TASMA

Two Meter Spectrum Management Association
358 South Main Street, #90, Orange, CA 92668

General Meeting, Saturday, 4 August 2001
Minutes

Standley Park and Recreation Center
San Diego

Board Members Present: Chairman: Bob Dengler, NO6B
Vice Chairman: Pat Finke, KC6ACL
Secretary: Howard Brown, KG6GI
Treasurer: Jim Fortney, K6IYK
Member at Large Ted Fukushima, N6ZZK

Members Present:

Chuck Wood, WD6APP; Miguel Sanchez, KC6BEU; Alejandro Hernandez, AA6CH; Jaime Arellano, KG6CMB; Rafael Carreon, XE2CRL; Joseph Macera, KG6ECQ; Baltasar Cervantes, KG6ESC; Juan Francisco Lozano-Rodriguez, XE2FLR; Cybil Allbright, W6GIC; Enrique Gonzalez, XE2GUG; Randy Hammock, KC6HUR; Alex Hodoyan, XE2IO; Andrew Ormonde, KB6OPR; Noe Nevarez, KF6OVP; Harold Van Auken, WB6PTE; Miguel Ramirez, NH2R; Ponciano Jara, KE6RLP; Mike Marin, KF6RQV; Mauricio Castro, XE2SJA; Rogerio Gutierrez, KB6TRD; Steve Hennessee, W6UMR; Eli Aguirre, N6XPG; John Cordle, Jr.,KF6XY.

New Members Present:

Salvador Alcala, KG6ESF; Jorge Rios, KK6KD; Afredo Bremerman, XE2TBC.

Visitors Present:

Michael Mastor, N6OPH; Terry McNeill, N6AHE; Erick Arellano; Ed Flinn, WA6YVX.

Voting Chits:

Yellow voting chits were passed out to the members present based on their eligibility to vote.

Submitted Documentation:

A duplicate copy of a Request For Coordination was received from N7OD. [Note: The original copy of this package was logged into the TASMA records on 6-14-2001.]

Record of Meeting:
TASMA Chairman, Bob Dengler called the meeting to order at 10:20 at the Standley Park and Recreation Center. There were 30 members present (including 3 new members) and 3 visitors. The attendees each introduced themselves to those present.

1. Secretary’s Report – Howard Brown. The April Minutes, as published on the TASMA Web Site, was read and, on motion of Howard Brown, KG6GI, seconded by John Cordle, KF6XY, was approved without objection.
2. Treasurer’s Report – Jim Fortney. The mid-year report was printed in the last newsletter. At mid-year TASMA has a net worth of $5155.62. There was approximately $418 more expenses than receipts. Bulk of the expenses is oriented toward the newsletters and member communication. There were no unusual expenses. On motion by Steve, W6UMR, seconded by Randy, KC6HUR, the report was unanimously approved.
3. Correspondence Summary: The correspondence this quarter is attached (See Appendix A) and includes membership renewals and applications, twenty two RFCs, one interference claim follow-up, five letters confirming sale of repeaters, one application for membership on the technical committee, four certified letter receipts, five undeliverable letter returns, one payment from the ARRL for repeater director data, receipt of our liability insurance policy, various other business letters, some newsletters (including returns), and some commercial junk mail.
4. Committee Reports:

   1. Spectrum Management - Chairman Dengler reviewed his plans for the Spectrum Management activity (See charts in appendix D). He nominated Andrew Ormonde, KB6OPR, to be the Chairman of the Spectrum Management Committee.

      Andy presented his initial ideas on the band plan. He would like to start by reviewing the current band plan to confirm which areas may not in extensive use. A member pointed out that any band plans would have to be coordinated with the entire Southern California amateur committee.

   2. Technical Committee – As Burt Weiner, Chairman of the Technical Committee (TC) was not present, Bob Dengler provided a report on the TC activities (see charts in Appendix B).

      He first presented a statistical summary of TC activities since April.

      He next presented a summary of two technical tools that have been added to the Technical Committee repertoire; the Radio Mobile Deluxe (RMD), a freeware tool, and the Audio Spectrum Analysis (ASA), a shareware tool.

      An output from the RMD analyzing coverage from a low level site in the Ontario region was use as an example. Bob explained how the tool was applied to a case. Bob agreed that he would add the URL of the MRD to the TASMA Web Site.

      Bob went on to discuss the use of the Audio Spectrum Analysis tool. HE indicated that with 15 KHz channel spacing some adjacent channel interference was to be expected which is why a lot of the country has gone to 20 KHz spacing. However, this is impractical in Southern California. There are two things that determinate the occupied bandwidth, the deviation and the modulation spectrum. Where there are devices to address the deviation issue, less has been done to analyze the modulation spectrum. The ASA tool uses the PC sound card to stimulate and measure the audio response of a repeater. When a repeater is found with modulation spectrum wider than 3 KHz, it can lead to adjacent channel interference. What we want is a flat response to 3 KHz, followed by a sharp drop off above that frequency.

      Bob will try to develop a white paper to further describe these tools, which will be posted on the TASMA Web Site.

   3. Bylaws Committee – Jim Fortney briefed the progress on the Bylaws Committee. He pointed out that several concerns were identified at the December meeting, which lead to the formation of the Bylaws Committee. Jim indicated that the two issues that were believed to be most critical were discussed in the March newsletter and on the reflector. He expressed disappointment at the relative lack of interest in discussions of these issues. He requested any comments or concerns.

      A lengthy discussion ensued. One member offered that he was disappointed in having to support the TC with re-coordination data every few years due to lost records. This, of course, was not an issue with the bylaws but rather with the operation of technical committee. The member went on to offer that the reason why there may have been minimum comments as it did not impact most people personally.

