Dates for WWCIC meetings for 2009   Meetings will be held on the 2^nd 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: Vice Chairman Wiz called the meeting to order at 9:33 am. Introductions were made around the tables.  Attendance today: 12.

Secretary-Treasurer Finance and Correspondence Reports: Starting balance in Checking $1008.46, bills for web site hosting ($107.40) and Mike’s plaque ($140.16) were paid, ending balance of $760.90. Starting balance in Savings $685.69, interest $.17, ending balance of $685.86.

Committee Reports

Technical Committee Report:  Suggestions for technical presentations at meetings are always welcome.  Icom and Zetron have agreed to make presentations on P25, Digital radio communications and IP radio control systems. Scheduled as follows; P25 update March 10, IP radio control systems April 14, Icom Digital Advanced System (IDAS) May 12. (OPEN)

FCC Report: Until the transition is over DTV is the primary focus for the FCC. The new administration has indicated they want to delay the mandatory analog TV cutoff date to June 12, 2009. The FCC has a web site for information and there are several others,

 https://www.dtv2009.gov/ 

http://www.dtvanswers.com/

If the delay is approved stations there will be a freeze on change over between Feb 17 and March 14.

All the stations in Wilmington, North Carolina and Hawaii, have switched off their analog stations. Most of the stations nationwide have elected to delay and that is true for Western Washington. Ch 33 (ION) will be switching early.

Old Business

BPL Issues: No report. (OPEN)

150/450 MHz IX: No report. (OPEN)

FRS Issues: A vendor for emergency communication vehicles was noted as promoting and demonstrating the interoperability flexibility of their equipment to cross connect any service to another including using FRS frequencies in high power commercial or amateur radio equipment.  It was pointed out to them that unless it was a bonafide emergency it would be a violation of commission regulations and not a good idea.

FRS radios have been incorporated into many Emergency Operations Plans using off the shelf equipment in a manor as intended, low power short range personal communications. It also provides an inexpensive common air interface of sorts between official entities and the public or citizen groups.

Another item the FCC has been following is devices that will allow FRS radios to repeat either duplex or simplex.  (OPEN)

700 MHz Planning & Meetings: The next meeting will be on Wed. Feb. 25 at Sparling Engineering’s Lynnwood office. A conference bridge is available for call in voice conferencing. The 700 MHz web sites are www.region43.org for Washington State, and www.region35.org, for Oregon. (OPEN)

Technical Seminars at WWCIC Meetings:  Since technical seminars are coordinated by the Technical Committee this separate report item will be omitted and included in the technical committee report. (Closed)

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

License-free or Spread-Spectrum technology issues:  Real time spectral analysis in Boeing buildings show microwave ovens seriously degrading wireless digital communications (802.XX, Zigbee, Bluetooth etc.) This was documented in a internal report (many pages) on the impact of microwave ovens and other signal sources on wireless networks. They are evaluating changing the standard microwave ovens to light wave ones that use three heat sources (infrared, visible, and microwave) .

Like many large organizations Boeing set aside a block of IP addresses on their wireless network for guest users to use while visiting or temporary business needs. Users have noticed service problems. Further investigation with ATT showed periods of 2,500 calls per hour blocked on the ATT network. The concentration of Iphones/Blackberries was tying up the ATT network.  (OPEN)

Amateur radio activity: The Amateur Radio Relay League has a new training course on Digital Communications  They are also working on a document that can be used as a general guide for input to municipalities wanting to enact regulations pertaining to mobile use of telecommunications devices.  

Boeing is working on reorganizing their emergency communications teams including the amateur radio organizations to work in an integrated fashion internally and with outside jurisdictions.

The number of systems employing ICOM’s D-STAR protocol in the area is increasing. Several are proposed for Snohomish county, at least one on the eastside (Bellevue) and in the City of Seattle are planned, in addition to an existing one in Federal Way.

New Business

Joint WCTC/WWCIC Meeting

Jerry checked on the price and availability of meeting space at Sudden Valley and the Casino. Both are within reason price wise and currently have space available in our June time frame.  We have made contact with Canadian representatives and they are trying to get together to be able to host the meeting. Agenda items need to be identified.

Items of Information

Tech Tidbit, the F-22 fighter aircraft onboard computers have 1.7 million lines of computer code, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter 5.7 million lines, the 787 Dreamliner 6.5 million lines and some production automobiles have 100 million lines running on 70 to 100 networked electronic control units.

The narrowband date for non Public Safety High Band and UHF radio systems is 2013.

Moved and seconded to adjourn at 11:00 AM.

Respectfully submitted,