Indian Wells Valley TV Booster, Inc.

Minutes of December 4, 2006 board meeting

A.			Opening
	1.		Call to order
			The meeting was called to order by President Cole at 5:08 PM.
	2.		Attendance
			Board members present: Blazek, Cole, Longo, Manos, Middlemiss, Schneider
			Board members absent: Ash, Greene, Wetzel
			Visitors:
	3.		Approval of minutes
			The minutes of the November meeting as posted to the web site were approved.
	4.		Treasurer's report
			Treasurer Blazek presented the report for November 2006: we spent $2,476.93 with major expenses going to Greg Best for the engineering required for the digital companion channel FCC applications for the "B" Mtn. TV licenses, and to the Postmaster for the annual newsletter mailing. We've received a $500 donation from WACOM, $840 at Santa's Art Shop, and have processed $2740 in mailed-in donations so far. We now have a little over $17,200 in the bank.
	5.		Correspondence
			Treasurer Blazek reported receiving an email from a supporter saying that he bought an HDTV and is enjoying great reception. In our PO Box was a letter inviting TVB to have a booth at the new High Desert Spring Craft Festival. Also received was a letter from a relative of one of the original members who went door to door on the base soliciting funds to start up the TV Booster. The letter explained the difficulty that the elderly in Ridgecrest are having with the transition to digital television and the loss of use of their analog television sets. President Cole reported receiving numerous emails and phone calls about what to do now that channels 35 and 39 have gone digital and channels 59 and 61 are now gone.
B.			Committee reports
	1.		Standing committees
		b.	Operations
			The power went out at Laurel Mountain late last month for a good part of the day and all TV and FM translators were off the air. Member Wetzel deemed that the 3db slope exhibited at channel 8 on the Super De-Ghoster channel 11 yagi antenna installed last month for Blue Ridge was unsuitable and it was decided to purchase a channel 8 10-element yagi from Wade. The day before Santa's Art Shop, it was decided to flash cut KCET on channel 51 to digital. The reflected power was 12%, which is somewhat high, and the Samsung set-top boxes had a hard time receiving the signal (although the US Digital set-top boxes and all televisions with digital tuners seemed able to decode the signal). The Sencore digital analyzer indicated that the waveform had a hump in the middle and that the MER was not stable. It is suspected that the balun on the channel 51 antenna has seen better days and needs to be repaired/replaced. Mediacom asked to borrow one of our US Digital set-top boxes so that they wouldn't lose their KCET feed from us. Robert Artego of Pineapple and Greg Best were queried about the status of our channel 33 digital translator. It was indicated that all the new tests required by the FCC have been made and a filing for type certification will be made soon and our translator will most likely ship the first week of December.
D.			New business
	1.		It was moved by Member Longo and seconded by Member Schneider that the TVB participate in the High Desert Spring Craft Festival from April 26, 2007 to April 29, 2007. The motion was approved by a 6-0-0 voice vote.
E.			Discussion items
	1.		Website
			There was a short discussion about how confusing the terms are on the website: such as "what's the difference between digital television and HDTV?" President Cole pointed out that there is a link in two places on the website (in the "Receiving TV Booster Signals" and the "F.A.Q." sections) to an "HDTV Primer" that rather exhaustively explains all about digital television in both very simple terms, and in all the detail anyone would ever need. It was again suggested that an informational flyer be developed to hand out at the High Desert Spring Craft Festival.
	2.		K16GE and K43AG
			There was a short discussion about the potential problems that will be caused by K16GE applying for displacement to channel 36, and the possibility of the assignee of the K43AG license moving the station to El Paso Peak. The end result of both will be to knock out the reception of KNBC-DT and KCAL-DT (KCBS-DT after Feb 17, 2009).
F.			Closure
	1.		Next meeting: 5:00 PM, January 8, 2007, Kern County Library, Ridgecrest
	2.		Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 PM.