Indian Wells Valley TV Booster, Inc.

Minutes of May 1, 2006 board meeting

A. Opening
1. Call to order
The meeting was called to order by President Cole at 5:09 PM.
2. Attendance
Board members present: Blazek, Cole, Manos, Middlemiss, Wetzel
Board members absent: Ash, Greene, Longo, Schneider
Visitors: Roy Mayhugh
3. Approval of minutes
The minutes of the April meeting as posted to the Web site were approved.
4. Treasurer's report
Treasurer Blazek presented the report for April 2006. President Cole asked about the March 1st date on last month's account summary. Treasurer Blazek thought that the date was incorrect and probably should have read April 3rd and would double check.
5. Correspondence
Treasurer Blazek reported receiving around $650 in donations last month. The CBA sent a letter noting and thanking us for our 2005 membership. Also received were mailings from Maturango Junction Days and Santa's Art Shop. Vice President Middlemiss reported receiving a card from the NTA with regards to the Auction 85 filing window moving from May 1st to June 19th through 30th.
B. Committee reports
1. Standing committees
b. Operations
Member Wetzel completed work on the construction of a 2D phased antenna array to deal with interferance in receiving KUOR. Some fine tuning of the antenna remains to be performed. Channel 53, KTBN, was taken off the air in preparation for receiving our first four digital translators. Our digital flash cut construction permits require us to stop translating analog stations on channels 53, 55, and 57 as soon as we begin translating digital stations on channels 33, 35, and 39. Turning off channel 53 now gives us the opportunity to monitor KABC-DT reception to see if it's stable enough to go on channel 41.
E. Discussion items
1. Our Digital Translators
Roy Mayhugh went to the NAB convention in Las Vegas last weekend and saw our channel 33 prototype in Pineapple Technology's booth. The Larcan transcoder is reported to have a poor filter in it's IF section that rendered a three-pole filter unable to meet the FCC's simple mask requirement. Pineapple Technology believes that they can use a six-pole filter to achieve the FCC's simple mask requirement but it may introduce group delay which would require the signal to be pre-corrected by setting the tap values in each transcoder. It will be another week for them to configure the new filters and see if they will work, and we'll receive the translators shortly after that if they do.
2. Grant Program
While at the NAB, Roy Mayhugh learned of a grant program where matching funds may be available to non-profit TV translator organizations like us. He is waiting for the details to be emailed to him.
3. The Library Meeting Room Key
The Library has changed it's policy regarding room reservations. We will now have to reserve the meeting room each month.
F. Closure
1. Next meeting: 5:00 PM, June 5, 2006, Kern County Library, Ridgecrest
2. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 5:51 PM.

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