Council News
Greetings from the new president!
Greetings! As the newly elected President, and on behalf of the UNYREPCO Executive Committee, I am happy to announce that UNYREPCO is again "open for business." What is the business of UNYREPCO? Quite simply, to serve the amateur operators of Upstate New York by coordinating repeater and link frequencies. Each of the Executive Committee members has experience with owning and operating repeaters, but above that, they all have a strong passion for helping all hams make the best use of our precious spectrum. Meet your new UNYREPCO Executive Board: President: Kevin Tubbs, KD2SL - president@unyrepco.org 1st Vice President: Matthew Willis, N2PYI - vice-president@unyrepco.org 2nd Vice President: Tony Hart, KC2VER - coordinator@unyrepco.org Secretary: Darrell Curtis, K1DCC - secretary@unyrepco.org Treasurer: Bob Soltis, WA2VCS - treasurer@unyrepco.org As we move forward, our primary goals are to:
Remember that UNYREPCO is "by hams, for hams." We work for YOU. The more of YOU are involved, the better UNYREPCO will be. If you haven't already done so, please take a moment to join UNYREPCO by visiting unyrepco.org and clicking the "Membership" link. We need boots on the ground throughout the UNYREPCO service area -- people with intimate knowledge of the geographic and repeater landscape -- to help us know what's happening out there. Finally, a few words about the main topic of interest: Frequency Coordination. Our new Board has the goal of providing timely response to your coordination requests:
Feel free to contact us with your comments and questions. We'll see you on the air! 73, Kevin Tubbs, KD2SL UNYREPCO President |
Email meeting - 2015-05-10
ATTENTION MEMBERS OF RECORD - E-Mail MEETING ADJOURNED ON May 10, 2015: Acting-President/Treasurer Bob Soltis has received enough votes to ADJOURN the E-Mail meeting and re-open the Treasurer's Desk to memberships and renewals. He is PLEASED to report that the Council now has 4 new ELECTED Officers and he has been re-elected Treasurer. President: Kevin Tubbs, KD2SL of Kirkville, NY Vice President: Matthew Willis, N2PYI, of Freeville, NY 2nd Vice President: Anthony Hart, KC2VER, of Auburn, NY Secretary: Darrell Curtis, K1DCC, of Verona, NY Treasurer: Bob Soltis, WA2VCS, of Endicott, NY Bob Soltis also reports that during his tenure as Acting-President/Treasurer he was able to process 8 Coordinations: A VHF and a UHF coordination for Hudson Valley Contesters and DXers Association 2 VHF and a UHF coordination for KD2SL 1 VHF coordination for KC2VER 1 UHF coordination for Squaw Island ARC 1 VHF coordination for W2ACC All Notice of Coordination forms have been filled out and signed and will be mailed this week. END of News Notice for May 10, 2015. |
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
A belated Happy New Year to our UNYREPCO repeater owners. I would have posted sooner, but the flu got in the way. Do yourself a favor. Don't get it. It hasn't been fun. Anyways, first things first. January 1 means that it's time to renew your membership in UNYREPCO. Membership is never required for repeater coordination - but your support is greatly appreciated, and allows us to do things like purchase software or whatever we need to keep processing coordinations. As the bands get more congested, this may become more important. Next - the online printable database has been updated. This is our submission to the ARRL for the Repeater guide. THERE IS STILL TIME TO CATCH ANY CORRECTIONS. If you see anything incorrect, please contact me immediately so that we can get the correction into ARRL. Once ARRL takes their "snapshot" and formats the data, we are pretty much out of luck to get anything corrected in the 2013-2014 guide. Also on the website, we have removed the link for the "Proposed Bandplan". Elsewhere in the site, it states that UNYREPCO abides by the ARRL bandplan. We are also putting together a "real" bandplan that opens up the lower end of the 440 MHz band for UNYREPCO use. Down here in the Mid-Hudson, only 50 miles from New York City, all the bands are congested. Using 440 MHz to 442 MHz will open up a good number of channels for use and help ease the crunch. We have had a lot of positive input on instituting a coordination "re-up" schedule to help eliminate "paper repeaters". This is also something that will eliminate some congestion, as there are some areas where our database says there are no channels available in a given band, yet the reality is that there are many of those coordinations not being used for whatever reason. Expect to see this to start late spring. And, I am pushing forward on the online application form. Soon (he says, with eyes above the line of type here that you can't see). We will resume processing applications early in the week. Again, if there are any problems with the newly posted data, please contact me immediately at president@unyrepco.org. Thanks again for your continued support. 73 Tom Ray W2TRR President, UNYREPCO |
UNYREPCO 2012 YEAR END
Greetings All: We have had quite the year here at UNYREPCO. We have coordinated over 43 repeaters, in addition to working with our neighboring councils on cross coordinations. We have put as much of our database back together as possible with the cooperation of our neighbors and you. I fear we still have some information missing, but time will tell. Right now, if you send in a coordination request, we will acknowledge your request, but it will not be acted on until the 2nd week in January. We are presently wrapping up the year, and this means getting the database in order as our deadline for the ARRL Repeater Guide is approaching. Anything that we are already working on that is in the pipe will be acted on once the cross coordinations come through. Otherwise, we will not be initiating action until after we get our information straightened out and uploaded to ARRL. Last year we had several issues with the upload (ie, several repeaters just "ceased to exist" in the ARRL transfer), and we had several groups become rather vocal - and rightfully so - that their information was not in the repeater directory. We don't want that to happen again this year. So please - if your repeater information did not appear in this year's repeater directory, or if your information was incorrect, NOW IS THE TIME TO CONTACT US TO CORRECT IT. Please send me a note at president@unyrepco.org. We have until January 15 to get this