Meeting Minutes for December 8, 2009

Web Page: www.wwcic.org

Information Line Phone Number: 425-820-6271

Dates for WWCIC meetings for 2010   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: Chairman George Bisso called the meeting to order at 9:37. Introductions were made around the tables.  A moment of silence was observed in memoriam for recent deaths of local law enforcement officers. Attendance today: 14.

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

Secretary-Treasurer Finance and Correspondence Reports: Checking, no activity, ending balance of $767.90. Starting balance in Savings $687.07, interest $.09, ending balance of $687.16.

Committee Reports

Technical Committee Report:  For today’s presentation Bob Schwent from the Washington State Patrol gave an overview of the state’s preparations for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Tentatively NARDA is scheduled to present on RF safety in January and Harris is scheduled to present on multi-band radios in February.

Suggestions for technical presentations at meetings are always welcome. (OPEN)

Web Site Report:  Alan is investigating pricing options when the web site hosting fees are up for renewal at the end of the year, he expects to have a report in January.   (OPEN)

FCC Report: Kris is still the only technical person in the Seattle office and is very busy. She has been promised help during the Winter Olympics in the short term. They are still working on staffing the existing vacancies in the office. (Open)

Old Business

BPL Issues: No report. (OPEN)

150/450 MHz IX: Interference to a 153.005 MHz receiver on Mt. Baldi continues. Preliminary investigation indicates this to be a result of a licensing issue where the new system causing interference was licensed improperly. How it happened, whether the application was incorrect or there was a error somewhere later in the licensing process is unclear at this time. Several members will be trying to get accurate information and report at the next meeting. Issues like this are likely to increase as narrowbanding progresses. (OPEN)

700 MHz Planning & Meetings: The November and December meetings were canceled due to low activity and holiday season. There is a region 35 RPC (OR) meeting December 18 at which there will be discussion of coordination along the Washington and Oregon State border.

Canada has put out a request for comments and generally indicate they will align  with the US 700/800 MHz bandplan.

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 City of Seattle is progressing with replacing there subscriber units and is expected to take 24 months. They have an inventory of around 15,000 units with a two to one ratio of portables to mobiles. Most of the mobile radios will need to be replaced as a result of rebanding. So far they have been replacing about 250 portables and 40 mobiles per month.

Regional planning meetings are schedule for the last Wednesday of the month.  (OPEN)

XM and Sirius Satellite Radio News: The use of terrestrial fill in transmitters is still unresolved. Customer base is declining with the loss of over 675,000 subscribers in the first half of 2009. (OPEN)

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

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

4.9 GHz: The City of Seattle is increasing their use of 4.9GHz. Uses include RF backhaul and replacing T-1 circuits supporting the radio system, Seattle Public Utilities and Telephone Services.

No reports of problems with Boeing systems.

A reminder that point to point linking is a secondary use of 4.9GHz.  (OPEN)

Amateur radio activity: The antenna cable roof penetration for the amateur radios recently installed at the Woodinville EOC is leaking. The city installed the cable runs and not the Amateurs so the city is resealing the cable entry.   

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

New Business

The FCC is pushing for internet access via TV channels as an avenue to make broadband available to the public.

Washington State’s basic response to the 2010 Winter Olympics in British Columbia is business as usual. The Winter Olympics are a Canadian function. This means agencies will not be in a emergency mode but will carry on with the normal daily functions. This does not mean there will not be impacts and that they are not prepared. The plan calls for a basic staff at the Coordination Center until something happens, however indications are that everyone has decided that they need to be there in the beginning but will leave when they find out there is not much going on or to do.

The focus is not on hardware but planning. The Dept. of Homeland Security-Office of Emergency Communications provided administrative organization and funding for planning and training exercises. Communications is listed often in after action reports as problematic. Many times the problem is not the ability to communicate but the how to, ie; the interop channel was in the radio but the operator did not know it or the communications center did not know there was a channel or computer system set aside for coordination. Planning also meant coordinating all the local and state response plans so there are not conflicts such as two agencies planning to use the same channel.

The Olympics are a single event and for most things life will be normal during the Olympics and when they are over life continues as before. Much of the preparations looked at a broader picture than just the Olympics and exercises involved local incidents (refinery/ferry accident). Some of the exercises were conducted jointly with Canadian participation. The planning, training and exercises will carry over into day to day operations and when incidents do occur the organized response will follow along the familiar Incident Command System protocol. Bringing all the agencies together has a long term effect on further coordination; it has established a working relationship that can be built on. Some money was spent on the new Whatcom County EOC in Sumas to act as the Joint Information Coordination Center. The Federal Government will be staging assets in the area for the duration of the Olympics.

Another part of the planning was inventorying what assets are available and how to get them to work together. As the ICS plan goes the response grows with the need of the incident. If an incident is believed to be terrorist related then the Federal Government will assume command and run the show so doing extensive planning in that regard was not covered at the state and local level. The US military will be doing what they do with the Canadian military having overall command.

Items of Information

George will provide a synopsis of the NAB Winter Olympics Report when available.

The Washington State Patrol has been replacing the station batteries at a number of sites with hydrogen fuel cells with success. They are keeping the backup generators with the fuel cells replacing the batteries that run the microwave and critical loads for the duration of power transfer or generator failure. The initial cost is comparable to batteries with savings in long term maintenance

Moved and seconded to adjourn at 10:35 AM.

A lunch buffet provided was provided courtesy of Chairman George with some additions from members.

Respectfully submitted,

Steven Mayes,  Secretary/Treasurer

Return to Newsletter Menu - Return to Home Page