Florida Repeater Council, Inc. Minutes of Annual Business Meeting September 14, 2002 Melbourne, Florida ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Open Forum was convened at 3:00 PM by President Ray Kassis, N4LEM. The following staff were in attendance: Directors in attendance were: District 1: Nilo A. Hernandez, W4HN District 2: Mark Filla, KS4VT District 3: District 4: Paul Knupke Jr., KR4YL District 5: Ralph Betts, KC4SGG District 6: Dave Armbrust, AE4MR District 7: Ted Wirick, W4YJC District 8: Frank Butler, W4RH Staff Members in attendance were: President: Ray Kassis, N4LEM Vice President: Ira R. Bickham Jr., K8HRR Secretary/Treasurer: Dana G. Rodakis, K4LK Database Manager: Dana G. Rodakis, K4LK President Ray welcomed all in attendance. Dennis Griffin represents the interests of the West Central Florida Group. He mentioned that he had two applications pending with the council and would like to know their status. Both applications had conflicts. One was cleared by submitting a legible copy of a bill of sale. The other was cleared by the trustee of an existing pair relinquishing his coordination. George Baustert mentioned that the Council suggests the use of CTCSS on repeaters to avoid interference. He suggested that it become mandatory on 2 meters. Director Paul mentioned that other coordinating bodies make it mandatory for coordination. Considerable discussion followed. It was decided to make a motion during the Business Meeting to require CTCSS for new coordinations. Director Wirick volunteered to author an article for the next newsletter. Mike Fletcher, AD4HV proposed the allocation of the sub-442 repeater pairs for "backyard" repeaters which are using pairs that could be used for wider-area coverage systems. David Kraus, N4DAV volunteered to help with Coordination duties to help expedite the process. Considerable discussion followed about how busy Dana is wearing five hats. The President and Directors expressed their appreciation for his offer. Nobody volunteered to take over Secretary/Treasurer. Chuck, N4EHM mentioned that WA4ZFQ's call sign is still on the 147.150 Lake City repeater without his approval. It is coordinated to Doug Baker. President Kassis suggested that WA4ZFQ contact the FCC since the FRC has no rules enforcement authority. Chuck mentioned that the 145.490 is also coordinated to Doug Baker but it has been operating without an ID. It has been inactive for at least 3 months. The database manager mentioned that he notes inactive machines in the database but doesn't de-coordinate them without the trustee or a Director's approval. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The business meeting was called to order at 3:55 PM on September 14, 2002 by President Ray Kassis, N4LEM, who welcomed all in attendance. The Secretary determined that a quorum of qualified Directors were in attendance: Directors in attendance were: District 1: Nilo A. Hernandez, W4HN District 2: Mark Filla, KS4VT District 3: District 4: Paul Knupke Jr., KR4YL District 5: Ralph Betts, KC4SGG District 6: Dave Armbrust, AE4MR District 7: Ted Wirick, W4YJC District 8: Frank Butler, W4RH Staff Members in attendance were: President: Ray Kassis, N4LEM Vice President: Ira R. Bickham Jr., K8HRR Secretary/Treasurer: Dana G. Rodakis, K4LK Database Manager: Dana G. Rodakis, K4LK PRESIDENT'S REPORT: President Kassis mentioned that the Melbourne hamfest committee is proposing to section a portion of the Melbourne auditorium for forums to avoid the expense of renting conference rooms at the Hilton Hotel. President Kassis thanked all repeater owners for their support by sending in their dues and requested other owners to support the council. SECRETARY'S REPORT: Secretary Rodakis mentioned that the newsletter was mailed a little late and that about 10% was returned undeliverable. The Directors will contact those recipients that reside in their districts. Dana announced that the minutes of the last meeting have been posted on the FRC web site. A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes of the February 2002 meeting as posted. Motion passed unanimously. TREASURER'S REPORT: The FRC Secretary/Treasurer reported the following accounting: Opening balance, 2/9/02 $7,699.32 Income: $1,828.00 Expenses: $1,465.35 Balance: 8/7/02: $8,061.97 A motion was made and seconded to approve the treasurer's report. Motion passed unanimously. WEBMASTER'S REPORT: The Council web site receives 20 hits per day. Some spammers have found our web site resulting in unsolicited email. Christ Schwab suggested removing all "clickable" email links and substitute a graphic with the email address. Dana