Chairman George Bisso called the meeting to order at 0935, at WSP in Bellevue.  Introductions were made around the tables.  Members and guests in attendance today: 20.  Vice-Chair Wiz, Sec/Treas was not here today.  Your former Sec/Treas Loren Postma filled in to take minutes.  DRAFT Minutes of the Jan 10, 2003, meeting were reviewed, corrected by Chuck z, Pat Buller and George Bisso; moved and accepted with corrections.   

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FINANCIAL REPORT

  OLD BUSINESS

Elections   George explained Joe King resigned the Secretary/Treasurer position because of work load.  Chuck z checked with his manager and the real boss, Dixie, that it was okay to take the position if offered.  After checking the By-Laws, George offered the position and the members present showed approval with applause, no formal  vote called or needed.  [Fast train]  Arrangements for transfer of records and duties were made at the end of the meeting.  Pat Buller initiated a “fine job” by Loren Postma and called for a round of applause.   So noted.  (CLOSED)

Grass Mt. 48.48 MHz IX Update Pat Buller reported problems continue mostly due to a lack of response from the parties involved.  Pat has sought the assistance of Dennis Anderson to help resolve the problem of about 30 dB of intermittent desense.  Pat is unable to locate the IX on a digital spectrum analyzer.  A discussion followed about WWCIC technical standards and compliance.  Pat is unsure of where the IX is coming from exactly since there are too many locked doors at the site.   He suspects the “cellular” system maybe the source or a contributor.  Pat feels that the site manager-owner should be involved in coordinating these problems.  George asks the members present if WWCIC should write a letter to “those” that do not respond month after month.  Kris McGowan asked a question about what an action the FCC took and the result.  Pat responded that the action provided little useful information.  Harlan Ohlson commented about what we (WWCIC) could do as a group to solve this communication problem.   Pat explained the distributed personnel functions of the site management organization that makes it difficult to obtain a focal point to be fully responsible to solve the problem.  Torp-Pedersen asked about Pat’s contacts and then offered a name and a phone number that might help Pat.  Pat said he would try this person again.  Harlan asked about the contractual agreement and the flow of information.   Loren commented about typical contractual agreements that pertain to resolving problems and following technical standards.   Kris was in the area recently and attempted to monitor the IX but was not close enough due to lack of time.  After some discussion, Kris asked if anyone had done a geographical database search to determine who is licensed at Grass Mt.  This has not been done.  Harlan noted that he has some systems at Grass Mt. and offered to make those system accessible, provide information and perform any test that could help Pat.  Pat explained what testing he has done at Grass Mt.  Harlan pointed out that good signage on facilities helps a great deal.  Subject to be discussed next month. (OPEN)

800 MHz and NEXTEL IX   Jerry Noe and Steve Leonard opening comments were “silence and smiles” much to George’s amazement and general laughter from the membership.  Nextel reported that it’s business as usual.  A System retune with a new frequency template is in the works in the general Kent valley area.  The objective is to lower 3^rd order IX possibilities.  In working with ADCOMM on WSDOT sites, data has been collected.  A meeting in the next few weeks is planned with WSDOT to review the data.  (OPEN)

700 MHz Planning Meetings   Pat Buller commented that the next meeting will be in March to discuss the 4.9 GHz plan.  Hai Phung reported that there will be meetings and provided dates, however Hai sent an email with a correction to make.  “In our WWCIC Meeting this week I said the next 700 MHz Planning Committee meetings on the 3^rd,  4^th and 29^th of March, but they really are March 4th and March 31st.”  The 700 MHz web sites are www.region43.org for Washington State, and www.region35.org, for Oregon, respectively.  Contact Jon “Wiz” Wiswell, Pat Buller or Kevin Kearns for more info.  Meeting schedules and past meeting minutes are on the web sites.   Be sure to check them for the latest information in this important planning step for both 700 and 800 MHz use in the future.  (OPEN)

Technical Seminars at meetings  Hadley Allhands has arranged to have an interoperability demonstration at the next meeting.  It was moved and seconded that the business meeting will be from 9:30 and caped at 10:30 AM  and the presentation will follow from 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM.  An effort will be made to start the meeting on time and keep the business meeting moving to keep it short.  (OPEN)

