Dates for WWCIC meetings for 2007   Meetings will be held on the 2^nd Tuesday like always, with no meeting in August and November joint meeting with our Canadian counterparts.  The current location for regular meetings is the Washington State Patrol Office in Bellevue.

Business Reports

Chairman’s opening comments: Chairman George Bisso called the meeting to order at 9:42 am. Introductions were made around the tables.  Attendance today: 12.

Secretary-Treasurer Finance and Correspondence Reports: The room deposit of $500 was not credited to our bill when presented at the November meeting at Semiahmoo. The banquet planner that handled the arrangements was out for several days. George contacted Semiahmoo and they have requested a copy of the check to help them follow up.

Committee Reports

Technical Committee Report:  Suggestions for technical presentations at meetings are always welcome.  Several topics and presentations are being worked on for 2008. (OPEN)

Web Site Report:  The invoice for the yearly web site hosting ($107.40) was received and the domain name registration will be expiring ($100 for five years). It was moved and seconded to pay both bills. Alan will reset the hit counter January 1^st. (OPEN)

Old Business

BPL Issues: The Australia’s Aurora Energy company has pulled out of the BPL business.

150/450 MHz IX: No report.  (OPEN)

FRS Issues: Nothing new to report.  (OPEN)

700 MHz Planning & Meetings: The revised plan is due to the FCC Jan. 31, 2008. Adjacent regions 35 (OR) and 12 (ID) need to review and comment before it can be sent to the FCC. The number of secondary channels went up in Snohomish and King Counties. It looks like Canada will follow the US plan when they address revising their band plan probably after 2010. The next meeting scheduled for Dec. 26 is cancelled due to holiday conflicts. 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: As part of rebanding the City of Seattle will have to replace approximately 1,000 portables and 2,000 mobiles.

Sprint/Nextel experienced noise on their 1.9 GHZ system at 8 sites in the Bellingham area that cleared up after they made some inquiries as to possible sources.

Technical Seminars at WWCIC Meetings:  Suggestions for future seminars are welcome. (OPEN)

XM and Sirius Satellite Radio News: No report. (OPEN)

APCO business or reports and general frequency coordination news: No report.  http://www.apcowa.org/ (OPEN)

License-free or Spread-Spectrum technology issues:  Boeing is testing ultrawideband (UWB) technologies for RFID tags, 3D real time location, wireless microphones. One result shows that UWB perform better than point source in large open building environments where multipath has been a problem. (OPEN)

Amateur radio activity: There has been a state funding proposal that Washington State adopt Winlink 2000 as the statewide standard interoperable platform for Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs). This is a digital messaging system that can run via many types of transport networks (the internet, HF,VHF,UHF radio) and is compatible with normal IP mail systems. The linkage between Amateur radio and EOCs in Washington State is getting stronger. The ARRL continues to work on BPL issues.  (OPEN)

New Business

Joint WCTC/WWCIC Meeting

There were a number of people that indicated they would attend and did not show. This combined with last minute needs for presentation supplies (projector, power cords) means the meeting cost us $450. The lunch buffet, all day beverage service, service charge, and tax for the expected 60 people came to $2,163.26 ($36.05/person). Projector and cord rental came to $77.40. Total $2240.66. We had 51 attendees and collected $1790.00.

Items of Information

Weather related communications damage. The main Aberdeen/Hoquiam Qwest central office failed after the propane for the back up generator ran out. This dropped not only the landline phone service but transport for a lot of data and wireless carriers. The road washed out to Boistfort Peak (Baw Faw) taking out the power line, fuel was being airlifted into keep the generators running. Qwest’s fiber to Forks was severed. A bridge along the Oregon coast failed taking out another fiber link. Wireless providers had difficulty with some smaller local telephone providers getting service restored to their equipment.  Most of the sites in the Lewis county area are above the flood level so service did not suffer too badly.

Moved and seconded to adjourn at 11:32 AM.

Respectfully submitted,