Vice-Chair John “Wiz” Wiswell called the meeting to order at 0930.  Introductions were made around the tables.  DRAFT Minutes of the Apr 8, 2003, meeting were reviewed, corrected, and approved.   Members and guests in attendance today: 19.  Please be sure to sign in, as your Sec/Treas looks at that info each time when preparing the minutes, to get or make updates, to yield the most current member and guest information, or correct the e-mail distribution list. 

Financial Report

Old Business

800 MHz IX   Discussion continued about the Nextel site in Bellingham, near the YMCA, that Jerry Noe has reported about before, with coverage issues and blanking out taxicab communications, generally about a block from Holly and State Sts.  Steve Leonard offered to do analysis w/ test gear if they can find a location where the noise is the most noticeable.  Would take about an hour, and perhaps could produce a benchmark to compare with later.   Joe King also added to the discussion concerning some found IX, and a number of examples and issues were reviewed.  Wiz gave a brief description of the City of Tacoma 5 site 800 MHz system, operating on NPSPAC channels.  He also mentioned about existing channels (VHF or UHF) not given up when systems migrate to 800.  Loren noted that per the latest SERS Manager’s Report, the 800 system in Snohomish County should be operating in July, but does not imply that all users will be trained or converted by then  (OPEN)

700 MHz Planning Meetings   Wiz recapped info about the monthly meetings, explained about the conference call line, and noted that they use it for about the first 15 minutes, then turn it off.  The latest DRAFT plan is on the web site for review.  Their goal is to have a plan in to the FCC by year-end.  They meet at 1000, to allow traveling attendees to get there.  He still believes a Treaty is needed to organize the frequencies between the US and Canada, without which implementation will probably be delayed, possibly for years.  Is it possible for Nextel to support such a Treaty initiation?  Harlan Ohlson spoke about “selective Interoperability”.  An organized plan must be in place before real inter-op will work.  If everybody just talks, what’s the point?  A regional inter-system sharing agreement, between Port of Seattle, CO Tacoma, King County, SERS and others, along with MARS (mutual assistance radio system-a UHF & VHF system) is being discussed.  Agreement will share system keys, and other info and staff, for inter-operability.  Spencer Bahner is involved in a committee to work on interoperability planning, and perhaps Jay Morrison may help with it.  Discussion followed about inter-op boxes (which can tie together many systems of different kinds), how they could be deployed, and how the inter-op went yesterday in the Top Off II exercise.  Wiz reviewed some of the info.  Programming issues for individual radios are among some other problems where interoperable radios are used by a lot of different agencies.  Careful planning and control are imperative.

The 700 MHz web sites are www.region43.org for Washington State, and www.region35.org, for Oregon, respectively.  Contact Jon “Wiz” Wiswell, Pat Buller or Kevin Kearns for more info.  Meeting schedules and past meeting minutes are on the web sites.   Be sure to check those web sites for the latest information in this important planning step for both 700 and 800 MHz use in the future.  (OPEN)

WWCIC web site   The Domain Name has been renewed for a term of 5 years, for $95, and Web Hosting fees of $54 are paid quarterly.  Can a counter be placed on our site to total number of visits that are made?  (ALWAYS OPEN)

Technical Seminars at meetings   George has a presentation set for October 2003, on Amber Alert and radio implications.  Loren will contact Kim Torp-Pedersen about his contact on further information about BDA’s, w/ TXRX or Antenna Specialties.  Hopefully, a July presentation can work.  Another future possibility is a tour of the WSDOT Dispatch Center in Lynnwood, even perhaps holding one of our meetings there.  George will be looking into it further.  Harlan mentioned contacting Agilent Technologies and IFR, about site noise floor measurements, and will look into it further.  He and Wiz again noted that measurements need to become standardized on sites.  Harlan will also contact Pat Buller for more talk/action in the technical presentations area.  If anyone else would consider joining the technical presentations committee, please contact Harlan.  The general membership wants any proposed seminars placed on the Agenda, so to be readily available to plan for attending, and get onto personal calendars.  [Back in February, a committee was formed, consisting of Pat Buller, Harlan Ohlson, and George Bisso, along w/ “member-at-large” Kim Torp-Pedersen, to work on the programs for future technical presentations].  (OPEN)

Satellite Radio  No further news, as George was not present today.  (OPEN)