WWCIC Web Site  The counter is working.   George will bring the new software to Alan.  Harlan open a discussion about putting the website URL on business cards.  George put the issue before the members.  After discussion it was determined with no vote required that it was a personal preference and that WWCIC has no objection.  More discussion about adding / permitting the WWCIC URL as a link is also permissible.  Kurt Kyle commented suggested that WWCIC should look into a disclaimer that WWCIC does not endorse the vendor links.  Loren Postma directed our attention to our 501( C ) 3 non-profit status compliance.  Alan Robinson said he would add an appropriate disclaimer to the web site.  (OPEN)

XM and Sirius Satellite Radio No news. (OPEN)

APCO  Pat Buller reports there will be an APCO conference in Spokane from Feb. 29 to March 4^th.  $289 Registration up to Feb. 25.  For frequency coordination for Washington State, Dean Heistand of Kitsap County will be taking over as APCO Frequency Coordinator and Pat will be the alternate.  Pat will still have Alaska for a while.   Pat is thinking about retirement in August-September 2004 and is working for a smooth transition of duties.   (OPEN)

Amateur Radio Events and Activities  Mike & Key Amateur Swap Meet on March 6 at the Puyallup Fair Grounds – Also Yakima Hamfest on April 17^th. - Reported by Pat Buller.  (OPEN)

Unlicensed or Spread-Spectrum  General discussion and comments.   See www.seattlewireless.net for interesting happenings in the Seattle area.  Harlan Ohlson reported spectrum allocation of 5.470 to 5.725 GHz for unlicensed devices, 3G spectrum from 1700 to 2100 MHz.  (OPEN) 

Interference on 450 MHz   The issue is before the FCC in Washington DC per Chuck z. (OPEN)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          FRS  FRS  Nothing to report.  (OPEN)

BPL Comments about what foreign countries and US states have recorded their positions on the adoption or trials of this technology. (OPEN)

Dates for WWCIC meeting for 2004   REMINDER- The following list of Dates was established for the slate of meetings in 2004.  They are almost all the 2^nd Tuesdays like always, but a couple exceptions.  Mar 9, Apr 13, May 11, June-to be decided after coordination w/ WCTC as Canada is host for the year 2004, Jul 13, No meeting in Aug, then Sep 14, Oct 12, Nov 9, & Dec 14.  Please note, & place these on your calendars.

NEW BUSINESS

No new business items reported.

Items of Information

Mike Rothe reported for the FCC.  Anti-Junk FAX, slamming and RFR activity continues.  AT&T (not wireless) was fined $780,000 for violations in the do-not-call list.  Kris McGowan added that over 200,000 calls and emails complaining about the Super Bowl Half Time Show that clogged the electronic access portals to the FCC for other regular business.

Curt Kyle reported that he received a return on a license for a change of location.  The return noted that for Canadian coordination please enter the ERP for the mobile frequencies listed.  The application was for moving the base station(s).  This appears to be something new that has been picked up as something to do now.

George Bisso reported a Seattle, 30 watt, 30 KHz radio station for VHF in the 161 MHz band was rejected when an application for a move from Queen Anne Hill to Capital Hill was submitted.  The license has been in effect since about 1965 and was rejected by the Canadian government for possible interference to BC Hydro.  The new location has basically the same height.  It took 7 months to resolve.  Authorities thought it was for a new station. 

Jay Schmierer provided a comment about another similar case of a simplex base station to modify to a repeater where the output is not going to change.  The Canadian government commented about an adjacent channel in New Westminster being a problem. 

Kris McGowan comments on how US licenses that have been renewed from up to 30 years ago are now being challenged just on a normal renewal.  Kris pointed out that it appears Canada has provided a list of frequencies to the FCC that Canada no longer wants these frequencies active north of Line A.  Points are brought up from the membership of whether this is in the treaty or not.  Kris brings up an interesting point wondering if the FCC is doing the same to Canadian licenses?  Kris proposes that this is a point that should be brought up at this year’s joint meeting with Canada.  Prior to this, as Kris explains, renewals have never gone to Canada for review, however this appears to have changed.  George said he needs to review the treaty.

Respectfully submitted,

Your new Secretary/Treasurer,

Chuck “z” Zappala

chuck.zappala@boeing.com