Meeting Minutes for March 11, 2008

Web Page: www.wwcic.org

Information Line Phone Number: 425-820-6271

Dates for WWCIC meetings for 2008   Meetings will be held on the 2nd Tuesday like always, with no meeting in August and November joint meeting with our Canadian counterparts.  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 am. Introductions were made around the tables. Attendance today: 13.

Adoption of draft minutes of last meeting: Meeting minutes for the February meeting were approved after the spelling correction of Chuck Zappala’s name as an attendee and deletion of the Items of Interest entry.

Secretary-Treasurer Finance and Correspondence Reports: Starting balance in Checking $499.48, withdrawal of 207.35 for web hosting and URL registration, ending balance of $292.13. Starting balance in Savings $1882.45, interest $.45, ending balance of $1882.90.

Committee Reports

Technical Committee Report:  Suggestions for technical presentations at meetings are always welcome. Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management will be demonstrating their Emergency Communications Vehicle at our May meeting. An RFid technology presentation is being worked on. (OPEN)

Web Site Report:  No problems noted. (OPEN)

FCC Report: No report. (Open)

 

Old Business

BPL Issues: The consensus is that BPL use is fading out. Members present voted to delete BPL as an agenda item. (OPEN)

150/450 MHz IX: Several commercial 460 MHz systems experienced interference from land surveyors’ equipment. The FCC made contact with the surveyors to have them switch channels or cease operation.

A private company and several broadcasters reported interference to their traffic reporting channels. The source has not been located yet. (OPEN)

FRS Issues: Nothing new to report. (OPEN)

700 MHz Planning & Meetings: Conference call meeting was held at the end of February, only a few items on the agenda and many members were out of town attending the IWCE. The main items were frequency changes and letters of support for STA for the three licensees that are affected by the remanagement of the 700 band. Pierce County Transit is in negotiation with the Public Safety Band Licensee for cost recovery to change frequencies. 

The next meeting will be in Lynnwood at Sparling Engineering’s office. 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 FCC is waiting replies to a Request for Information on wave 4 rebanding border area.

The rebanding deadline is still June 30 without a waiver for non border areas.

Haborview Medical Center is incorporating an inbuilding public safety system using fiber optic cable input from the City of Seattle system and over the air for the King County system.

Powerwave/Kaval BDAs have exhibited poor dynamic range and are subject to overload.  (OPEN)

Technical Seminars at WWCIC Meetings:  Suggestions for future seminars are welcome. (OPEN)

XM and Sirius Satellite Radio News: Continuing discussing on merger. (OPEN)

APCO business or reports and general frequency coordination news: Washington Chapter Summer Training Conference June 25-27, 2008. http://www.apcowa.org/

Western Regional Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, March 30- April 3.

Discussion of ROIP standards by WA SIEC, has been tabled for now. ISSI standards to be defined in the P25 standard may be sufficient.

Equipment has been ordered for SNOMARS, a UHF link between Snohomish and Skagit Counties. (OPEN)

License-free or Spread-Spectrum technology issues:   

Boeing has been analyzing results of using Ultrawideband technology in large open area buildings (aircraft hangers). (OPEN)

4.9 GHz: Boeing has moved some 5.7GHz systems to 4.9GHz in their Everett facility, five cameras and six links for a cost of $11,500. (OPEN)

Amateur radio activity: The Sound Shake exercise went well. A good training exercise and  some lessons learned.

R. Dean Straw, N6BV, known as the ARRL antenna expert, has announced his retirement effective March 31.

The FCC sent a warning notice to an Amateur Radio operator in Maine reminding her that the operators of several repeaters had requested her to not use their repeaters due to her failure to follow the operational rules of the repeater organization and FCC rules. Inquiry notices were also sent reference a Part 15 device interfering with a licensee in Wisconsin, interference from an unlicensed station in North Carolina, unlicensed transmissions on non-amateur frequencies by amateurs in North Carolina and a West Virginia power company for interference from power line hardware to an  Amateur Radio licensee. http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/

ARRL is soliciting nominations for the 2007 Hiram Percy Maxim Award.

The 2008 Communications Academy will be held at the South Seattle Community College, April 5 and 6. http://www.commacademy.org/2008/index.php (OPEN)

New Business

Joint WCTC/WWCIC Meeting

We will be hosting another meeting Wednesday June 11. We need to set the agenda by May so please submit questions, topics or other suggestions for the agenda by our April meeting.

Suggestions of RFid issues, (125KHz tag readers), 700MHz realignment in Canada, plans for the 2010 Olympics.

Items of Information

With the pressure to use more alternative fuel sources a word of caution to people responsible for emergency equipment that uses diesel fuel. Currently most biodiesel does not store well, it clouds up (gels) faster time and temperature wise than the fossil fuel variety. As production and advances to refining biodiesel develops things will probably get better but right now it is not recommended for fueling equipment that will have long storage times, backup generators, emergency vehicles, etc.

Boeing is testing the use of a dedicated private cellular system. It is being looked at as a standard solution for aircraft production and assembly areas. The system is being leased from a wireless provider and operating CDMA at 1.9GHz. They dubbed it MEOW (Mobile Electronics On Wheels) instead of its larger relative COW (Cellular On Wheels). It functions as a wireless PBX and is not connected to outside service. With the addition of a conference bridge they can conference up to 90 handsets at a time in multiple separate conferences analogous to a dynamic configurable full duplex trunking system. They are using ruggedized Sanyo handset and Eartech hearing protectors with ear cup speakers and a noise canceling boom microphone. The headset connects to the phone via a belt level quick disconnect connector and a jumper to a standard 2.5mm plug. The standard features such as GPS, text messaging, and data transmission offer additional possibilities. The handsets initially will not roam off of the system but they are looking into arrangements to allow that.

The question came up, is there a standard data level interface for P25 radio equipment?

This question came from the thought of interfacing equipment for simplex repeating VHF channels. There are devices out that work on the recovered receive audio and retransmit after a delay but what about doing it at the digital level?

 

Moved and seconded to adjourn at 11:20 AM.

Respectfully submitted,

Steven Mayes,  Secretary/Treasurer

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