Trustee at techcomm-chair@rats.net. Individual members of the Tech Committee may be reachable using a "Send message" button or other contact information they have chosen to make available through member profiles listed in the roster below.