ILLINOIS  REPEATER  ASSOCIATION

 

BOARD of DIRECTORS MINUTES

 

April 18, 2008

 

The Illinois Repeater Association Board of Directors meeting for April 18, 2008 was called to order by IRA President Rich Ranson at  9:00 PM  at the Eastland Suites Bloomington/Normal, Illinois.

 

IRA Officers Present:

President: Richard Ranson, N9YAY

Vice President Tim Childers, KB9FBI

Secretary/Treasurer Larry Schroeder, KA9KDC

Directors- -

Al Wolfe, K9SI.

William Kraus, KA9FER 

Stephen Look, KA9SZW

Stephen Craig, WD9CIR

 

Staff Present: Aaron Collins, N9OZB, Frequency Coordinator.

         Robert Shepard, KA9FLX, Technical Committee Chairman.

         Fred Seibold, W9FWS, Newsletter Editor.

 

Guests Present:

Dave Karr, KA9FUR, Wisconsin Frequency Coordinator

 

___________________________________________________________________________     

Request of additional items to be added to the agenda:

Items identified for discussion during Committee Reports and New Business:

·         (W9FWS)  Consider IL. RPTR ASSOC support for ARRL Spectrum Defense Fund

·         (KA9FLX) Board  discussion/consideration on several topics:

o         "Waitlist Policy" Update

o        Enforcement on "Paper-only" repeaters

o        DSTAR+narrowband Coordination - There should be No Center Channel Use

o        Shared-Non-protected pair

o        Short Spaced coordinations

 

 

Minutes of Previous Meetings: KA9FER moved and  K9SI seconded a motion to approve the minutes as previously published in the newsletter.  Motion carried by unanimous voice vote.

 

Treasurer's Report: Treasurer’s report: Secretary/ Treasurer, KA9KDC, read the treasurer's for the period of April 2007 to April 18, 2008.   Association account balance as of 4-18-2008 was $6274.40. Through the year expenses were $2466.34  and income was  $3081.00.  <It was noted that this year's income represents two years of ARRL payments, as 2007 was not rcv'd until post-2007 mtg> 

 

As of April 18th (before meeting) there were 132 IRA members: 101 members paid through 2008, 16  through 2009, 6 through '10, 7 through '11, 2 through '12.

 

K9SI moved and WD9CIR seconded a motion that the report be accepted. The motion carried by voice vote.

 

 

COMMITEE REPORTS:

v      Frequency Coordinators Report : Aaron Collins, N9OZB, IL Frequency Coordinator gave a review of past years coordination and actions.  Coordination actions included 68 applications in 2008 , 52 granted coordinations (compared to 41 in 2007).  14 applications still in progress.  there were 26 decoordinated systems.  Other system decoordinations in progress.   This year the coordination update mailings including followup second request to non-responders to the 1st mailing.   There are 526 listed in the published IL coordinated repeater list/actually the total number of coordinated repeaters is 557 systems as some are unpublished.    Of the annual mailings that require mandatory response from coordinated repeaters, there were 69 coordinations (49 addressees) that had not responded as of the annual meeting.   Pending requests for coordinations: about half are digital systems (3 of 7)

 

v      Technical Committe Report : Bob Shepard, KA9FLX gave a summary of issues and active topics related to coordination.     Discussion of a emerging technology, concerns and coordination guidelines for digital repeaters, plans for technologies that utilize narrow FM in terms of separation & coordination.   Review of handling for narrowband assignments established last year and systems results of test operations that fit the 2007 allocations &  layout.   For the "waiting list" there are 6 on the list maintained by the Tech Committee Chairman.  

 

o        The official policy is those waiting for repeater frequencies when none are available in a specific area must keep the IL Repeater Assoc technical committee chair informed by direct correspondence and updates on an annual basis.   If this annual update is not made to the tech Committee the requestor will be not maintained on the "wait list"

 

A motion to accept the committee reports was made by KB9FBI and seconded by WD9CIR. The motion was passed by voice vote.

 

Old Business:

 

 

Pending change of Illinois registered corporation agent - transfer of corporate agent from Dick Isely to Larry Schroeder remains to be done .

 

New Business :

 

ARRL SPECTRUM DEFENSE

Board unanimously agreed to propose to the membership at the general meeting  that a donation be made in the name of the organization for the ARRL Spectrum Defense Fund.   The donation amount recommended would be $540, which is the number of published coordinated repeaters in Illinois for 2007.    Motion made by K9SI and seconded by KA9FER.

 

WAIT LIST

As noted in Tech Committee report the policy for WAIT LIST is annual updates must be made by all requesters to be maintain on the IL RTPR ASSOC wait-list.

