Some good ideas. I've also found 2M active most areas of the country, along with some 70cm. (In our area, unfortunately, the Air Force had to have all of the area 440mhz repeaters shut down because they apparently interfeared with the Pave Paws Radar on Cape Cod. That's primarily designed to detect ICBM's and SLBM's fired at the east coast...) Recently, we've had some very wide area coverage added to the region with 6M repeaters on mountain tops. Nice.
In addition to ARRL, you might check to see if there is a local amateur club. I found quite a few folks in our local club that were very skilled in the digital comm's modes. I'd also suggest you see if there is an ARES or RACES group in the area. The people involved in Skywarn are also usually tied into the local Ham community. Here are a couple things to try:
ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) for Eastern Mass:
http://ares.ema.arrl.org/index.phpSkywarn national home:
http://www.skywarn.org/US Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service:
http://www.usraces.org/Even if you're not into getting involved with emergency comm's as a volunteer, you'll be in touch with folks that are pretty up to date on currently technology, and will know the local infrastructure that you can connect with.
73 N1GFS
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