Meeting Minutes for May 8, 2007

Web Page: www.wwcic.org

Information Line Phone Number: 425-820-6271

Dates for WWCIC meetings for 2007   Meetings will be held on the 2nd Tuesday like always, with no meeting in August and June 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 9:35 am. Introductions were made around the tables.  Attendance today: 23.

Adoption of draft minutes of last meeting: The minutes for April’s meeting were approved as drafted.

Secretary-Treasurer Finance and Correspondence Reports: The Checking balance $430.14, savings interest income $.68, savings balance $2877.04.

Committee Reports

Technical Committee Report:  Suggestions for technical presentations at meetings are always welcome.  (OPEN)

Web Site Report:  The web site is running smoothly.  (OPEN)

FCC Report:  No Report.  (Open)

Old Business

BPL Issues: Motorola and other companies are advertising BPL equipment for the commercial and residential market. Applications showcased are building complexes such as apartments or condos and business campuses.

The ARRL and others continue to try and get the interference from BPL mitigated. (OPEN)

150/450 MHz IX: There is an ongoing effort to find and correct interference on East Tiger Mountain.

FRS Issues: Nothing new to report.  (OPEN)

700 MHz Planning & Meetings: Joint 700/800 Mhz meetings are the last Wed of the month, non public safety attendees welcome. The March and April’s meetings were canceled due to multiple conflicts.

TV Channel 60 in Seattle is still operating.

Little activity in Canada to coordinate with the US changes in the 700 MHz band. The US had 32 and the Canadians have 12 TV stations in the band that are affected.

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: WSDOT has started changing site configurations and subscriber units along the Oregon border to accommodate rebanding wave one, stage one (Oregon) users. (OPEN)

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

Tektronix is making a presentation today. (OPEN)

XM and Sirius Satellite Radio News: The merger of the two companies is progressing. The differences in terrestrial transmission authorization between the two licenses is still an issue. XM is being questioned about the number and power levels of there terrestrial stations. (OPEN)

APCO business or reports and general frequency coordination news: No report. The Washington APCO conference in Wenatchee is June 27-29. http://www.apcowa.org/ (OPEN)

License-free or Spread-Spectrum technology issues:  Boeing Co. Frequency Management is reviewing a proposal by one of its facilities in California to put in a WiMax system. (OPEN)

4.9 GHz: Ten entities are known to be looking into or implementing 4.9 MHz systems in the area. Boeing is progressing with their plans, they are in midst of finishing engineering and selecting suppliers. Washington State Ferries and the City of Seattle are among others. (OPEN)

Amateur radio activity: Interference to systems on East Tiger believed to be the same that affects the commercial equipment is continuing. (OPEN)

New Business

Prior to the NBC Today Show visiting the Everett plant NBC and Boeing had a well coordinated communications plan worked out however on the day of the broadcast NBC did not follow the plan.

New York City has selected MA/COM as a supplier for their system upgrade but Sprint/Nextel has yet to give a date when the new NPSPAC frequencies will be available. The review committee told Sprint/Nextel that they have to provide a date and cannot leave it indefinite.

There was some discussion of the FCC regulating receiver specifications but it has been shelved for now.

The FCC has ruled a holder of a single private 800 MHz license that they would have to fund their own rebanding.

  Items of Information

In light of the recent difficulties with coordinating the joint meeting of the WCTC and WWCIC it was suggested that the WWCIC sponsor the annual meeting on a continuous basis. We should also invite the Inland Empire Cooperative Interference Committee to attend. If the WCTC does not have a meeting planned for June than we should plan one in November.

Moved and seconded to adjourn at 10:30 AM.

Respectfully submitted,

Steven Mayes,  Secretary/Treasurer

Technical Seminar

Tektronix gave a very informative presentation on spectral analysis and interference identification. The newer features of current generation spectrum analyzers were highlighted.

Return to Newsletter Menu - Return to Home Page