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: Chairman George Bisso called the meeting to order at 9:48 am. Introductions were made around the tables.  Attendance today: 8

Secretary-Treasurer Finance and Correspondence Reports: Checking, no activity, ending balance of $760.90. Starting balance in Savings $685.86, interest $.17, ending balance of $686.03.

Committee Reports

Technical Committee Report:  Suggestions for technical presentations at meetings are always welcome. Due to a family emergency the presenter for today’s P25 update was unavailable. Icom and Zetron have agreed to make presentations on P25, Digital radio communications and IP radio control systems. Scheduled for April 14 is IP radio control systems and Icom Digital Advanced System (IDAS) May 12. (OPEN)

FCC Report: Until the transition is over June 12, 2009, DTV is the primary focus for the FCC. There is still concern that there are many individuals that rely on over the air reception (OTA) and are not ready. The FCC has a web site for information and there are several others,

https://www.dtv2009.gov/                       http://www.dtvanswers.com/

There has been disparity in the how the media has handled the transition. Spokane stations had multiple 10 minute long test periods compared to a few 1 minute tests in Seattle and one station even missed an announced test. Seattle station managements believe only a small percentage of viewers are OTA, however a survey of viewers in the Seattle Designated Market Area (DMA) indicated 17% and over 20% in King County alone were OTA.  Most of the stations nationwide have elected to delay and that is true for Western Washington. Ch 33 (ION) will be switching early. 

Everett AM broadcast station KRKO is transmitting from their new 46 acre site along the river south of Snohomish. The station and the FCC have received a number of complaints. The station owner has gone beyond what is required legally and been very responsive to all complaints. Most have been simple and inexpensive to fix. Many of the problems are the result of inadequate installations of consumer electronic devices picking up the RF signal and rectification of the modulating signal ie; unshielded wire used on a long cable run for a microphone to a PA system. Some complainants will not cooperate to verify and solve their problem. No complaints were received while the station was on the air testing but came after it was announced that the new site was on the air in the local paper.

Old Business

BPL Issues: No report. (OPEN)

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

FRS Issues: No report.  (OPEN)

700 MHz Planning & Meetings: No report. 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: Various entities from restaurants, schools to public safety and correctional departments have wanted to use devices to block (jam) cell phone use. In a recent incident a school district installed such a device to prevent students from using cell phones during class time. The device also interfered with the county sheriff’s crossband repeater.

A prison system has asked for Special Temporary Authorization to install one to block cell phone use by inmates. The proponents did not realize that the jamming device would also block all other cell phones and their own radio system.

A few federal agencies are allowed to use jamming devices under special circumstances. Outside of that using one is considered willful interference by FCC regulations.

The wireless carriers in the area typically respond to several interference issues a week caused by BDA systems. Most are inexpensive consumer installable devices improperly installed but even the expensive professionally installed ones fail or experience difficulties due to changes in the RF environment.   (OPEN)

APCO business or reports and general frequency coordination news: The  Washington APCO Summer Training Conference will be held June 23-25 in Wenatchee. http://www.apcowa.org/      http://www.apcointl.org/  (OPEN)

License-free or Spread-Spectrum technology issues: No report.  (OPEN)

4.9 GHz: No new news. (OPEN)

Amateur radio activity: Several amateur repeater systems in the Seattle area have experienced interference in the form of constant weak signals and random sometimes rude remarks. The source of interference was traced to a elderly operator in Kitsap County. After consulting with his physician and a resulting change in medication the issue went away.

New Business

Joint WCTC/WWCIC Meeting

Neil from Industry Canada recently sent a notice out to communications professionals in British Columbia indicating our wish to hold a meeting and to contact Steve to be on the contact mailing list. Ten names have been received so far. Canadian representatives are trying to get together to be able to host the meeting. Agenda items need to be identified. Wednesday June 17 was selected as the tentative date to avoid conflict with the WA APCO training the following week and the DTV transition the prior week.

Items of Information

Moved and seconded to adjourn at 11:32 AM.

Respectfully submitted,