Meeting Minutes for October 13, 2009
Web Page: www.wwcic.org
Information Line Phone Number: 425-820-6271
Dates for WWCIC meetings for 2009 Meetings will be held on the 2nd Tuesday like always, with no meeting in August . The current location for regular meetings is the Washington State Patrol Office in Bellevue.
Chairman’s opening
comments: Vice Chairman Jon Wiswell
called the meeting to order at 9:30 am. Introductions were made around the
tables. Attendance today: 11.
Secretary-Treasurer
Finance and Correspondence Reports: Checking, no activity, ending balance of $767.90.
Starting balance in Savings $686.73, interest $.12, ending balance of $686.96
The
proposal by Kim Torp-Petersen to send a letter of thanks to the WSP for the
committee’s use of the Bellevue District Office conference room and to
acknowledge the waiver of dues for the WSP, City of Seattle and the FCC was
voted on and passed. The WSP dues are waived for the use of the conference room.
The City of Seattle waiver is for the years of phone connectivity and other
support of the WWCIC bulletin board computer. The FCC waiver is for the support
they give to the committee.
Technical Committee
Report: For today’s presentation Jim Alworth From Icom gave an a
P25 update as well as a general overview of the state of digital technology in
the radio world. In lieu of a technical presentation a light lunch buffet will
be provided at the December courtesy of Chairman George. Suggestions for technical presentations at meetings are
always welcome. (OPEN
Web Site Report:
All is well. Alan will be working
with Harlan to enable Harlan to post information items directly to the web site
and be a secondary webmaster. (OPEN)
BPL Issues: As
a result of legal challenges to FCC rulings filed by the Amateur Radio Relay
League the FCC lowered the extrapolation factor for signal level measurement for
BPL from 40 to 30dB/decade, the ARRL had requested 20. http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/07/22/10977/?nc=1
(OPEN)
150/450 MHz IX:
Interference to a 153.005 MHz receiver on Mt. Baldy was noted by the user. (OPEN)
FRS Issues:
No report. (OPEN)
700 MHz Planning &
Meetings:
September meeting was held. The
700 MHz web sites are www.region43.org
for Washington State, and www.region35.org,
for Oregon. (OPEN)
800 MHz IX and Nextel
issues: The
September meeting centered around rebanding issues. Meetings are schedule for
the last Wednesday of the month. (OPEN)
XM and Sirius Satellite
Radio News: Nothing new to report. (OPEN)
APCO business or reports
and general frequency coordination news: No report. http://www.apcowa.org/
http://www.apcointl.org/
(OPEN)
4.9
GHz: The City of Seattle use 4.9 GHz
is working well and they are ordering more equipment for some point to point
applications, phone connectivity to replace some leased lines. They are already
using it for incidents to replace down circuits and/or backhaul video/data/voice
from the scene using Motorola Canopy equipment. Region 43 is registering users
and maintaining a database to provide some amount of coordination activity. (OPEN)
Amateur radio activity:
The City of Woodinville has started a training and familiarization program with
the new EOC equipment, City officials, Amateur Radio volunteers and Emergency
Service Coordinating Agency (ESCA).
A
grant proposal is in progress to get Amateur Radio equipment permanently
installed in Public Safety Answering Points. (PSAPs) and organize Amateur Radio
operators to operate them in the event they are needed to backup the primary
lines of communications.
The
FCC recently reiterated the rules on use of Amateur Radio verses Professional
communications. http://www.arrl.org/news/files/ARRL_AppropriateUseGuidelines.pdf
A UHF P25 repeater in on
the air in Snohomish County.
An inquiry was
received about how to comply with the WWCIC engineering standard when the radio
device only has one RF connection. The equipment in question is a 900MHz radio
used for utility telemetry. The response was that some products are well
designed and will have incorporated some or all of the necessary components to
meet the standard internally within the equipment case. The situation referred
to is similar to a single antenna port base station or a mobile radio used as a
base station. In the case of the base station many have provisions to access the
tx and rx signal path before the antenna port to be able to insert filtering.
This is not the case with a mobile radio without extensive modification which
voids the FCC type acceptance and therefore not acceptable although some people
do it. Using one mobile radio for tx and one for rx is a way around that but not
recommended for multi-user sites due to reduced specs of mobile radios compared
to a fixed station.
The WWCIC standard is recognized and referenced by many of the major site
managers. The standard is not all inclusive due to the effort it would require
develop a standard to address every situation and technology. In a situation
such as this one most site managers work with the user to work out an acceptable
solution to both parties.
Suggested agenda items for the next meeting with our Canadian counterparts are rebanding and Winter Olympics review.
Moved and seconded to adjourn at 10:35 AM.
Technical
Seminar
A presentation on the
status of P25 standards was given by Jim Alworth from Icom.
Respectfully submitted,