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 columnized version of this newsletter click here for the columnized version.

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.
Dial In Number:    641-715-0663
Access Code:      384775#
   1. Dial into bridge using Dial In Number
   2. Enter Event ID
   3. If the meeting organizer is already present,
        you'll be connected. If not, you'll be
        placed on hold until the organizer appears.

WEBMEETING & Phone Bridge:

Using your web browser

   1. Activate your Web Browser
   2. Go To https://join.freeconferencecall.com/marc-meeting
   3. Enter your name and email address
   4. Click the phone icon, you will have a choice to
        select using a telephone or your computer for
        audio if you have speakers and mic.
   5. If you select computer you should connect.
   6. If selecting telephone you will be presented with a number
        to dial and an access code.
   7. When prompted enter the access code followed by the # symbol.
   8. Once the audio connects you will need to press # once again
        and enter the synch code followed by the # symbol.
   9. You should now be connected.
       

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
This meeting took place at the Delta Twp Fire Departemnent (Lansing MI).

Officers:

President: Phil Manor, W8IC
Vice President: Dan Thompson, N8WKM
Secretary: Ann Manor, KT8F
Treasurer: Dave Johnson, WD8DJB
*Director: Fred Moses, W8FSM*
*Director: Jim Kvochick, K8JK
Coordinator: Dan Thompson, N8WKM
Coordinator: Phil Manor, W8IC
Coordinator: Jim Poehlman, K8ABZ
Database Manager: Dave Johnson, WD8DJB
Newsletter Editor: Dan Thompson, N8WKM

*Indicates Absent:
Visitors: Jeff Oberg, KB8SXK


Note: call signs of board members are not repeated in the minutes as they are listed above.

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.
Discussion regarding repeater separation and de-coordination problems also took place.

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
    Lake Michigan Credit Union
    PO Box 2848
    Grand Rapids, MI 49501-2848
The assignees will be Dave, Phil and Dan. Dave will send out a letter from the bank to Phil and Dan for approval signatures.
Dan made the motion and Jeff, KB8SXK,supported it. Vote taken, motion passed.

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.
No other nominations received.
Jeff was elected unanimously as the director. The nominees for the office of President and Secretary were the incumbents: Phil Manor, President; and Ann Manor, Secretary. The vote was taken for reelection of both and was unanimous. All three are elected to a two year term.

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.
Meeting adjourned at 1:47 pm.

Note: The December meeting will be conducted electronically on December 3 at 1 PM.

Treasurer's Report
For the Period: 8/31/2016 to 11/30/2016

MARC Funds balance on 8/31/2016 was $ 5,633.42

Income for September, October and November was $ 12.84 from dues and interest.
Expenses for September, October and November were $749.31 for PayPal fees, postage, copies, paper and printer cartridges, mileage, domain name renewal and web hosting.

MARC Funds balance on 11/30/2016 was $ 4,896.95

Respectfully Submitted,
Dave Johnson, WD8DJB
MARC Treasurer

Supporting Detail

MARC Funds as of 8/31/2016