Welcome to the MARC Newsletter a publication of the Michigan Area Repeater Council. This news letter is published quarterly in conjunction with the quarterly business meetings. If you prefer a non-columnized version of this newsletter click here for the wide version. |
Please notice the instructions for the December electronic meeting. |
President’s Update: We have a new Director, Jeff, KB8SXK. Jeff was elected at the September meeting. He is replacing Fred, W8FSM’s position. Thanks Fred, for your service to MARC. Jeff will be handling requests from other states that are looking for clearance from Michigan repeaters. This includes proposed new, modified or relocated repeater applications in other states the Upper Peninsula and Ontario, Canada. Many thanks to Jim, K8ABZ, who has been doing this job since 2012. Bob, N8ZCC, one of our four new volunteer coordinators is doing a fantastic job of notifying trustees that are behind on their Update/Renewal TDS’s. Many have already responded to Bob by submitting the required updates. He will be sending out 2nd and 3rd notices to trustees who are either not responding, or can’t respond for various reasons. Bob will start de-coordination actions if there is no response to his 3rd notice. These repeaters could be off the air, or the trustee may be unavailable or uncooperative. In any case, the repeater will be de-coordinated if MARC is unable to make contact with the trustee after these attempts. Per coordination documents, it is the trustee’s responsibility to maintain communication with MARC. MARC’s other new volunteer coordinators are currently getting oriented. Pete, AA8GK, is taking on the 2 meter requests as soon as he is comfortable with the procedure, and Larry, W8SOX is going to take over 10, 6 and 70 cm requests for coordination when he is comfortable with it. Ryan, N8PBX, is involved with de-coordination of off the air repeaters along with Bob, N8ZCC. These are sometimes called paper repeaters. This is when the trustee renews the coordination even though the repeater is not on the air, is not on the air full time or is not providing at least the minimum coverage. If your repeater is down for repair, simply let MARC know so that our coordinators do not start the de-coordination process. If you are a repeater trustee, please cooperate with our new volunteers. It is a thankless job most of the time, and accomplished with no benefit to the volunteers. This volunteering is just a good way to contribute to amateur radio, as the rest of the MARC board has been doing. The extra help is just what the doctor ordered for MARC. Everyone has a job to do, and the workload is starting to spread out. Dave, WD8DJB, MARC’s database manager and treasurer is still the most overloaded member. Future plans hope to include changes that will lessen Dave’s load. 73, Phil W8IC ----------------------------------------------- Electronic Meeting Information: The Dec 3, meeting is an Electronic Meeting at 1:00pm! PHONE BRIDGE ONLY:
Use this ONLY if you are only using the phone. WEBMEETING & Phone Bridge:
Using your web browser
Participation in the webmeeting is only needed for things like slideshow
presentations, or use of a whiteboard where someone may need to do an illistration.
It also allows us the opportunity to display the actual text of a motion for everyone
to read. If you are unable to participate in the webmeeting you may still join in
on the phone bridge from wherever you are. ----------------------------------------------- Words from the Coordinator's Conference In November I attended a meeting with coordination council members from 7 states hosted by the people of Wisconsin. MARC has had new volunteers working very hard to clean up our out of date data as well as eliminate some repeaters that just do not exist. Part of the reason for this prompting was that we are having to tell people that we just don't have pairs available in certain areas on 2m and 70 cm. This cleaning is helping. Michigan is a large state, and we have the luxury of being able to reuse frequencies many times within our own state. Other states do not have that luxury. Much of the days conversation (9 hours and we had sandwitches while the meeting continued through lunch) was what the next step is in utilizing our bandwidth better. The topic is certain to come up at the December meeting as there is much to share in the determinations that were made as to what direction we need to go. This will, over time include some restructuring of our bandplan as well as the way that we do things. The overwhelming agreement with those that attended was that we need to move ahead with coordination using tools that we have at our disposal. This is also going to mean changes to documents within our bylaws. With those things in mind, we are going to need to see cooperation, and more importantly some professionalism among people working on or holding coordination for repeaters. That brings me to the final thought I need to impress here, Dave was not available to write a database managers corner for this newsletter due to illness and travel. Normally he begs people to update their TDS and take the time to make sure we have the best information possible so that we can have accurate information. This is going to get even more important over the next couple of years, and we will have not choice but to follow the bylaws and decoordinate repeaters when updates are not maintained. I wish for everyone Happy Holidays. Dan Thompson, N8WKM |
MARC Meeting Minutes
Date: September 10, 2016 Meeting called to order by Phil at: 1:15 PM. Ann read the minutes, motion to approve minutes from the June 4, 2016 meeting was made by Dave, seconded by Jeff KB8SXK, vote taken, minutes approved. Treasurer’s report provided by Dave. Motion to accept the report made by Dan, supported by Jeff KB8SXK, vote taken, motion carried. Old Business: Jeff KB8SXK, stated he owns a DMR repeater. He is requesting a coordination for a second frequency pair to run on the Brandmeister worldwide network. He discussed the advantages of DMR repeaters and their promotion. Open discussion followed. The consensus of the board is that there would be no objection to providing a second frequency pair for a second use. Phil mentioned that he was able to have a training class with two of the four new coordinators. He will be meeting with the remaining new coordinators for an information class at a mutually agreeable time.
