WICEN Vic: WICEN in the future

[John & Bronwyn]

Thanks Paul

You have made many useful suggestions about things we could do. I think 
we need to go deeper.

I have had WICEN described to me as "a solution in search of a problem" 
by a senior agency officer.  I think we need to take this comment very 
seriously as probably reflecting a widely held view.

We need to consider a couple of fundamental questions:

What is it we are trying to achieve, as an organisation?  Or to put it 
another way, Why do we / should we exist?   and

Who are our potential customers, and why would they want to use us?

It is very clear that the answers to both questions have fundamentally 
changed over the past decade or two.  Over this time, both have become 
much less clear or have even become undefined, as other organisations 
and communications technology have advanced and evolved.

Perhaps these questions are a good place to start?


To clarify something else, there are two HF data systems approved by the 
WICEN COM.  These are Winlink and the EMCOM system.

Any assertion that Winlink is the only endorsed HF data system is simply 
wrong.

There is extensive information already on WICEN record and in various 
papers (including IARU submissions) regarding the characteristics, 
merits and shortcomings of both and I do not intend to repeat that 
information here.  Suffice to say the systems are very different and are 
designed to achieve different outcomes, and in doing so have different 
performance tradeoffs which affect their utility for emergency comms.

If we are serious about exploiting HF data, we need both systems, and 
this is the position endorsed by COM.  I support this position and I 
hope other WICEN members do too.  And, there is a policy decision that 
members using the EMCOM system will be supported with modems (which 
carry a steep price tag) via a formal equipment loan agreement.  So 
there is no suggestion that members should invest in both systems.

If we need more resources (such as modems) to support the Winlink system 
(or any other WICEN activity), the answer is simple - we write a 
submission for funding to DoJ, which is what I did several years ago.  
We are not so severely resource-constrained that we need to degrade one 
established and functioning system to enhance another.


I look forward to the discussion on Sunday - I hope we can lay the 
foundation for the future.


Cheers,   John



On 21/02/2020 5:55 pm, Paul VK3DPW wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> An interesting and pertinent discussion...
>
> Please find my thoughts attached.
>
> Any comments? I can take your thoughts to the CoOrdinators meeting 
> this Sunday.
>
> '73
>
> Paul Whitaker.
> VK3DPW
> Central Southern Metropolitan Region CoOrdinator.
> 0414314025
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> wicenvic mailing list
> wicenvic at vic.wicen.org.au
> http://vic.wicen.org.au/mailman/listinfo/wicenvic_vic.wicen.org.au
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