Planning for WWCIC/WCTC Joint meeting – Wednesday, JUNE 11, 2003     Arrangements are all finalized.  George has set up a contract with Semiahmoo Resort in Blaine for space, costs and food.  A $400 deposit payment has been sent.  The individual price should be about $30 US for the event.  We have the “Blakely Room” reserved, set up for 65 people initially, start time to be at 1030.  Treats will be available before the meeting agenda starts, lunch set for around the 12-1230 time period, and there will be coffee, pop, juice, water, etc, available all day.  More info will be coming about the lunch menu.  If you want to arrange overnight stays, call Semiahmoo directly, referring to the WWCIC arrangement, {Phone (360) 318-2000, or FAX (360) 318-2087}.  Kris McGowan and Jayson Clairmont will be helping w/ arrangements.  Please consider the issues you wish covered, and our ideas for discussion content.  Of course, we can depend on Denny for an FCC report.  Please forward questions, concerns or issues to the Officers, or bring them to the meetings.  Be sure to mark your calendars for Wednesday, June 11.  Joe King mentioned a possibility to incorporate a tour of the USBP Dispatch center in Blaine, along with the joint meeting, or even some other time in the future.  Options for times and number of people in each tour group (~15 or so, and in morning & afternoon) were explored.  Include the Canadian perspective on 700 MHz.  More info will be posted on to the e-mail list as soon as available.  Steve Leonard mentioned that possibly others from Nextel would be attending, so a good opportunity to talk further.  Expect a flurry of activity in the next couple weeks toward finalizing an Agenda for the Joint meeting.  (OPEN)

APCO report or news   Pat Buller was not able to attend today, but previously reported about the local chapter APCO meeting on June 25-27, in Wenatchee, that will cover revisions for narrow-banding.  There is a Washington State Chapter web site at www.apcowa.org where detailed information may be found, about the APCO “Summer Training Conference” (Wenatchee), and more.  The 2004 Regional conference will be in Spokane, WA.  Narrow-banding is coming from FCC, final report and order will stipulate narrowband applications for 12.5 KHz, so no more wide-band voice channels can be coordinated, perhaps after Sept or Oct 2003.  A stipulation that equipment manufactured for 12.5 KHz will also need to be compatible for 6.25 bandwidth is also contained in the new rules coming next January.  No specific time has been set for transition to 6.25 yet.  There are still lots of issues for manufacture of radios capable of meeting the 6.25 KHz spec, particularly with receiver technology.  ((Doug Rider included a lot of information about the “spectrum-efficient technologies” issue, contained in the IECIC minutes for their March 2003 meeting, that Sec/Treas brought along.))  Contact Pat directly for more APCO-related details.  APCO International has a lot if information on their web site, at www.apcointl.org/.  (OPEN)

Unlicensed Spread-Spectrum systems, and Noise Floor Measurements 

Wiz told about Seattle’s ‘sweeping their coax’ and antennas recently, using a piece of Wilson, Wiltron, or Anritsu test equipment, a way to show anomalies such as water in coax, connection, or antenna problems.  Some of the tests only show up when loaded.  There are devices specifically designed to do these kinds of tests.  Wireless broadband over power lines is another relatively new topic related to this area. (OPEN)

NWS   No further info, as George was not present today.  Weather radios that allow ability to declare and announce Amber Alerts are now available.  Talk to George for more details. (OPEN)

New Business

John Woodcock talked about some problems with Quantar repeaters.  WSP has several hundred of the units.  PL frequencies, response problems, and repeater cut-offs due to different response on PL tones are some of them.  He is asking Motorola to help for WSP.  Are any other members having troubles?  What about phase shift?  He has contacted Fred Radovich, and he may be able to help escalate the response.  Wiz mentioned that Motorola could be approached as a FRB item.  (Failure Review Board, which has weekly discussion, might get a higher level of response).  If it can get into FRB, it goes before the VP’s on a weekly basis.  The more users that bring the problem to Motorola, the better the likelihood is, that they will respond.  Motorola may have special people to contact back in PA, but the numbers are not readily available.

Jim Elston asked about Nextel coverage in Bellingham area, and Steve Leonard responded that it should be referred to the local Nextel Account Sales representatives.  The reps are the ones who have a better chance to get changes or improvements funded, by bringing them to higher levels in the corporate structure, as “coverage problems”, not just maintenance issues.  (OPEN)

Items of Information

FCC   No one spoke today, as all FCC staff is involved with the Top Off II exercise.  Most FCC documents can be found on FCC’s website www.fcc.gov.  If you would like help with documents, please contact Dennis Anderson.

Jack Manon has retired, so Smitty is keeping it going (Manon Engineering).  Pat Buller saw Jack at the IWCE Conference in Las Vegas.  (OPEN) 

Meeting adjourned at 1055.  Next meeting is on Wednesday, June 11, 2003, at Semiahmoo, as announced earlier.  See the WWCIC web page for details about our regular meetings and directions to the locations.  Thanks to everyone for your interest and support for WWCIC.  

Respectfully submitted,

Your WWCIC Secretary/Treasurer,

Loren H. Postma