Indian Wells Valley TV Booster, Inc.

Minutes of the March 3, 2008 board meeting

A.			Opening
	1.		Call to order
			President Cole called the meeting to order at 5:05 pm.
	2.		Attendance
			Board members present: Blazek, Cole, Katzenstein, Manos, Middlemiss, Starr, Wetzel
			Board members absent: Ash, Longo
			Visitors: Roy Mayhugh
	3.		Approval of minutes
			The minutes of the February 4, 2008 meeting were approved as read (Middlemiss, Cole 2nd, 7 ayes, 0 nays, 0 abstentions).
	4.		Treasurer's report
			Blazek reported a total of $22,312.55 in all accounts as of February 29. Income of $3,045.00 in donations was received during January and an additional $935 in February. Expenses for both months totaled $2,836.66. The major item of expense was equipment purchased in January from Riverton Radio for $2,321.66.
	5.		Correspondence
			Blazek also mentioned noticing the absence of customary correspondence from the insurance company; he will follow up on this.
	6.		Announcements
			One model of set-top box (digital TV converter) will shortly be available locally at Wal-Mart for $49.95, if it's not in stock already.
	7.		Review of calendar and agenda
			Middlemiss raised a question about NTA membership dues and conference fees that was, however, not pursued at this meeting.
B.			Committee reports
	1.		Standing committees
		b.	Operations
			Good news: the new STB's are working well and much more reliably. On the other hand, Wetzel and Mayhugh reported that they have been unable to obtain the full 12 watts of rated power output from our ITS translator boxes. The manufacturer has suggested equipment enhancements costing an estimated $6,100 per box. An alternative approach might be to trade-in or resell the current boxes and replace them with a heterodyne demodulation/remodulation setup at a cost of about $8,000 (plus translators). Wetzel also reported observing a connection cable swinging in the wind on Laurel Mountain. The cable's swings were synchronous with variations he saw in the A1 signal-rejection characteristic in the receiver/filter setup for KCNV, the Las Vegas classical station (rebroadcast by the Booster at 107.1 FM). That might explain some dropouts which allow local broadcasts on the same originating frequency (89.7 MHz) to override from time to time. Investigation will continue.
		d.	Telephone recorder messages
			Middlemiss reported some inquiries about signal dropouts/overrides on 107.1 (KCNV), as well as several concerning the necessity and/or availability of set-top boxes for digital TV conversion.
	4.		Web site committee
			Cole reported that the Booster web site was still down due to a connectivity problem. He hopes to have it back on line soon.
C.			Old business
	1.		No old business was brought up as such. However, there was a prolonged discussion about moving the receiver/translator for 107.1 (KCNV classical FM) to B Mountain, where receiving/filtering the originating signal would not present the same degree of technical difficulty currently encountered at Laurel Mountain. Possible practical ramifications of that idea will have to be explored with the Navy and the FCC.
F.			Closure
	1.		Next meeting: 5:00 PM, April 7, 2008, Vaughn Realty Meeting Room, Ridgecrest
	2.		Adjournment: There being no further business, Cole adjourned the meeting at 6:00 pm.