[MNham] Minnesota Repeater Council meeting Feb 9

[Doug Reed]

Hello!

The next meeting of the Minnesota Repeater Council will be held during the
St Cloud Mid-Winter hamfest on February 9, 2002. The cost of the hamfest is
$5 per person and MRC members WILL need to pay at the door. Please check
the St Cloud web site at www.w0sv.org for more information on the location
and directions. 

The hamfest opens at 9AM. There will be an informal Q&A session at 11AM for
questions regarding MRC and repeater frequency coordination in general.
This is primarily for new hams, new trustee's, or other's with questions
about how MRC works. The hope is that this session may reduce the number of
side issues we need to deal with during the meeting. 

Registration of MRC members will begin at 11:30AM and the meeting will
begin at noon. Only current MRC members "in good standing" may vote at the
meeting. MRC members who are not current with dues will be able to pay
their 2002 dues during registration. I intend to have the roster up to date
by then but I don't know right now what anyone's expiration date is.  

If the repeater trustee of record can not attend, they may write a letter
to designate someone as their proxy for this meeting. If the trustee in our
records has been replaced for any reason, we will accept a letter from the
club or equipment owner to designate a proxy and begin registration of the
new trustee. If there has been any change of ownership or trustee in the
last 3-4 years, you might want to bring a letter for our files. 

If you did NOT receive a packet of information from Paul K0LAV last
November-December, then we have lost track of your repeater coordination,
don't have a good address for the trustee or club, or never received the
information in the first place. You should be able to download the blank
repeater coordination documents from the MRC web site
http://www.mrc.gen.mn.us/ then fill them out and bring them with. You must
remember that no coordination is complete until it is recorded in our
database and confirmed by the coordinators in the adjacent states.

This is an important meeting for MRC because half the club officers will be
changing. Jim Person WD0GUX, the MRC Chairman, died of cancer on November
30, 2001. The acting Chairman is Eric Osterberg, N0OKI. The
secretary-treasurer, Doug Reed N0NAS, does not intend to seek reelection to
that post. Paul Emeott K0LAV has indicated he will continue as Frequency
Coordinator but he would like some volunteers to help with coordination
duties.  

The hamfest closes at 2PM but the MRC meeting could continue until 3:30PM
at the latest. Please attend the meeting and find out what is going on in
the state.....

Also one last item, remember the MRC policy regarding repeaters that are
not on the air or were never built. Our "head hunter" policy says that the
person or group who brings to our attention any repeater that is not
on-the-air will have "first-refusal" to coordinate that frequency after it
is vacated, assuming their proposed location is acceptable within MRC
repeater coordination guidelines. 

We want to know about any repeaters that are not on the air so we can begin
de-coordination proceedings. But even though you found an inactive
repeater, you may not be able to put a replacement repeater anywhere except
at the same location. Most frequencies near the metro area or along the
Wisconsin & Iowa borders are only available in a limited area because of
other repeaters coordinated on the same pair. 

But the important thing is to get the repeater on the air if it is
coordinated. The purpose of repeater coordination is to make maximum use of
a scarce resource. If a repeater is coordinated but not on the air, it is
wasting a resource that someone else may need very badly. So let us know if
a repeater isn't on the air or is only on the air once in a while. Perhaps
if the trustee has a hard time keeping the repeater on the air what he
really needs is your assistance. If John Q Ham can't keep the old repeater
running, maybe the local club can "buy in" with an offer of money, new
equipment and help.

I'd also like to suggest you check out the MRC web site. It is still pretty
lean but hopefully you'll be seeing a mailing list subscription page in the
near future. The current intention is to make it a general mailing list for
all trustee's and repeater users. We are looking for two or three people
who would like to moderate the mailing list so things don't get out of
hand. And to also make note of the good questions and answers to build a
FAQ for the web page. 

I hope you'll be at the meeting.
73, Doug Reed, N0NAS.
MRC Secretary-Treasurer.