 

PAPER REPEATERS

This was a broad discussion on how to eliminate and/or expose "paper repeaters" that exist within the coordination data.     It was recommended that systems in "construction" or in "off the air" status not be published.

 

DSTAR Repeater "Channels"

DSTAR coordinations will not be on traditional center "analog" repeater channel.   Systems that convert coordination from analog to DSTAR , will be allowed no more than one year to hold the analog center channel.

 

SNP(shared non-protected) UHF Channel - statewide 444.125

Frequency Coordinator will send communication/letter to present normal coordination holder that exists, to work on change of frequency for their specific area repeater.

 

 

Adjournment:  KA9FER moved and KA9SZW seconded that the IRA Board of Directors' Meeting be recessed until after the annual meeting on April 19, 2008.  Motion passed by unanimous voice vote.  The meeting was recessed at  11:04 PM.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Larry Schroeder, KA9KDC

Secretary/Treasurer,

Illinois Repeater Association Inc. 

 

 

ILLINOIS REPEATER ASSOCIATION

 

Annual Meeting Minutes

APRIL 19,2008

 

Call to order: The meeting was called to order by IRA president Rich Ranson, N9YAY at 10:00 am at the Eastland Suites, Bloomington/Normal Illinois. Larry Schroeder KA9KDC, secretary/treasurer, verified that there was a quorum present as required in the constitution to conduct business.   (59 of 132 members present or represented by proxy)

 

Introduction of Officers and Attendees: N9YAY asked everyone to introduce themselves and identify the repeater(s) they represent. There were 39 persons in attendance representing 59 unique repeater sponsors.     

 

Also present was Dave Karr, KA9FUR, Wisconsin Frequency Coordinator

            __________________________________________________________

 

Approval of prior meeting minutes: KB9TVD moved and W9DWP seconded a motion that the minutes of the 2007 annual meeting be approved as published in the IRA newsletter. Motion carried by unanimous voice vote.

 

Treasurer’s report: Secretary/ Treasurer, KA9KDC, read the treasurer's for the period of April 2007 to April 18, 2008.   Association account balance as of 4-18-2008 was $6274.40. Through the year expenses were $2466.34  and income was  $3081.00.  <It was noted that this year's income represents two years of ARRL payments, as 2007 was not rcv'd until post-2007 mtg> 

 

As of April 18th (before meeting) there were 132 IRA members: 101 members paid through 2008, 16  through 2009, 6 through '10, 7 through '11, 2 through '12.

 

KA9ZXN moved and WD9HSY seconded a motion that the report be accepted.  The motion carried by voice vote.

 

Coordinator’s report: President N9YAY introduced Aaron Collins, N9OZB Frequency Coordinator, and thanked him for his efforts in the past year. Aaron presented his written report that highlighted the activity in the past year.    Aaron noted that the effort taken to have a 2nd notice mailing for annual update had beneficial results for getting a number of repeaters to provide more accurate information, as well as reduce the number of systems that are at risk of decoordination for failing to provide annual updates.

 

Aaron highlighted the value of the "coordinators toolkit" software is in performing coordination work. This is a software package engineered by Dave Karr, WI Freq Coordinator.

 

 

A motion to accept the coordinators report was made by WD9HSY and seconded by W9DWP.

 

The motion was accepted by voice vote.

 

 

Technical Committee report: Robert Shepard, KA9FLX, reported that details of years technical committee efforts was covered by the Coordinator' report.   Bob did stress that repeater coordination information needs to be technically correct and accurate to improve the associations efforts in handling coordination actions, in particular he noted that numerous systems have have incorrect ERP calculation/data, and physical specifications for their site.

 

Wait List policy was stated (requesters must have annual communication and updates with the technical committee to be maintain on the wait list)

 

Bob discussed the DSTAR and digital coordination plan that was formulated at the 2007 meeting.  It was noted that many other states have followed the plan IL had formed when it came to layout of DStar coordinations on 2m and 440.

 

 

   

 

President’s  report:

Rich Ranson, N9YAY, IRA president summarized his view of 2007-2008 activities of the organization, thanking the board and committee chairs for their work.  In particular for Aaron Collins work on frequency coordination.  Rich discussed NFCC role.

 

A motion to accept the presidents report was made by W9XA and seconded by W9DWP.

The motion was accepted by voice vote.

 

 

Election of Officers/Directors:

 

For this year:   TWO DIRECTOR SLOTS ARE TO BE ELECTED N (2 YEAR TERMS):

Nominations from the floor were:

Stephen Craig-WD9CIR,      

Steve Look-KA9SZW       

nominees hold the present position which was expiring / no other nominations received.

