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.

Financial Report  

Business Reports

Chairman’s opening comments: Chairman George Bisso called the meeting to order at 09:45AM, at the WSP office in Bellevue.  Introductions were made around the tables.  Members in attendance today: 9.

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

Committee Reports

Technical Committee Report:  None. (OPEN)

Web Site Report: Open invitation letter is posted and available for downloading, keep one handy to give to a perspective presenter.  (OPEN)

Old Business

BPL Issues: ARRL challenged the FCC chairman to re-evaluate the issues.  The Radio Club of America has an article “Why BPL RF Rules are Still Causing Sparks”. (OPEN)

Grass Mt. 48.48 MHz IX Report: After all the electrical system changes, etc. the interference dropped from 30-35db to 10-12db, little progress has been made to further reduce it. The City of Tacoma is tolerating it now while they figure out a long range solution.    (OPEN)

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

FRS Issues: Nothing new to report.  (OPEN)

700 MHz Planning & Meetings: Monthly meetings continue, last Wednesday of the month.  Canada is looking at going along with the U.S. 700 and 800 Mhz rebanding. Due to the impact of rebanding in the Portland area on WSDOT they will be participating in wave 1 with Oregon rather than wait for wave 8 and the rest of Washington State. Public Safety agencies in the Puget Sound region are waiting for a firm Canadian plan before expending money for 700 Mhz systems. Current planning is trying to make a frequency matrix where counties/agencies get a mix of shared and non-shared frequencies. The timeline for rebanding is aggressive that will keep the affected agencies very busy.  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:   (OPEN)

Technical Seminars at WWCIC Meetings:     (OPEN)

Tektronix has been invited to our October meeting.

XM and Sirius Satellite Radio News: Aggressive lobbying is going on. XM wants more radios by the bedside and to put in more terrestrial transmitters. Sirius is challenging on the basis that license is for space based broadcast only.    (OPEN)

APCO business or reports and general frequency coordination news:  The FCC has mandated a change in forms 601 and 605. Effective in late July the new form will be required. P25 is being implemented not by choice but by mandate to receive federal funds. P25 has not been proven to be equal to or better than analog. Equipment costs more, is more complex, requires more infrastructure, has some interoperability issues with multiple systems, is slower and is less operator friendly. Privatization of Public Safety is not an option, PS needs their own systems, private systems no matter how hardened are still a shared system that public safety does not have control of.  (OPEN)

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

Amateur radio activity:  SEAPAC convention and flea market June 17-19, attendance was down possibly due to Fathers day weekend.   (OPEN) 

New Business

Industry Canada has contacted the U.S. and the Society of Broadcast Engineers for input on frequency coordination for the Winter Olympics.

Items of Information

Verizon is planning high power Wi-Fi, to provide saturation coverage, no looking for a hot spot.

The City of Seattle is studying providing Wi-Fi and or fiber broadband to the neighborhood. They currently have a multiagency funded fiber network for city use. Their current goal is to get fiber to every school. Critical systems are loop protected and have non-fiber backup. 

Moved and seconded to adjourn at 11:15 AM.

Respectfully submitted,