Well, that was exactly @tyrower’s point in his latest message.
Must we communicate in english in this topic since we’re addressing a french-speaking community, not always that comfortable with foreign langages?
I understand it might be a requirement of this forum but I’ve haven’t been able to find any reference…
yes … if you browse this international forum you must have noticed.
thank you for understanding.
Hi BoRRoZ,
Thanks for the clarifications.
Can we at least sometimes write “bilingually” do you think (e.g. writing in English and then translating to French below)? Even as a native English-speaker myself, I can see the language being a potential barrier to some who would otherwise be very willing, able and happy to join in with TTN and the community here.
I’m guessing if we set up the Slack channel for our Avignon Community, at least that could be in French? Correct me if I’m wrong.
For info and trying to be helpful, here’s the translation of what I had said a few days ago in French :
And what @crapougnax had replied:
Looking forward to growing our community here in the South of France and taking part in the wider TTN world!
Wishing you a good evening.
A.
Hi tyrotower,
thank you for your efford to translate.
TTN is global, and therefore they decided that english is the only language allowed on the board.
I understand that this can be difficult for some younger people, or technicians who don’t speak the language, also we can’t have moderators for every world language.
So again, no exception, English only
thank you
* from this point non english replies will be removed
Understood. Thanks.
Hello,
I’ve set up a gateway (RPi3 + RAK831N) in Rochefort-Du-Gard a month ago. Just received an outdoor antenna, and thinking how to set it up (gateway in an external enclosure vs. gateway indoor and as short as possible low loass cable to outdoor antenna).
Sadly, gateway is a bit too far from Avignon to be counted as an Avignon’s TTN community one.
Ready for IRL meeting !
Have a nice day
Hello @pilecointre,
I think more and more that we should consider the Avignon community as wide as the agglomeration is (and not only the city limits), since this is the actual way public affairs are handled now.
We should meet ASAP as informally as possible around drinks at a pleasant outdoor location. 
any suggestion welcome !
I think we have most to discuss about hardware (gateways, antennas, range) and obviously devices and use cases.
BTW I just ordered the official TTN gateway that I should receive tomorrow. For those interested, there are one hundred available units at Farnell.
Good day to all.
Hello All,
As of today, we now have an official TTN gateway up and running and covering most of Avignon.
And, oh boy! it was so easy to setup and it now works like a charm.
I think we need a similar-range gateway in Agroparc to expand our city coverage towards businesses. I’m discussing with companies in the area to that effect.
Cheers.
Well done @crapougnax ! It’ll be brilliant to extend and cover as large a surrounding area as possible ;o) The “Grand Avignon” region and further across Vaucluse and into the Gard.
Now we’re just missing 3 more members to be official. We’ll keep spreading the word =o)
It won’t be too long… One company is already onboarding. Another one should follow. All individuals and institutions (University?) are also obviously welcome!
Olivier,
Do you have any documentation on how safe is installing a antenna? lot of “corporate” and other are asking me those question before I can put a GW on their building.
such has what size, what radiation, is it safe for environment, people, …
I’m not there yet, only using indoor antennas but I’ve seen some documentation regarding lightning on the TTN website at https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/gateways/lightning-protection.html
I doesn’t start to cover all of the concerns you evoke but it’s a start. The legal matter should also not be ignored, after all we are in France and there are more regulations than inhabitants 
My 2 cents, starting with indoor antennas and simple gateways is the way to go in urban zones where density will offset limited range. In rural areas, robust gateways with outdoor antennas might be the solution but with price markup that only deep-pocket businesses, institutions or crowdfunding may match, at least for the time being.
I’m gonna ask a colleague with an extensive knowledge about radio and antennas about that to try and gather some good practices.
When asked these questions my reply is: radiation is less than an WiFi access point, also LoRaWAN gateways send a lot less compared to access points. The power is also a fraction of what a cell phone potentially uses (max 2 watt) at these frequencies which people put next to their heads.
For a TTN Avignon get-together sometime, we could maybe invite some of my friends from ARV84 (Amateur/HAM Radio club in Vaucluse based in Althen-des-Paluds). I’m sure they’d love to fill us in on everything from antennas to legislation to self-builds. They’re a great bunch of people and the specialists in this area. I think they’d enjoy presenting their knowledge and we’d learn lots about these questions.
Which reminds me, I really need to get round to passing my Ham Radio licence…“one of these four days” 
Nearly there! We’re up to 80% now. And our 3rd Avignon gateway - Thierry MAIGNAN’s in Montfavet/Agroparc - is up!
Just need to get that existing #avignon Slack Channel validated by the Core Team INRA Avignon account, and then we can meet up to Celebrate and “get motoring” properly 
Hi,
At the moment our colleagues from Montpellier are doing some tests with TTN.
We are impatient to experiment too here in Avignon after summer.
We are happy to see the community we have initiated growing.
We have two new core team members who can access the dashboard if needed : https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/community/avignon/dashboard/general
We also have sent a request for a slack access, we hope to have news soon.
Have a nice day
Fantastic ! Thank you team @INRA-Avignon for initiating and for the update. And thanks for inviting Olivier and myself into the Core Team.
Hope to meet you all soon. For anyone who hasn’t yet joined, don’t forget to link up with us on the Slack channel and follow the Meetup group to know when we’re going to have our first get-together. We’ll keep you posted here too as soon as we have a venue (that’s what we’re waiting on). Wishing you all a good 1st May.
A.
Great news. We have a venue sorted for our 1st meetup thanks to @crapougnax !
Participate in our Doodle to choose the best suitable date :
https://doodle.com/poll/kwexyxeiu7ws4ekd
We’ll be fully up and running by early June.