Where is the Dashboarding Summit going to be?

Hi, Mark:

Have you guys decided where and when the 2001
Wireless Forum will be? We may well be interested!

D.U.

Road Greetings David,

One of our early considered locations was the Trona Pinnacles area near Ridgecrest, California. If you have never been there -- it is very un-worldly -- in fact, the newet incarnation of the movie "Planet of the Apes" has been using the area as one of their primary filming locations. The BLM has the primary governmental jurisdiction and it is both reasonably remote and close to urban amentities.

However the relative lack of build-out of wireless networks have us wondering if we shouldn't dealy the summit a few more months -- decision to hold-off has not been made yet -- what are your thoughts on the matter?

RW

Hi, Mark:

The planned location sounds fantastic for dry camping. We do plan (that might be too strong a word here - the concept of "...having an inclination toward..." might be more accurate) to be on the West Coast (Washington, Oregon, California) in the Fall and early Winter, from about the end of Sept through December, more or less. So that time frame would work for us in general. How much is likely to change between now and then, however, is the question. Would a year's delay provide more information to be shared?

That area of the USA may support CDPD and Analog networks, plus GlobalStar but 2.5 generation digital networks are likely to be in short supply. It is unlikely that a year delay will change much of the network availability -- So, we are still in the pondering mode. But thanks for the interest!

RW

Greetings David,

We have decided to move the official date to 2002, although there still may be an informal weekend in the Fall, of 2001 if you are going to be around.

Mark

Hi everyone. How about putting our equipment to a real test and holding the Dashboard Summit way out there. One of my fav places is the Lunar Crater volcanic field in central Nevada. The Basin and Range Province is a real radio challenge. It's got that Area 51 flavor to it, too. Not all that popular, either, so we'd most probably have the region to ourselves.

Maybe by then I can figure out how to get a 2.4Kb connection on my Inmarsat 3 WorldPhone for three bucks a minute. I'm not that desperate, yet. My Orbcomm handheld unit seems to do just fine with 2-way text-only e-mail, and in North America it works quite smoothly for 30 bucks a month. I just got a mag-mount antenna for the RV and it really cranks. A true dashboard accessory!

The Pinnacles have certain logistical advantages. What are the considerations? Maybe my Lunar idea is not so hot for those reasons. Did y'all know the Pinnacles were also used for the final scenes of one of the worst Star Trek movies ever made?

- hellwinger

Hail Dashboader!, (aka Hellwinger)
There is some advantage in holding the event where there is at least the barest expectation that a couple selections of equipment will actually work. If we are limited to GlobalStar an Orbcom -- the total period of our testing will last about an hour. I have been catching some heat from folks after I weaseled the date back to 2002 -- so I think there will be an "un-official" (limited press attendance) sometime this year.

Pinnacles is also the location for the latest version of the Planet of the Apes movie, now filming.

RW