Dan discussed TDS information he has received that is not accurate. Second notices (reminders) should not be sent out to delinquent repeater owners for at least 30 days after the first notice is sent. Extra time can be given if requested by the trustee for reasonable delay issues. (vacation, work trip, etc..) Dave is storing all emails sent to him on the MARC computer and it is backed up often. Discussion regarding MARC obtaining possible cloud storage. Dave stated that it is extremely time consuming for him to do all the database work. He would like to oversee database info and have coordinators do updates that would be posted on the activity log in the future. Some programming is still in process to accomplish this. Dave said someone requested MARC shutdown MARC's Yahoo mail system so the person would be dropped from the list. This request is not reasonable as there are many registered users who would have to re-register. New Business: Jim Poehlman, K8ABZ, said he must give up his position as coordinator, doing the out of state cross coordination requests. Jim said he will continue to do the job until another coordinator volunteers and is ready to take on the job. Jim may take on other jobs for MARC. Thank you, Jim for the fantastic job you have done.
Bank account: Dave made a motion to close the current bank
account and open a new account at Phil stated that there is no official wording on waivers as each waiver has conditions that determine the necessary content of the waiver. The waiver is used for reduced spacing between adjacent or co-channel repeaters. Elections:
Dan, as election committee chairman opened up nominations
for the offices of President and Secretary and one director.
Phil nominated Jeff, KB8SXK, for the position of director. Discussion on MARC database issues. Dave and Dan will be working on resolving the issues which entails writing software programming tools. Discussion on MARC database issues. Dave and Dan will be working on resolving the issues which entails writing software programming tools. Adjournment:
Motion to adjourn made by Dave, seconded by Jeff, motion carried. Note: The December meeting will be conducted electronically on December 3 at 1 PM. Respectfully submitted, Ann Manor, KT8F, Recording Secretary |
Treasurer's Report
MARC Funds balance on 8/31/2016 was $ 5,633.42
Respectfully Submitted, Supporting Detail MARC Funds as of 8/31/2016 |
Share Acct FBFCU Money Market FBFCU Checking FBFCU Beginning Balance Income Dues Interest Sep, Oct & Nov. Total Income Expenses PayPal Fees Postage Office Supplies Mileage Domain Name Renewal IX Webhosting (1YR) Total Expenses Marc Funds as of 11/30/2016 Share Acct LMCU Money Market LMCU Checking LMCU Ending Balance |
$5.00 $5,290.32 $338.10 $5,633.42 $10.00 $2.84 $12.84 $0.59 $4.92 $75.71 $484.01 $64.68 $119.40 ($749.31) $5.00 $4,701.97 $189.98 $4,896.95 |
MARC Officers | Appointed Positions |
President: Phil Manor W8IC | Frequency Coordinator 902MHz: & up Dan Thompson N8WKM |
Vice President: Dan Thompson N8WKM | Frequency Coordinator 440MHz: Phil Manor W8IC |
Secretary: Ann Manor KT8F | Frequency Coordinator Links & Control: Phil Manor W8IC |
Treasurer: Dave Johnson WD8DJB | Frequency Coordinator: Jim Poehlman K8ABZ |
Director: Jeff Oberg KB8SXK | Database Manager: Dave Johnson WD8DJB |
Director: James Kvochick K8JK | Newsletter Editor: Dan Thompson N8WKM |