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1996 News, Events and Activities


The following contains a brief summary of PEACESAT News, Events, and Activities.  The information is not complete and dependent on information provided by PEACESAT Sites.


December 29, 1996 -- U.S. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE -- Norman H. Okamura received notification from Mr. Ed Young of the U.S. National Weather Service in Honolulu that the prototype collaboration project with the National Weather Service in Pohnpei has been approved.  This project was conceptualized by John Miller of the Guam NSW, Norman Okamura, and Lori Mukaida.  The project is intended to experiment with a collaborative relationship involving the FSM National Emergency Management Office, Pohnpei State Emergency Management Office, the FSM Health Ministry, Pacific Islands Health Officers Association, Pacific Region Office of the National Weather Service, and PEACESAT to deliver improved information access and data services in emergency management.
 
The objectives of the project are: (a) to determine whether the NWS can provide technical support for the electronic mail systems in Pohnpei that are being developed by PIHOA/PEACESAT Electronic Post Office Project; and, (b) to test the voice systems capabilities of Digital PEACESAT.  Mr. John Miller, NWS-Guam, is the project Point of Contact for the U.S. National Weather Service.
 

December 10, 1996 -- PREL, CHALLENGE GRANT -- PREL and Pacific Islands education leadership from Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Yap review Challenge Grant Proposal -- James Bannan (Pacific Region Educational Laboratories), Norman Okamura, and Christina Higa hosted a meeting with educational personnel from the Pacific Islands to discuss the results of a grant proposal to the U.S. Department of Education. Participating in the meetings were:

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December 13, 1996 -- APIL -- Norman Okamura and Christina Higa hosted a meeting with Senator Herman Semes (Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia), Representative Santus Wichimai (Vice Speaker, Yap State Legislature), Greg Calvo, Executive Director of the Association of Pacific Islands Legislatures, and David Nada (Branch Chief, Product Promotion Branch, Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBED&T).
 
December 4, 1996 -- REPUBLIC OF THE MARSHALL ISLANDS -- Christina and Tom hosted U.S. Ambassador to RMI Joan Plaisted, RMI Ambassador to the U.S. Banny deBrum, Russell Edward, Tom Kean, Lt. Commander Doug Smith of CINCPAC, and Lt. Col. John Cole, DoD and Department of State. Christina Higa, Acting Director, and Thomas Okamura, Manager of Systems and Programs, used PEACESAT to network in Dr. Andy Kuniyuki of the College of the Marshall Islands.  A specific issue that was discussed was whether PEACESAT could facilitate voice and data services to Ebeye, one of the atolls of the RMI. Ebeye is approximately 2 miles from Kwajalein and has a ferry between the two atolls.
 
November 12 to December 6, 1996 -- TRAVEL AND MEETING IN PACIFIC ISLANDS BY PEACESAT -- William Jahn (Director of Telecommunications Policy for Micronesia and Mexico, U.S. Department of State), Pat Henry (Telecommunications Specialist, Department of Interior), Lori Mukaida (Director of PEACESAT), and Norman H. Okamura (Telecommunications and Information Specialist, Social Science Research Institute) visited the Pacific Island economies of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia (Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap), Guam, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau.  The purposes of the trip were to participate in Ministerial meetings in the RMI and Republic of Palau mandated by the Compact of Free Association and to meet with Emergency Management Agencies. Existing PEACESAT Sites were also visited. The trips were busy and eventful.
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October 31, 1996 -- FEMA -- The new Director of the Pacific Area Office of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, Mr. William Carwile, visited the University of Hawaii to obtain a briefing on the PEACESAT network, programs, and operations.
 
October 18, 1996 -- PACIFIC CAUCUS OF EMERGENCY MANAGERS -- An extensive workshop on the PEACESAT network, data communications, networking and services was given to the Pacific Caucus of Emergency Managers at Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel.
 
October 15, 1996 -- SAIPAN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT OFFICE -- Mr. Robert Guerrero, Director of the CNMI Emergency Management Office, and staff visited PEACESAT to discuss the data applications.
 
October 7, 1996 -- NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE -- Christina Higa, Norman Okamura, and Thomas Okamura gave a presentation on PEACESAT and the Emergency Management Network to regional representatives of the U.S. National Weather Service meeting in Honolulu.
 
September 23, 1996 -- PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE -- Mr. John Walmsley from the Office of Pacific Health, U.S. Public Health Service, visited PEACESAT to discuss the status of the Emergency Management Network.
 
August 23, 1996 -- GERARD PASCUA, CHARGES DES' AFFAIRES, US EMBASSEY IN PALAU -- Mr. Gerard Pascua visited PEACESAT to obtain a briefing on the program. Christina Higa, Acting Director of PEACESAT, and Thomas Okamura, conducted the briefing.
 
August 18-23, 1996 -- APEC Human Resources Development -- Norman Okamura participated in an APEC Human Resources Development meeting in Vancouver, Canada.
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August 7, 1996 -- POHNPEI -- Ms. Marilyn Lee, Attorney General, Federated States of Micronesia visited PEACESAT to discuss the status of the EMN Site Installation. Picture of the completed base were provided.
 