completed. Some things we are working on (and please feel free to send me your comments on these items): >> changing the bandplan slightly to open up addition repeater frequencies that, at this time, cannot be assigned in UNYREPCO territory. This affects primarily the 440 MHz band and will align us with our neighboring councils. We expect to have this in place by the end of January, 2013. >> Putting together an ONLINE coordination application so you no longer need to use snail mail and generate paper. I believe this will make life easier for all - and get your application to us faster, as well. We hope to have this completed also by the end of January 2013. >> We are considering putting a quick renewal application in place, and having coordinations that actually expire. All of our neighboring councils do this. In UNYREPCO territory, however, your coordination can remain valid even if you pass away! By requiring a renewal, this will tell us that the repeater is still active. If the coordination is not renewed, it would be eliminated from the database and made available for someone who can use the frequency. I fear that there are numerous "paper repeaters" out there, and this spectrum can be put to better use if it is actually used. The basic renewal would be to give us the repeater and trustee call signs, and tell us it is still active and valid. This would be done online and would take seconds. Let us know what you think. For the most part, I believe we have made good progress this year in bringing UNYREPCO back to life. We have had many happy repeater owners. We have had a few that have been unhappy. I have received several rather nastily worded notes from people demanding to know about their application from, say, 4-5 years ago. Unfortunately, I cannot answer for previous administrations - and all we can act on is the information we have in house. We're happy to work with you, but we need your cooperation and possibly a copy of your paperwork if we do not have it - and for something that is 4-5 years old, that is most likely the case. Those who have contacted us know that they will receive a response - though sometimes it may not be what they want to hear - but they will receive a response and action. Our job is to serve you, and we try to do this in a professional manner. I thank you for your continued support of UNYREPCO and our officers. If you have questions or if there is anything we can do for you, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at president@unyrepco.org. Best wishes for the happiest of holidays. Tom Ray W2TRR President, UNYREPCO |
Your Assistance is Needed
We are starting to go through the database to weed out "paper repeaters", and correct any data that needs correction. If you are aware of any "paper repeaters", ie, repeaters that are showing in the coordination database but are not on the air and/or were never built, please contact us and let us know. We will go through the steps of attempting to contact the trustee on file and can possibly eliminate a good portion of these from the database. That is only right, especially in the 2 Meter band, as those frequencies are few and far between to tie up as a coordination, yet nothing is on a given frequency. Additionally, if there were changes in your coordinated facility (for example, I recently found that one trustee retired over 3 years ago and gave all his repeaters away to other organizations!), and you submitted changes to UNYREPCO in the past - but received no response - I encourage you to reach out to us to get this corrected. As one of our repeater trustees recently commented to us: "I am very pleased with the high level of communication since you took over as president of UNYREPCO. This type of administration, yours, is what it takes for the radio community at large to have faith in the coordination process and to be willing to go through the process knowing that an answer - YES OR NO will be forthcoming. Again, Thank You and good work." This is the level we are striving for in UNYREPCO. If you have had issues in the past, we will try our best to make sure you don't have issues in the future. We have worked hard to gain the confidence of our neighboring councils - this goes a long way in getting repeaters cross coordinated properly and makes it very easy to work out any difficulties between neighbors. This makes the coordination process that much easier than before. We appreciate your support and assistance. 73 Tom Ray, W2TRR President, UNYREPCO |
Online Database Updated
We have just updated the online databases yet again. Since January 1, UNYREPCO has processed 32 new repeater applications, have corrected data on numerous repeaters, and have handled a decent number of cross coordinations from neighboring councils. Thank you all for your support. 73 Tom Ray, W2TRR President, UNYREPCO |
UNYREPCO Databases
We found a problem with the data posted Sunday, April 28. The info has been corrected and is current to 5/3/2012. 73 Tom Ray W2TRR |
UNYREPCO at the Mount Beacon Hamfest
Thanks to everyone who stopped by the UNYREPCO table at the Mount Beacon Hamfest today, April 29. It was good to meet you, and good to get information on your repeater coordination. We hope to make it to several other Hamfests over the summer. If your club or organization has an upcoming Hamfest, please contact either myself at president@unyrepco.org, or our Secretary Joe Cupano, NE2Z, at secretary@unyrepco.org. - Tom Ray, President, UNYREPCO, Inc. |
UNYREPCO Databases - updated
Effective April 29, 2012, our databases, listed to the left, are current as we know them. We encourage you to please look through them and to tell us if the information on your repeater is either not correct or is missing. We are still in a rebuilding process and appreciate any assistance you can offer us. - Tom Ray, President, UNYREPCO, Inc. |
UNYREPCO Database Update
We have just completed an overhaul of the master UNYREPCO repeater database and have uploaded our information to the ARRL for inclusion in the 2012 repeater directory. We will post our information to the repeater lists on the sidebar shortly so that the latest information is available. Additionally, we are working on some interactive features to make the coordination process easier. We will let you know when we are ready to start rolling these features out. 73 Tom Ray, W2TRR President, UNYREPCO, Inc. |
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