[Coco] Amateur radio CoCo net

[Aaron Wolfe]

Tomorrow evening at 9:30PM EST we will have a net on echolink node
522348.  I'll have the node online 30 minutes prior
if you need to test your connection.

Last week the group decided we should try to open the net to all
interested CoCo nuts using some conferencing mechanism that is not
limited to licensed radio amateurs.  If anyone has suggestions or
comments on a method that would work well, please let me know.

What I've found so far is that every VoIP platform seems to have a
gotcha.  The best seems to be Skype.  There are Skype clients for all
major platforms, although it is limited to 25 users in a conference.
That may not be an issue for us.  I think the largest ham net had only
8 participants.

Another option is Mumble.. http://mumble.sourceforge.net/    This is
open source, has clients for Win/Mac/Linux and has no limits on
participants.  However, the installation and setup is not as simple as
Skype.  I'd like to make it as easy as possible for any interested
people to join.

Beyond the program used, there is the question of format.  Right now
we do an informal sort of round table, with one person responsible for
directing things when needed.  Since all participants are ham radio
operators with experience in how these things work, and there just
aren't that many of us in the conference, it flows pretty smoothly.
I wonder if we had more people (and people who are not practiced in
how to maintain order in a potentially chaotic situation) if we should
try to organize things a bit differently.  We could do short
presentation(s) with Q&A, or simply a more directed conference with
someone controlling the flow.  I think some of the conferencing
programs let participants "raise their hand" via some indicator.

The target date for a first "open" net is November 2nd.

-Aaron