Chairman George Bisso called the meeting to order at 09:38.  Introductions were made around the tables.  DRAFT Minutes of the Dec 11, 2001 meeting were reviewed, and approved.

FINANCIAL REPORT

  OLD BUSINESS

800 MHz IX  Jon Wiswell spoke about issues in the Portland area, from technical folk saying that Nextel is cooperating, but problems still exist.  There have been extensive intermod tests and frequency swaps, so systems don’t interfere, but there are still some overloading troubles from high RF levels.  Wiz plans further tests in King Co/Seattle areas.  There are 14K users here compared to 6K in the Portland area.  Meeting with Nextel is planned toward end of Jan for further discussions and progress.  Testing has been done on a number of different kinds of radios, but results are not conclusive.  Most of the tests have been with Spectra radios  There were questions about MCS 2000 radios.  Further discussion centered on power levels from Nextel sites.  A suggestion was made to try to have a Nextel representative attend the meetings, and perhaps write a letter requesting they send a Management rep.  Should the group consider a letter to the President of Nextel?  Steve Leonard has been coming, and been very helpful in describing some of the technical parameters.  Chuck Z related some of his experiences about power levels, and Perry W talked about lower power needs from higher sites, vs higher power in lower elevation sites, making IM worse in the urban areas.  Custom filters in receivers may reduce IM, but that doesn’t help older existing equipment, where no manufactured modification exists.  A Motorola modification kit is only available for the MTS 2000.  They charge $60-80/radio shipped to their facility, and can do 100 units at a time, but there are problems collecting that many radios from various agencies to ship, and still have spares.  Wiz related that the SPD Astro Sabre radios work a little better than MTS 2K, and operational techniques help, but getting all radios modified is a logistics challenge.  Encourage users to order new radios with the mod kit installed at factory.  Pat Buller will glean perspective to bring back in Feb from APCO tech updates.  Members are asked to bring questions for Nextel to the Feb meeting,  and maybe Steve Leonard can either answer or send them to the right people.  There was some brief discussion about bi-directional amplifiers from Dennis Anderson and Wiz.  The feeling was to get away from them for better in-building coverage, but the fiber alternative is expensive.   (OPEN)

700 MHz Planning Meetings  Pat Buller says there is a meeting in Jan.  There are plans for auction of some “new” lower-700 MHz spectrum.  George provided an article about the issue, and Loren later sent a copy to Dennis Anderson.  Contact Jon Wiswell or Pat for more info.  (OPEN)

Joint Meeting 2002  Discussion about whether WCTC is active, Canada would normally host this year, as last was at Sudden Valley.  Kris McGowan will contact Bob Fedoruk, Industry Canada, to initiate communication about the joint meeting and WCTC.  Suggested topics and questions should begin to be developed.  Loren will work on contacting counterparts from last year’s list.  (OPEN)

Meeting Location  For now, we will continue to meet at the Washington State Patrol facility.  Jay Schmierer will reserve the conference area at WSP through the end of 2002.  Others are welcome to suggest alternative facilities.  (CLOSED)

Bulletin Board Line  The bulletin board line is to be shut down.  (CLOSED)

NEW BUSINESS

Mobile Satellite system coverage problem  Alan Robinson heard from TMI Comm that there are some coverage problems in the Seattle area, 1552.232 & 1547 MHz.  Kris McGowan had responded to the problem, but may have had some analytical equipment trouble.  George Bisso mentioned that XM Satellite was also having some trouble in this area.  2-way pagers have some new equipment on Cougar Mt at 1.2 KW (Metrocall), use panel antennas at 1.2 GHz.  Arch also has some.  DOD has a new Spectrum Management boss- Steven Price.  They are active in the 3 GHz area. (OPEN)

Technical Seminars at meetings--  There is continuing interest in the “seminars” that were proposed some time ago, to be presented at our meetings.  Wiz did one previously on trunked radio technology.  (OPEN)

Items of Information

FCC  Dennis Anderson spoke about a new auto-response system for contacting FCC.  Use (800)-callfcc.  To access a live person at any time in the process, push 0.  It is available 0800-1730, M-F.  The feeling is that Michael Powell, FCC Chairman, is doing a good job, he is more “people-friendly” and better organized.  There was some forfeiture in the telecom area for “Slamming”.  FCC Seattle was successful in closing down an unlicensed FM broadcaster.  Most FCC documents can be found on FCC’s website www.fcc.gov.  If you would like help, or like to know how to get hard copy, please contact Dennis Anderson.

Miscellaneous

Steve Mayes brought some information about high-powered “long-range” phones that use linear amplifiers.  That’s a NO-NO.  Apparently they are manufactured outside the country.

We need to verify if Harlan Ohlson is willing to continue as Member-at-large #2.  Secretary/Treasurer Loren went to the US Bank, Totem Lake branch, where our accounts are, and procured a new signature card, to place all the elected Officers as authorized signers on the accounts.  The issue should be completely resolved at the Feb meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 11:11, and many thanks to Kris for bringing the Krispy Kremes.  More please…  mmm, mmm good!  Great coffee too, Jay.  Thanks to everyone for your interest and support for WWCIC.

Loren H. Postma

Secretary/Treasurer