mentioned that the new Filemaker Pro database makes it much easier to keep the repeater listings up-to-date. President Kassis inquired about the 146.76 in Clewiston which is not coordinated. Considerable discussion followed. The 1992 database shows the Clewiston repeater. DATABASE MANAGER/COORDINATOR'S REPORT: The Coordinator reported that he recently completed a big backlog of applications with two pending. There are 1,120 repeaters in database. REPORTS OF DIRECTORS: District 1: Director Nilo reported that a repeater operator is interfering with himself on 145.330 MHz. No other problems. District 2: The 147.135 repeater in WPB was raised 200 feet without permission. It was returned to its original height after a threat of de-coordination. The 146.880 repeater in WPB is experiencing technical problem. New hardware has been ordered. The proposal for new coordination distances has a typo. District 3: (Report by VP Ira Bickham) The address of a couple of returned newsletters are silent keys. The 146.940 repeater in Cocoa was transferred to another group due to a trustee illness. The Coordinator has approved the new proposed location. There is some confusion about the location of the ATV repeater also. District 4: The 449.600 W4EFK repeater is still operating upside-down. Riley Hollingsworth has been informed. Paul received a complaint from Orlando. There has been no further complaints from the 442.950 owner in Oviedo. There has been no complaints from Orlando about the 146.640 repeater in Holiday. The antenna pattern was changed from offset to omnidirectional in Holiday. Still chasing some paper repeater. District 5: A couple of new coordinations have been granted. Pretty quiet otherwise. District 6: The Highland and Bradenton repeaters were coordinated too close and interfering with each other. Simultaneous nets aggravated the problem. The Bradenton repeater will be moving to 146.955 MHz. District 7: Other than the inactive pair that Chuck mentioned, all is quiet. District 8: Two co-channel repeaters on 147.030 have some coverage overlap and use the same CTCSS tone. Tallahassee will be changing tone. OLD BUSINESS: Coordinator was directed to notify Riley Hollingsworth of the Council's position on the Wall Cashman 449.600 upside-down situation. This was completed. Transmitter power must be specified on new applications for 440 MHz and those that specify more than 50 watts require a copy of a waiver from the Military Frequency Coordinator. Funds of $1,800 were allocated for purchase of Filemaker Pro for Mark, Dave, Nilo, Ted, Karen and Frank. Dana and Paul already have one. No purchases have been made. Coordinator was directed to allocate a pair in the sub-442 band for statewide emergency use. This was not completed. NEW BUSINESS: Vote upon Director Filla's proposal for new coordination distances based upon antenna height for 144, 220 and 440 MHz. The proposed distances do not include the effects of ducting or output power. The proposal was published on the FRC web site and newsletter as directed. A motion was made and seconded to accept the corrections mentioned during the open forum. Existing repeaters are grandfathered (existing 85-mile protection applies). When a search is conducted, the antenna height of existing repeaters is not added to the height of the proposed new repeater when determining minimum separation. Considerable discussion followed. The proposal passed by a vote of 7 to 1 and will be effective when the Coordinator has adequate search capability (tentatively March 1, 2003). Create a procedure to deal with paper repeaters. Considerable discussion followed. It was decided to table this issue until the February meeting. Decide on an alternative to the Orlando Hamfest for the annual business meeting. Director Nilo will contact the Miami Tropical Hamboree committee to determine if the meeting can be held there. Director Wirick made a motion that, all 144 and 440 MHz repeaters coordinated after January 1, 2003 must support CTCSS on both receive and transmit to reduce interference to other repeaters caused by coverage overlap. It is strongly recommended that these repeaters choose the CTCSS frequencies recommended by the FRC for the respective district to prevent overlap with co-channel repeaters in adjacent districts. Existing repeaters that choose not to support CTCSS should not expect the FRC to resolve their interference problem if CTCSS would likely solve the problem. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 4:06 PM by President Ray Kassis. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Respectfully submitted Dana G. Rodakis, K4LK Secretary/Treasurer