Meeting Minutes for November 10, 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.

Business Reports

Chairman’s opening comments: Member at Large Harlan Ohlson called the meeting to order at 9:35 am. Introductions were made around the tables.  Attendance today: 14.

Adoption of draft minutes of last meeting: October meeting minutes were approved as drafted.

Secretary-Treasurer Finance and Correspondence Reports: Checking, Sixty dollars in dues received, ending balance of $767.90. Starting balance in Savings $686.73, interest $.11, ending balance of $68.07

Committee Reports

Technical Committee Report:  For today’s presentation George Slebodnik and Bob DiDonato gave an overview of the Thales Liberty multi-band product series.

As the 2010 Winter Olympics are only two months away Harlan is working on getting someone to give the committee an update on communications at the December meeting.

In lieu of a technical presentation a lunch buffet will be provided at the December meeting 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. Alan will also investigate pricing options when the web site hosting fees are up for renewal at the end of the year.   (OPEN)

 

FCC Report: There has been some discussion of delaying the current VHF/UHF narrowband deadlines and narrowbanding 800 MHz.  (Open)

Old Business

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. Baldi continues. The source was traced to a system operated by a school district on an adjacent (7.5KHz) channel. The system runs high power (100w+ erp), TDMA digital format, within clear line of site of Baldi, the system was in operation before a license was approved. They have subsequently received a license but there is some question as to if their operation is within the parameters of the license. The school district hired a contractor to provide a solution to upgrade their communications and this system is what the contractor provided. The district would like to have a solution but do not have adequate technical staff to resolve this or other related issues and have gone to other vendors for help.

Issues like this are likely to increase as narrowbanding progresses. (OPEN)

FRS Issues: No report.  (OPEN)

700 MHz Planning & Meetings: Washington State Department of Transportation is experimenting with 700MHz for data transmission.

Seattle and King County have requested a waiver to implement a broad band data system. Sixteen other metropolitan areas have also requested a waiver.

There is still talk of a national broad band network. 

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: Wiztronics started negotiations with the TA over a year ago and are still working though the frustrating process.

Washington State Department of Transportation has a planning agreement.

Adcomm Engineering is actively involved in rebanding issues for a number of clients. Much of their efforts evolve working on the inventory and compatibility between the legacy ancillary equipment and the replacement radio hardware such as audio intercom systems in fire department vehicles. They expect reprogramming in this area is likely to start around the fourth quarter of 2010.

Processes that were developed and worked for the previous waves of rebanding are being applied to wave four. These processes are not working for wave four because of the extra complexity created by the terrain, population density and international border issues.  Regional planning 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: Past president and current NORCOM director Chris Fisher has been appointed a Radio Club of America fellowNo report.  http://www.apcowa.org/      http://www.apcointl.org/  (OPEN)

License-free or Spread-Spectrum technology issues: No report.  (OPEN)

4.9 GHz:. (OPEN)

Amateur radio activity: KD7NM, Bob Darnel passed away suddenly last month. He was active with several organizations and a major player in organizing ham support for the Seattle Marathon.

ESCA assisted in the operation of several H1N1 vaccine clinics.  

BPL information available at http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/plc/  (OPEN)

New Business

Items of Information

Recently there have been discussions in the Amatuer Radio community and articles in the ARRL news on Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) effects and protection. This was sparked by reports of a major solar flare activity and what affect it would have. Common engineering standards in the communications industry (R56, etc.) address lightening and RF protection but are they effective for EMP protection?

There is a locally produced Emergency Preparedness software to help emergency managers organize their assets and responses.

 

Moved and seconded to adjourn at 10:35 AM.

Technical Seminar

Bob and George from Thales Communications made a presentation involving a quick overview of what is available today in multiband radios. Thales offers the Liberty model series of radio and they had a number on hand to demonstrate as they discussed the product and answered questions about mutiband radios in detail.

Respectfully submitted,

Steven Mayes,  Secretary/Treasurer

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