Dates for WWCIC meetings for 2005   Meetings will be held on the 2^nd Tuesday like always, with no meeting in August and June joint meeting with our Canadian counterparts subject to change.  The current location is the Washington State Patrol Office in Bellevue.

The annual WWCIC/WCTC meeting will take place at the Hazelmere Golf Course in Canada on Wednesday, June 15th.  Start time will be announced soon.  Please submit questions and topics for discussion no later than at the meeting on May 11th.

Financial Report  

No new report.  Pending Transactions –  Transfer of Secretary/Treasurer duties and records.  

Business Reports

Chairman’s opening comments: Chairman George Bisso called the meeting to order at 09:35 AM, at the WSP office in Bellevue.  Introductions were made around the tables.  Members in attendance today: 14.

Adoption of draft minutes of last meeting: Meeting minutes for February’s meeting were approved as drafted.

Committee Reports

Technical Committee Report:  None(OPEN)

Web Site Report: Invitation for guest presentations document was added to the web site.  The minutes page has been simplified.  (OPEN)

FCC Report:  Indecency, number portability, billing, slamming/cramming and unsolicited FAXs  continue to be active issues. Nationwide a dozen pirate broadcast stations were shut down. A juvenile amateur radio operator in Colorado was cited for playing on Public Safety frequencies. Jamming interference of police frequencies in Buckley and Orting areas stopped after a visit to the area by FCC personnel.  (OPEN)

  Old Business

800 MHz IX and Nextel issues: Wiztronics experienced interference from a wireless phone site. It appears to have been a BDA that had gone into runaway oscillation. The City of Seattle has experienced interference in the past from BDAs that emitted wideband noise or carriers in the 806-925 Mhz range. They have used and recommend using fiber to bring the donor signal in and out of the target area.  Currently the city is getting interference at NE 85^th and Roosevelt and Capitol Hill, the signal wipes out several of their channels at a time and has been hard to get a direction to track it down. Not all BDAs or other signal enhancers are made, installed or maintained to the highest engineering standards. Physical and RF changes to the environment surrounding a system after design can adversely affect performance. Jerry has noticed an increase in interference to mobile receivers when they move out of a valley to higher ground. The FCC has sent out notices to licensees affected by the Nextel frequency realignment outlining the process for moving (WASDOT,Seattle,Bellingham have received theirs).  Interim moves may be required in the migration to the final channel assignments.     (OPEN)

700 MHz Planning & Meetings: EFJ is working on an add-on 700 Mhz option to make 800 Mhz radios dual band. The RCMP has been supportive of an operational agreement on 700 Mhz. The Olympics are having some positive impact on coordination. Multinet conventional, and Smartnet/Smartzone are the only trunking protocols available at this time. Interoperability considerations; when patching only one digital system can be used, D to A or A to D but not D to D, Incription is compromised when patching.   The 700 MHz web sites are www.region43.org for Washington State, and www.region35.org, for Oregon.    (OPEN)

Grass Mt. 48.48 MHz IX Report: Pat reported that further work on hold due to weather.  When conditions permit the plan is to investigate further using multiple antenna locations.  (OPEN)

450 MHz IX: Nothing new to report. (OPEN)

FRS Issues: Nothing new to report.  (OPEN)

BPL Issues: The ARRL has filed a lawsuit complaining that the procedure Chairman Powell used was fraudulent.   (OPEN)

Technical Seminars at WWCIC Meetings: Alan has posted the page inviting presenters to WWCIC meetings. The intent is to give members or visitors to the website a document to solicit presentations. (OPEN)

XM and Sirius Satellite Radio News: In a Sirrus sponsored survey 40% of Howard Sterns audience said they word move to Satellite radio. XM has 19 terrestrial translators in the Puget Sound area prompts the question is this satellite service? These transmitters are high power (10kw Po, 40kw ERP @ 2.5-2.6 Ghz). Concern was expressed about the exposure hazard to personnel visiting these sites since the only warnings at the sites are a small sign on the actual transmitter cabinet. The hazard would be greatest to personnel working around the antenna, it would make more sense to have warnings on the tower and at the entry point to the site. There used to be an XM transmitter at Indian Hill but it has been removed, others that are known are on Cougar Mtn. and an office building in Everett.  Casual inquiries to service personnel have not been informative so far.  Possibly in the future we could get a representative to attend our meetings.  (OPEN)

APCO business or reports and general frequency coordination news:   (OPEN)

New Business

Suggested dates for the June meeting with the WCTC are June 8,9,15 or 16.  We items for the agenda submitted early so get you suggestions in. Some idea areas are 700Mhz, BPL, Digital Broadcast.

Items of Information

Miscellaneous: With the problems that have been experienced with BDAs and the increase in the use of RF in general ranging from RF ID Tags to WiFi there seems to be a need for EMC expertise on the part of building managers.

Moved and seconded to adjourn at 11:25 AM.

Respectfully submitted,