BRATS The Milliwatt ARRL
The award-winning monthly publication of
The Baltimore Radio Amateur Television Society
P.O.Box 5915 Baltimore, MD 21282-5915

October, 2004

Milliwatt To Be Available On BRATS Home Page

Starting with the next issue, you will be able to read your MILLIWAT on the BRATS home page. Simply go to http://www.bratsatv.org and click on MILLIWATT. Trial runs are under way right now. If you no longer wish to receive a hard copy, please let me know and we will take your name off the mailing list.

BRATS Dues To Increase January 1

Renew Now and Save!

On September 14, The Board of Directors voted to increase the dues as follows: Regular members, $15; Retired / Disabled / Student, $10; Family membership, (includes all members of the same family who are hams), $20. The increase is effective January 1, 2005. No one present could remember when the previous increase (if any) took place. Chances are that the dues have always been at the previous rate. There has been no increase in thirty years! As you note above, The Milliwatt will soon be available from our homepage, but there will be no discount for choosing to obtain it that way. Increasing administrative costs necessitated the dues increase, but we remain "the cheapest guys in town." Renew before January 1 and save. Thank you for your continued support.

Repeater Coordinator Okays Mandatory Repeater Tone Policy

The Southeast Repeater Association (SERA) Board of Directors has approved an "all tone, all the time" policy for the repeaters SERA coordinates. SERA provides voluntary frequency coordination for amateur repeaters in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and parts of Virginia and West Virginia. The Board okayed a motion to amend its coordination policy and guidelines to require CTCSS or DCS receive and transmit tones on all new FM voice repeaters. Existing voice repeaters will have until July 1, 2006, to comply. The SERA Repeater Journal reported the move in its August issue. Repeater Journal Editor Gary Pearce, KN4AQ, said a need to relieve interference complaints led to the Board's decision. "The point is to stop the ongoing complaints and skirmishes between co-channel neighbors running carrier-access repeaters," Pearce explains. "The vote was unanimous, but SERA recognizes that tone isn't universally popular nor is it a cure-all . And it causes new problems, particularly for travellers." SERA has no plans to automatically de-coordinate repeaters that continue to operate without tones, but "SERA would not entertain an interference complaint from the owner of any repeater who chooses to remain carrier-access," the Repeater Journal said. If a carrier-access repeater owner getting co-channel interference complains to the FCC, SERA would tell the Commission that the complaining repeater's owner was opting to operate outside the the conditions of coordination. "SERA would expect that to be interpreted as a 'no,'" the Repeater Journal said. "If a repeater owner wants to complain about interference, they'll have to incorporate tone first," Pearce said.

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