      The bylaws can be accessed on the Web Site or the organization will mail a copy to any member requesting a copy.

      Jim indicated that it has been suggested that rather than forwarding individual messages, it might be better to consolidate the six issues into single messages.

      Jim indicated that Yahoo has indicated that without more use of the Reflector, they intended to deactivate the service.

      Jim will put out a note on the Reflector identifying the most recent issue of the Bylaws.

      Following Jim’s report, Bob Dengler presented his views on changes recommended to the Bylaws (See Appendix C). There was a lengthy discussion regarding TASMA’s role in identifying and/or recommend possible frequencies for repeaters. TASMA originally assigned frequencies but has not done this in many years.

      Jim pointed out that the purpose of the organization was already in the Articles of Association but agreed that this document was generally invisiable to the membership. Jim agreed to see to it that the Articles of Association were made available to the membership, possibly through the Web site. Cybil, W6GIC, offered to help retype the document as it currently exists in a poor condition.

      Jim was concerned about including procedural requirements in the Bylaws, limiting flexibility in the future.

      Bob next started a discussion concerning how many votes a single person can cast (for example, a person who is a delegate of one or more associations as well as holding a personal membership. Several extreme cases were explored.

      There was some discussion of the definition of a "delegate" membership. Jim pointed out that only individuals could hold memberships, not organizations. A delegate is an individual who represents an organization.

      Jim pointed out that TASMA does not provide for the right to vote by proxy because TASMA provides for a delegate membership. Jim also pointed out that he verifies that membership applications for delegate memberships represent real recognized organization.

      Other topics, which were discussed without conclusion, were the membership requirement for election to a Board position and the definition of quorums for the various types of meetings

      Bob recommended that specific duties be assigned to the Board Member at Large.

      On the topic of the period of service on the Technical Committee, the possible issue is loss of corporate memory at the end of each year. One approach is having the members elected and have their period extend beyond one year (e.g. 2 years) and having their election date offset (e.g. on 4 month intervals).

      Based on the feedback that has been received so far this year, Jim does not anticipate any rewrite of the Bylaws this year.

      The discussion ended with a discussion again on the use of the Reflector.

   4. TASMA Database Maintenance – Randy Hammock, KC6HUR, provided a briefing on the status of the construction of a new database.

      A new schema has been drafted. Randy needs next to coordinate with Jim Fortney to assure that the ARRL and other requirements are met.

      Randy hopes to eventually have the data as well the forms (e.g. RFC's, Membership Applications) available for submittal on-line through the Web site.

5. New Business:
   1. A discussion took place over the interpretation for the TC Process Log and the fact that the column titles might be misleading. The TC needs to revise this document before the publication of the next newsletter.
   2. A discussion took place concerning the coordination of portable repeaters. Bob Dengler pointed out that it is TASMA’s policy to only coordinate coordination of repeaters that are on the air. This brings to question the issue of repeaters that are maintained solely for emergency situations and are normally not enabled.
   3. Jim Fortney introduced a discussion of Mexican Repeaters. He noted that the communicated link between the Baja hams and TASMA has been lost. There is not a single Baja repeater listed in the TASMA database today. He believes that there reappears were lost one by one over the years as TASMA could not confirm the continued operation of Baja repeaters. He solicited a way to re-establish information and communication with the Baja hams.

      How about a designated cross border representative within TASMA.

      Alex Hodoyan, XE2IO, can get TASMA a list of Baja repeaters. However, he expressed the frustration of the Mexican community that the US amateur’s ignore any prior frequency agreements. A lengthy discussion took place over the international coordination issues. Alex agreed to review the TASMA band plan and suggested that the international agreements should be mutually reviewed. Jim asked Alex to continue to be the liaison with TASMA over these matters.

   4. Cybil Allbright, W6GIC, nominated the current Board for re-election for next years Board. This is comprised of:
      • Chairman: Bob Dengler, NO6B
      • Vice Chairman: Pat Finke, KC6ACL
      • Secretary: Howard Brown, KG6GI
      • Treasurer: Jim Fortney, K6IYK
      • Member at Large Ted Fukushima, N6ZZK

      Bob Dengler, Pat Finke & Ted Fukushima agreed to be candidates; Howard Brown and Jim Fortner were undecided at this point. There were no other nominations.

6. Next Meeting – The next general meeting of TASMA is scheduled for 8 December 2001. The tentative location will be in Los Angeles but that is subject to change.
7. Adjournment – The meeting was adjourned at 13:20.

Howard G. Brown (KG6GI)
Secretary

Approved 12/8/01

 

Appendix A – Summary of Correspondence (Y-T-D):

42 pieces of incoming correspondence

Membership:

• 6 Membership applications
• 22 membership renewals/updates
• 2 delegate renewal (same organization)

Technical Committee:

• 6 RFC – applications
• 3 RFC – application, supplemental data
• 13 RFC – information update
• 5 Letters confirming sale or transfer of repeater
• 1 Interference follow-up letter
• 1 Application For Technical Committee
• 4 Certified letter receipt
• 5 Undeliverable letter returns
• 1 ARRL Directory

Business Operations:

• 1 Insurance invoice
• 1 Liability insurance policy
• 1 annual information request from the CA Franchise Tax Board
• 1 Invoice for network services
• 7 Bank statements
• 2 ARRL letters to treasurer
• 1 Payment from ARRL for Repeater Directory data

Other:

• 4 Newsletter returns
• 9 Newsletters
• 3 Commercial junk mail

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Appendix B – Technical Committee Report:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Appendix C – Bylaws Review – Chairman’s Recommendation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Appendix D – Spectrum Management Committee:

 

 

 

 

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