July 30, 1996 -- PALAU -- Ms. Judy Dean, Assistant to the Vice President, Republic of Palau, visited PEACESAT to discuss the Emergency Management Network Project.
 
July 29, 1996 -- FORUM FISHERIES AGENCY -- Mr. Albert Carlo of the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) visited PEACESAT to discuss the Digital PEACESAT networking capabilities.
 
June 25, 1996 -- CHARGES DES' AFFAIRES -- Mr. Don Ahern and Ms. Cheryl Martin (Charges de' Affaires for the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia) visited PEACESAT at the University of Hawaii to obtain a briefing on the program. Norman Okamura, Christina Higa, and Thomas Okamura gave presentations on the network prior to the discussions.
 
April 17, 1996 -- PTFP PROPOSALS, GUAM, HAWAII, AMERICAN SAMOA -- Three proposals to the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP) were submitted.  The University of Guam submitted a proposal for a Hub Site.  Bruce Best, John Woodard, and PEACESAT Honolulu collaborated on the preparation of the proposal.  The American Samoa Government submitted a proposal for a Hub Site. Ms. Susan Yakutis, Mr. Jerry Norris, and PEACESAT Honolulu (Norman Okamura, Christina Higa, and Thomas Okamura) collaborated on the preparation of the proposal.  PEACESAT Headquarters submitted a proposal to plan for the extension of PEACESAT services outside the urban areas in Guam, Saipan, and American Samoa. This proposal was prepared by Lori Mukaida, Norman Okamura, Christina Higa, and Thomas Okamura. PEACESAT Honolulu coordinated the proposals and assisted in the writing of the grants.
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February 20-21, 1996 -- ARMY EDUCATION -- The Army regional education program requested and received a demonstration of PEACESAT and discussed distance learning programs in the military.
 
February 20-21, 1996 -- DEMONSTRATIONS OF DIGITAL PEACESAT -- PEACESAT held a roll-out of the Digital PEACESAT network. The rollout described the new digital PEACESAT capabilities and demonstrated digital voice, data and Internet access, and video teleconferencing. Dr. Donald M. Topping opened the session. Ms. Lori Mukaida welcomed participants and introduced the program. Dr. Norman Okamura summarized the Digital PEACESAT developments. Ms. Christina Higa directed the demonstrations, including digital compressed voice teleconferencing. Mr. Thomas Okamura explained and demonstrated compressed video teleconferencing and Mr. Lew Meteliz showed Internet WWW access and electronic mail.
 
February 16, 18, 1996 -- FREQUENCY CHANGES FOR PEACESAT SITES -- To avoid the possibility of frequency interference with the French SPOT satellite, PEACESAT recommended to NTIA that a conversion of frequencies be made. The request was approved by NTIA and PEACESAT Sites completed frequency changes through thumbnail changes. The conversion went very smoothly thanks to the training and information provided by Christina Higa, Tom Okamura, and the PEACESAT engineers.
 
February 1, 1996 -- AMBASSADOR JOAN PLAISTED -- Newly appointed Ambassador to the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Joan Plaisted, visited PEACESAT at the University of Hawaii to obtain a briefing on the program and to discuss the interest of the RMI to locate the PEACESAT Hub Site in Majuro. Lori Mukaida, Norman Okamura, and Christina Higa gave presentations on the network prior to the discussions.
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January 19, 1996 -- ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC ISLAND LEGISLATURES -- Mr. Jerry Norris, Executive Director of the Pacific Basin Development Council; Dr. Norman Okamura, Principal Investigator of the Emergency Management Network; and Mr. Dave Kennard, EMN Project Manager gave presentations to the Association of Pacific Island Legislatures on the EMN Project.
 
January 19, 1996 -- PEACESAT FORUM -- PEACESAT hosted a forum to discuss PEACESAT and telecommunications development in the Pacific. Mr. Edmond Durand (Director, Telecommunications Division, Forum Secretariat), Professor Toshio Kosuge (University of Electro-Communications), and others participated in the information exchange and discussion.
 
January 15, 1996 -- MARINE-AIR SYSTEMS and DIGITAL PEACESAT -- Mr. John Leary, Chief Engineer and Project Manager for Marine-Air Systems (MAS) of New Zealand arrived in Honolulu to work on the final tests for Digital PEACESAT.
 
January 14-18, 1996 -- PACIFIC TELECOMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE '96 -- PEACESAT participated in the presentation of several papers related to telecommunications and the PEACESAT Program.
 
Norman Okamura and Ed Durand (Forum Secretariat) presented a paper on the Pacific telecommunications and information infrastructure.
 
Christina Higa, David Kennard (FEMA), Marilyn Shigetani (American Red Cross/FEMA), and Jerry Norris (Pacific Basin Development Council) presented a paper on emergency communications.
 
Lori Mukaida, Jimione Samisoni (Fiji School of Medicine), Scott Norton (Tripler Army Medical Center), Greg Dever (Pohnpei Medical Officers Training Program, University of Hawaii), and Steve Bice (U.S. Public Health Service) presented a paper on telemedicine experiments in the Pacific.
 
Thomas Okamura and Bruce Best (PEACESAT Manager, University of Guam) presented a paper on extending communications to very remote islands. 
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