 

WD9HRU made a motion that all nominees be declared elected.

 

 

The motion was seconded by KA9ZXN and carried by voice vote.

 

2008-2009 Board:

President-                       Rich Ranson-N9YAY

Vice President-                Tim Childers-KB9FBI

Secretary/Treasurer-       Larry Schroeder-KA9KDC

Directors-    

 (2008-2010) (Stephen Craig-WD9CIR   Steve Look-KA9SZW)

 (2007-2009) Al Wolfe-K9SI                 William Kraus-KA9FER

 

 

Old Business:

 

n                   Discussed location for IRA annual meetings.  general consensus that the EASTLAND SUITES facility, Bloomington, IL continues to be a good location.   2009 meeting will be arranged for the same facilities (2009 Meeting will be April 25th 2009).

 

New Business:

 

 

Repeater Coordination software: W9XA made a motion to donate $200 to Dave Karr, developer for the coordination toolkit, Seconded by KB9PZA.  Motion passed by voice vote.

 

ARRL Spectrum Defense Fund donation:   N9YAY present to the membership the recommendation of the board of directors that a donation of $540 be made to the ARRL Spectrum Defense Fund.   WD9HSY made the motion for the membership approval for the donation, Seconded by KB9TVD.  Approved by voice vote.

 

---------------

General discussion topics (no specific motions):

  • Clarification:  Wait List is responsibility of the Tech Committee.    Any wait list request has to be on file(annually) with the Tech Committee to be maintained on list.
  • Recommenation that a "Q&A" section of the web site be created, for topics like "So You want to build a repeater…"
  • Shared-Non-protected repeaters.   …term is a bit of a misnomer, as it is coordinated/ but on expected shared use and low profile parameters.    Freq Coord will be working to get new coordination for normal rptr coordinations on the freq(s) presently.
  • "Paper Repeaters":   There is a need for "due diligence".   Comments made that membership should not be afraid to identify repeaters that are in fact non-exist/paper-only in fact.

 

Adjournment: There being no further business before the body a motion to adjourn was made by W9XA and seconded by KB9TVD and approved by a unanimous voice vote. The meeting was adjourned at 10:58 AM

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Larry Schroeder, KA9KDC

Secretary /Treasurer

Illinois Repeater Association Inc.

 

 

BOARD of DIRECTORS MINUTES

 

April 19, 2009

 

The meeting of the Board of Directors of the Illinois Repeater Association was called to order by IRA President N9YAY  at 11:02 AM at the   Eastland Suites Bloomington/Normal, Illinois.

 

IRA Officers Present:  President N9YAY - Vice President Timothy Childers, KB9FBI- Secretary/Treasurer Lawrence Schroeder, KA9KDC - Directors: Allen Wolfe, K9SI – William Kraus, KA9FER-  Stephen Look, KA9SZW, and Stephen Craig, WD9CIR           

 

IRA officers absent:  None.

 

Committee and Frequency Coordinator Appointments: President appointed Aaron Collins, N9OZB to serve as Frequency Coordinator for the next year.

WD9CIR moved and KA9SZW  seconded that this appointment be confirmed.

 

N9YAY Appointed Bob Shepard, KA9FLX to serve as IRA Technical Committee Chairman.

K9SI  moved and  KA9FER seconded a motion to confirm this appointment.

 

N9YAY appointed Fred Seibold, W9FWS, to serve as Newsletter Editor.

 

KA9FBI  moved and KA9KDC seconded a motion that this appointment be confirmed.

 All three motions passed by a unanimous voice vote.

 

MACC Director Appointments: N9YAY appointed KB9FBI and W9GIG to serve as MACC Directors for the next 12 months, and N9OZB to serve as MACC Frequency Coordinator.

 

KA9FER moved and KA9SZW seconded a motion that the IRA Board of Directors confirm these appointments.  Motion passed by unanimous voice vote.

 

NFCC Delegate: KA9SZW moved and KA9FER seconded a motion that: “The IRA President shall cast all NFCC ballots on behalf of the IRA, and that the IRA Vice President shall do so in the absence or incapacity of the IRA President, or by the direction of the IRA President.”  Motion passed by unanimous voice vote.

 

Adjournment: KB9FBI moved and KA9KDC seconded that the IRA Board of Directors meeting be adjourned.  Motion passed by unanimous voice vote. 

 

The meeting adjourned at 11:20 AM April 21, 2008.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Larry Schroeder, KA9KDC

Secretary/Treasurer,

Illinois Repeater Association Inc.