August 25th, 2001 Minutes

Called to order at 11am by Ken Enenbach.

Introductions of MRC officers and meeting attendees were made.

Minutes of the previous meeting were read and accepted with a change to add the election of KB3HF as board member.

Treasurer's report was read and accepted.

Ken KC0WX reported that Mac K4CHS was out of town and Jeff KB3HF will answer coordination questions in his absence.

Ken KC0WX discussed suspending dues since the Council has money to spare at this time. The members discussed different methods of suspending the dues including a two-year suspension and a dollar amount suspension.

N0PNP proposed a motion that dues be suspended until the Council's balance falls below $5000.00, once that takes place dues will automatically be reinstated the day of the next annual meeting, N0QBF seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.

Ken states that in a discussion he had with Mac and Jeff, we appear to have all the repeaters in Missouri coordinated. There have been issues in SW MO that deal with the fact that we have 4 states that meet in that region each with different coordinating standards which makes getting new machines coordinated difficult. We have been and will continue using new tools to short space repeaters when mutually agreed to by the parties involved. The discussion of a machine that has been on and off the air in Springfield took place. Ken assured everyone that Mac was dealing with this issue and the trustee would either keep the machine on the air or face immediate decoordination.

Jeff KB3HF with the coordinator's report. Illinois is close spacing repeaters in metro areas to 40-50 miles but at this time the 90 mile spacing for regular coverage machines appears to be working well and more systems are adopting the voluntary CTCSS plan agreed to by the Council in 1998. The Council would like to reduce wide area coordination, which is currently 150 miles, down to 120 miles. Comments were taken and the motion was put to a vote. The motion carried.

Ken introduced Brian KC0BS. Brian is the new president of the Kansas Amateur Repeater Council, he stated that when he took over the database needed serious work and he has worked diligently to bring the KARC back to life. Their website is http://www.ksrepeater.com. Brian has been working with Matt N0ZI to bring more automation to coordination and Matt setup Brian with the system Mac currently uses. Brian and Matt are working together to create a better online method for gathering the yearly repeater updates.

Ken suggested that any ARRL members should take advantage of the callsign@arrl.net mail forwarder.

Ken stated that the National Coordination Council had problems because the ARRL and FCC rejected their plan, but they are working to develop policies that can be accepted. MACC has for a long time supported "official" councils in its member state network. There is still constant fighting in other states regarding who is "official" and who is not, but thankfully MRC has a good working relationship with most of the surrounding state councils.

Question from the group: Any open 2M pairs in St. Louis? Jeff just recently tried to coordinate one without success, but it really depends on your lat/long as a location in one area of the city may not work, but another will.

Question from the group: Is the PL plan required or can you use any PL you want? Map is voluntary, but will point out what most systems in your area will use and is the Council's suggestion when picking a PL tone. PL use is voluntary except on the SNAP pair.

The nominating committee has suggested that the current officers be nominated. A request for additional nominations was made with no response. N0QBF made a motion to accept the slate, KC0BS seconded, motion carried unanimously.

Meeting was adjourned at 11:49am.

Submitted by,
Matt Stanley
Secretary
Missouri Repeater Council, Inc.