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 that version.

The next MARC meeting is the Anual Business and Elections meeting to take place at Delta Township Fire Station.

Summertime once again finds many people busy with family and friends, contests, vacations and many other things that take up much of our time. Though the MARC board has been busy with our jobs and families, we have maintained a status of keeping outstanding requests to just a few. Unfortunately this means that especially on the 2 meter and 70 centimeter bands we sometimes have to deny coordinations simply because there is no possible way for us to fit in a new repeater and still follow the guidelines that have been setup for coordinating repeaters.

Many times people look at the repeater directory and determine that there are plenty of frequencies available, but this is misleading. Each coordination that MARC completes has been offered to our neighboring states (including parts of Canada) for comment. Many times we already know that they will object, so we don't even attempt to use those frequencies as they are already in use. We also have a number of people for whatever reason choose to not have their repeater published in the repeater directory. This same rule goes for other states as well, some people just don't want their information published.

With that said, it is time to make our appeal. If you have been maintaining a coordination for a repeater that does not exist, it is both a violation of the terms of the coordination as well as just plain selfish. The MARC board members can not be everywhere and can not determine what repeaters have been off the air for years or what repeaters have been down for a couple of days while waiting for replacement parts.

None of us at MARC are fond of the idea of "tatling" but let me point out a couple of things. According to the FCC we (amateur radio operators) are supposed to be "self policing". That is not to say so much that I have to come down on someone else, but more that it is expected of me to sometimes take the hard road and do the right thing. If your repeater has been down for more than a year, how about considering that it just isn't going back up and turn the frequency back in to the pool. If you are waiting for time and money to replace equipment, how about considering the fact that other people have the time and money now, and are just waiting to be able to utilize a channel, and they are being denied because our database shows that there is no space available.

Dan Thompson
Newletter Editor

Presidents Update..

MARC’s Annual Meeting will physically be held on September 12th at the Delta Twp Fire Department. The election of Vice-President, Treasurer, and (1) Director will be held.

The Vice-President’s slot is open on the Ballot. Nominations will be opened up at the Annual Meeting for all positions that are being voted upon. The Annual meeting is the only physical meeting that we have for the year, the other three are held electronically, making this meeting an important one. If you have any concerns, please come to the meeting to make your presentation to the Board, as well as making your vote count.

I have, at the present time, one request for a 2M Co-ordination, one for 440, and ten for 440 D-Star. Now that I have my laptop back from HP, these requests should be cleared up within thirty days.

In MARC’s Repeater Directory, we show nineteen 2M repeaters that last sent their TDS in 2006, and sixteen 440 repeaters in the same boat. Please use this link to go to the Repeater Directory to see the status of your repeater.

Remember, TDS’s are due yearly, but can go up to two years. Please help keep your information current in our Database. Trustee’s, if your in the red on our website, please submit a current TDS. Mailing in a paper TDS’s will no longer be accepted. It must be sent in electronically.

Please go to the: most recent activity report To see what’s going on concerning updates and coordination’s.

Our December meeting will be held electronically on Dec 5th , promptly starting at 1:00PM.

If anyone has any questions, you can reach the Board via of the website, or my phone number is 586-465-7126.

73,
Dennis, W8DFG
President

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Database Managers Corner:

We have a number of TDS forms that are overdue. In fact, over 26% of the repeaters in our database are two or more year’s delinquent. So take a minute and check your entry in the MARC Repeater Directory to see if it is time to update your records. If you don’t find your repeater listed that means that your repeater was removed because we have not received an update in 3 or more years. The only exception is if you specifically requested that your data not be published to the ARRL. If you don’t fall in that category, MARC’s next step will be a notification of pending de-coordination.

Dave Johnson, WD8DJB

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Electronic Meeting Information:

The September meeting is NOT an Electronic Meeting!

PHONE BRIDGE:

Dial In Number:    805-240-9853
Access Code:        603585
   1. Dial into bridge using Dial In Number
   2. Enter Access Code
   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:

AT&T Web Meeting Service is an interactive presentation and collaborative tool which combines audio conferencing and data-sharing through the power of the internet. Now when you need to present documents, diagrams, and illustrations to your employees, vendors, and customers, you can do so easily and effectively. AT&T Web Meeting Service is designed to facilitate the presentation of documents from remote locations in combination with AT&T Audio Teleconference Services. Your browser must be Microsoft™ Internet Explorer Version 4.x, 5.x or Netscape™ Communicator Version 4.x.

   1. Activate your Web Browser
   2. Go To www.webmeeting.att.com
   3. Enter meeting number 8052409853
   4. Enter access code 603585
   5. Enter your email address
   6. Enter your name
   7. Click on "submit"

You will see participants in the upper right corner of the screen, contents in the center of the screen, and a chat box in the lower right corner.

The meeting host can give control of the content screen to anyone in the conference.

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.

The abilities for MARC to use the Phone Bridge and Webmeeting facilities has been brought to us by Jim WB8AZP and his employer.

We hope that moving to this format will increase participation by the membership of MARC so that we are better able to serve the amateur community. Things went well in December and we are looking forward to our second electronic meeting scheduled in March.

MARC Meeting Minutes

Date: June 6, 2009
This meeting took place via electronic media


Officers:

President: Dennis Gaboury, W8DFG
Vice President: Jim Maike, KB8IFE
Secretary: Ann Manor, KT8F
Treasurer: Dave Johnson, WD8DJB
Director: Ron Gordon, W8YUC
Director: Jim Kvochick, WB8AZP
Coordinator: Dan Thompson, N8WKM
Coordinator: Jim Maike, KB8IFE
Coordinator: Phil Manor, W8IC
Database Manager: Dave Johnson, WD8DJB

Absent: Jim, KB8IFE
Visitors: None

Note: call signs of board members are not repeated in the minutes as they are listed above Except for Jim WB8AZP, and Jim KB8IFE.

Meeting called to order by the President at: 1:05 PM. A phone bridge and a web meeting were utilized to conduct the meeting.

Motion to approve minutes from the March meeting were made by Phil second by Dave, roll call vote, minutes approved.
Treasurer’s report provided by Dave. Motion to accept the report made by Ann, supported by Jim, WB8AZP, roll call vote, motion carried.

No Correspondence this quarter.

Old business:

Dennis stated that he sent in the annual $20.00 filing fee to the State of Michigan.

New Business:

Reminder that elections will be held in September for Vice President, Treasurer, and 1 Director. Dan will mail out the notice using the previous post card type ballot.

Comments:

Annual meeting:

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Election Informaion:

For those people that have asked for mailings an absentee ballot is being mailed out. In addition, the ballot may be downloaded here for you to print and mail in prior to the election.

This year there are three offices up for election:
Vice President:
Director:
Treasurer:

As of the publication of the newsletter there are no current nominations for Vice President as Jim KB8IFE has chosen not to run due to other commitments.

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Other Informaion:

Due to conflicts of scheduling, some things on the MARC website may not be up to date at the time this newsletter is published. The board members are human too and the jobs they do are voluntary. In Michigan, summer is enjoyed by many with a well deserved vacation and as such some thing just have to wait. Hopefully all of the data on the website will be up to date before the meeting takes place on September 12th.

The information on the website and in this newsletter is the latest published information at the time this newsletter is posted. While information contained in links embeded in this newsletter, or from other links on the website may be updated, the newsletter itself will not be changed once it has been posted unless there is a drastic or misleading error.