Meeting Minutes for February 10, 1998

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IMPORTANT NOTICE!

The 1998 WWCIC/WCTC meeting will be on June 17 at Hazelmere.

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Next Meeting. The next meeting will be Tuesday, March 10, 1998, 9:30 a.m., at KLSY/KIXI Studios, 12011 N.E. First Street, Bellevue. Click here for Directions.

Minutes of February 10, 1998 Meeting

The meeting was called to order at 9:40 by George Bisso, Chairman. The minutes of the January 13 meeting were reviewed and approved.

Checking Account Balance: $3,827.12

Dues are Due. The assessment of dues for 1998 was discussed. Those present approved that dues will remain at $25.00 this year. A statement will be sent with the February newsletter and dues will be due by May 1.

800 MHz Cross Border Interference. A study is being performed to identify possible swaps between Nextel and Valley Comm frequencies that would result in assignments that would be satisfactory to Valley Comm and Nextel without causing further interference to either Victoria Mobile Radio on Canadian primary frequencies on McDonald Peak or current U.S. users in Chelan County.

WWCIC/WCTC Meeting. The 1998 meeting will be on June 17 at Hazelmere.

Station Identification. Dennis Anderson provided an answer to a question from the December meeting about required station ID (does English voice or morse code need to be used or can digital identification be used if normal traffic is digital or data transmission?). The bottom line is the call sign must be in English or Morse code unless a waiver has been granted by the FCC or the station is operating in one of the classes that are exempt from the requirement to identify a call sign, for example, radars, mobiles in the police or fire services using quantized or digital information, stations transmitting for telemetering or remote control purposes, wireless microphones, or stations transmitting solely for automatic vehicle monitoring/location. Dennis' explanation brought on another flurry of questions; namely, (1) what about licenses that only authorize digital emission, (2) what frequency do trunked systems use for identification, and (3) what about trunked systems made up of frequencies in different services? Dennis will research this topic in greater detail and report back at the next meeting.

Membership Roster on Web Site. There was a lively discussion as to whether or not members' names, email address and/or phone number should be available on the web site. The issue of privacy was a concern as well as the inconvenience that could be experienced by a deluge of public inquiries. It was decided to omit membership information from the web site except for members of the Executive Council. A copy of the membership roster will be provided to everyone that pays dues this year.

Job Opportunities on Web Site. Alan received a call from Airborne Express asking if they could put a "help wanted" ad on our web page. Those present at the meeting debated whether or not it would be appropriate to include job opportunities on the web site. It was decided that all members should be polled and have a chance to respond on this matter. If anyone has a response, please send an email to Alan at alanr@wwcic.org.

Gas Dryer Interference to Ham Radio. Pat Buller is experiencing a reoccurrence of a problem from a few months ago. He was getting interference while operating his amateur station and DF'd the problem to a neighbor's gas dryer. The interference had gone away but is back now since the neighbors have changed their schedules and are home at different times. Pat contacted a service representative for the dryer (Whirlpool); however, the reply was that Whirlpool was not responsible. Pat, Dennis and others discussed the various options in resolving this issue. It was decided that Pat should file a written complaint with the FCC, and Dennis would take action by contacting the owner and advising them of non-compliance with FCC rules. Pat will also report this problem with Puget Power.

KSER-FM. George relayed that KSER in Everett is making alterations to their broadcast signal to avoid interference from another Canadian frequency.

Washington State Items of Interest.

Wayne Hardy reported that the Washington State Legislature has proposed bills (SHB2298 and SSB6130) that would require the tagging and licensing of underground fuel storage tanks (primarily diesel). Proposed deadline is December 22, 1998 after which time fuel trucks would not be able to give fuel to anyone not in compliance.

FCC Items of Interest. Dennis Anderson reported the following.

• Nonprofit entities are exempt from paying FCC annual regulatory fees if they claim nonprofit status under Section 501 of the IRS Code or are certified or otherwise authorized as a nonprofit entity by a state or other governmental authority. Nonprofit entities must submit a one-time filing of documentation of their exempt status by March 2, 1998. Amateur radio licensees and other payers of small regulatory fees where such fees are paid in advance for the term of the license ARE NOT REQUIRED to submit documentation. For more information, call (202) 418-0220 or email mcontee@fcc.gov.
• On Jan 6, 1998, the Commission reallocated TV channels 60-69 (746-806 MHz band) to other services. 764-776 MHz and 794-806 MHz were reallocated to fixed and mobile services for public safety use. 746-764 MHz and 776-794 MHz were allocated to the fixed, mobile, and broadcasting services to be assigned by competitive bidding. This action fulfilled one of the Commission's obligations under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.
• Primary one-way paging operations are no longer authorized on 453.025/.075/.125/.175 MHz after January 14, 1998 unless waiver requests have been filed on or before that date.
• The Compliance and Information Bureau (CIB) has prepared an Inspection Fact Sheet to address some commonly asked questions concerning inspections and to clarify why and how inspections occur. See http://www.fcc.gov/cib/inspect.html.

The meeting adjourned at 12:00.

 Shirley Perry

Secretary-Treasurer

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