REGIONAL MEETINGSWE HAVE A PERMANENT NAMEWe have now held the last in the current series of five regional frequency coordination meetings. These meetings were held in Delaware County on March 24 for members in Southeastern EPA; in Hellertown on April 21 for the Northeastern EPA Region; on May 5 at York for the Southwestern EPA Region; on May 9 in Danville for the Northwestern EPA Region and in Woodbury on April 9 for members in the Southern New Jersey area.
Intended to accomplish more than just "showing the flag," these regional meetings were well-attended by repeater owners, operators and users and gave the new coordination leadership an opportunity to present themselves and their programs to the repeater community.
The final stage in the new coordinator's formal organization, attendees were given an opportunity to vote on a permanent name for the organization, adopt a formal Constitution and By-Laws and select permanent officers. More on this in the following articles…
THE CONSTITUTIONAfter having gone through several permutations, the membership voted overwhelmingly to choose as its permanent name the "Area Repeater Coordination Council of EPA/SNJ, Inc." Certainly we recognize that the use of the earlier forms of the name the organization has had to work through may cause some confusion but they were necessary as we have stepped through the various stages in our formation.
The vote for this was nearly unanimous.
OUR OFFICERSThe draft of ARCC's Constitution and By-Laws had been circulated to every repeater owner and operator in the EPA and SNJ ARRL Sections some time ago and members voting at the recent regional meetings also voted to accept these documents without change.
COMMITTEES FORMEDNominees for various ARCC offices were elected as follows:
Steven N. White, WA3IAO - President
Eugene C. Pressler, Jr., W3ZXV - Vice President - Administration
Ronald Raymond, K3LPR - Vice President - Coordination
Vincent Bardsley, KB3OM - Treasurer
John Sichert, KA3LAO - Secretary
Jeff DePolo, WN3A - Database Manager
In addition, the following Regional Representatives were elected:
SNJ-NJ: Matthew Mazziotta, N2KDV
EPA-SE: Richard E. Stewart, K3ITH
EPA-SW: John Shaffer, W3SST
EPA-NW: John Winkler, WB3GPY
EPA-NE: Donald Curtis, W3LR
These regional officers represent each of their local areas as members of the ARCC Executive Board where they are able to bring their regional perspectives to the Board's activities. They also are assigned to monitor local repeater operation and assist the frequency coordinators as requested by providing input on conditions in their areas.
ARCC WILL BE ON-LINE SOONThe ARCC Board announces the organization of several important new committees. These include the following:
Technical Advisory Committee
Headed by Dr. Dennis Silage, WB2LGJ, the Technical Advisory Committee will offer advice and support on technical questions which repeater owners may have in connection with the operation of their systems.
Assistant Regional Representatives
Headed by each of the ARCC five Regional Representatives, with the power to appoint assistants, these individuals will assist the Regionals as requested in monitoring local repeater activity.
Digital Liaison Committee
Jeff Chapman, WA3RIZ, leads this committee, which has the responsibility of monitoring and assisting in digital coordination efforts and in making recommendations to the Executive Board on policies which might affect digital operations.
Audit Committee
Glenn Block, WA3VHL, a Certified Public Accountant, heads the Audit Committee. This group will periodically audit the books and records of ARCC, Inc. and advise the Treasurer and other officers so that the organization will adhere to accepted accounting procedures.
We have already had a number of volunteers step forward to serve on these committees and those names have been forwarded to the appropriate chairmen but, if you are interested in serving on one of these committees, please contact their respective chairmen.
THE ARCC HANDBOOKWe are moving forward with plans to implement an Internet on-line service. No details are available on this new service yet but watch this space for a further announcement.
Plans call for an information-packed web site which will include a complete up-to-date listing of all active repeaters in the Eastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey ARRL Sections.
HAVE YOU JOINED ARCC?The ARCC Repeater Coordination Handbook is the complete guide to FM repeater coordination and copies of this handy manual were sent to nearly 400 repeater owners and operators late in 1995.
Since then there have been a number of additions and corrections to this authoritative manual and a second printing of the revised handbook will be available shortly. Copies will be sent to ARCC members on request as soon as they become available.
The manual contains all the instructions and forms necessary to complete a request for coordination.
TECH TIPIf not, this may be the last Newsletter and other periodic information you will receive from us!
Since our formation, we have been mailing to an extensive list of folks whom we had identified as having an interest in repeater coordination. We have issued several invitations to join us in supporting this important volunteer activity.
To conserve our resources we plan to limit future mailings only to the members of ARCC and this is the last mailing we will be making to the entire repeater community.
We charge no fees for our coordination services and non-members may continue to use these services without cost. We also will supply anyone making a request with the instructions and forms necessary to apply for coordination without charge.
There will be a $10.00 charge, however, for non-members requesting copies of the complete ARCC Repeater Coordination Handbook. The revised handbook, which will soon go into its second printing, contains these forms plus a lot of other very useful information for repeater owners and operators.
Non-members will also be allowed limited access our soon-to-be-announced on-line coordination Internet Web Page, however, the information available to non-members will also be restricted.
The message here is that, if you haven't yet joined, the time has come for you to do so. We are including an application form with this issue of the Newsletter.
Join us now!
AMATEUR BANDS COVETEDAdvanced Computer Controls for years had produced one of the most widely-used lines of repeater controllers. The company was sold last year to Link Communications, Inc. and many repeater owners suddenly found that their ACC controllers had become obsolete.
Link Communications produces a very complete line of controllers, DVRs and other accessories and a new catalog is now available.
Located at 115 Second Avenue NE, Link Communications' mailing address is P. O. Box 1071, Sidney, Montana 59270.
The company's main telephone number is 406/482-7515 or 800/610-4085. The fax number is 406/482-7547.
U. S. and Canadian amateur radio operators are continuing to express their concerns about a proposal from the mobile-satellite industry to find the additional spectrum space it claims it needs by moving to the amateur 2-Meter and 70-cm bands. The mobile-satellite industry operates low-earth-orbit satellites for commercial paging and low-data-rate messaging services.
The proposal was presented in late May by industry representatives to a committee preparing recommendations for the 1997 World Radio-telecommunications Conference.
The American Radio Relay League has urged amateurs to take the threat to amateur operations seriously and to write to express those concerns. The FCC and the U. S. Department of State chairman of the WRC committee have been deluged with e-mail but our advice is to write and mail your comments.
These two bands are the backbone of amateur radio's emergency communications capability and a very powerful argument can be made by repeaters that are engaged in public service communications. Many of the agencies we deal with operate under formal government-mandated emergency contingency plans that depend heavily on the repeater community to furnish communications under these plans.
How can we continue to meet those needs and where are such agencies to go to replace the very important communications services we supply?
Written comments should be sent (with an original and one copy) to the Office of the Secretary, Federal Communications Com-mission, Washington, DC 20554. Your comments should include at the top "Reference No. ISP-96-005" and "Advisory Committee Informal Working Group 2A."
For additional information, see the July 1996 issue of QST magazine or, for the latest developments in this matter, take a look at the ARRL Internet web page…
http://www.arrl.org If you haven't written yet, do it now !