Welcome to the
Georgia District of the SERA.
I’m Pete Seabolt, N4KHQ, your new Georgia Director. I have formerly served
as SERA Vice President and Georgia Vice Director. Please feel free to contact me if I can ever be of service to you
regarding the affairs of SERA here in Georgia.
I
feel privileged and excited to work with the GA SERA Staff,
so let me tell you a little about “YOUR TEAM".
We have Vice Director, Phil Heaton,
N4BBQ, Assistant
Director, Rick Wright, W4LOC, who is also serving as the current SERA Vice
President, and Terry Jones, W4TL, who most recently served as GA Director,
returning to assist us as Assistant Director, and John Talipsky, Jr.
serving as our Repeater Journal Correspondent.
The
Georgia team has quite a bit of talent and experience to
manage the affairs of the SERA for Georgia.
It is an enthusiastic group, with a vision
and determination to make things better for repeater owners in Georgia.
My goal is for the Georgia SERA “TEAM” to be very professional in
handling matters involving the SERA and to process all inquiries and requests
in a timely manner. We all look forward to working with you and we welcome
your input and your cooperation.
I
am pleased to inform you that members of the Georgia SERA staff have developed
software and database programs which make it easier for prospective and/or
current Georgia repeater owners to apply for coordination or re-coordination
on line. At the present time this
process is used exclusively in Georgia and really expedites the coordination
process. The coordination and
re-coordination process can now be handled entirely on line Georgia
SERA Form 03
This process saves both you and the coordinators time and postage by
being able to handle your coordination request entirely on-line.
Frequency
coordination is not an easy task, especially when you are trying to coordinate
a repeater in a heavily populated area. SERA
has a set of guidelines it uses, which we call our Coordination
Policy and Guidelines . Once
you complete the on-line Georgia
SERA Form 03 and
submit it, the coordination request is immediately forwarded to every Georgia
Coordinator. A Coordinator will
initiate the coordination process usually within 24 hours.
The information you
supply on your Form 03 is input into our coordination software program which
queries our existing data base of repeaters to see if the frequency pair you
request is available for your location. If
that frequency is not available we will search for any available frequency so
that we may coordinate a repeater for you.
If a repeater will coordinate (according to our coordination policy and
guidelines) at your proposed location, SERA will coordinate it “plain and
simple.” The
total process from the time you send in your request until you are issued your
official coordination can take up to 30 days from start to finish.
It
is not our job to decide who can or cannot have a repeater. SERA’s role is
to coordinate repeaters that will
not cause interference to other coordinated repeaters and that is the way we
coordinate repeaters in Georgia. Coordination within Georgia is becoming somewhat
difficult on the 2-meter band. In some areas there simply are no
frequencies left that meet our "standard spacing guidelines".
In some cases we have been able to find some frequencies by the use of CTCSS
access, taking advantage of natural terrain blockage, and the use of
sophisticated RF modeling software (ComStudy) to more accurately predict the
performance (both desired and undesired) of a proposed system. There are
several available pairs on 440 MHZ, but they are going at a pretty fast pace.
Six Meters, 222 MHz (except in the Atlanta area), 900 MHZ, and 1270 MHZ
continues to have lots of vacancies. If
you'd like something coordinated, submit your application (Form 03) on-line
and/or contact either me for assistance. Please be aware
that if you are interested in a 2-meter repeater, we will work with you
diligently in trying to locate a frequency pair, but there may not be a
frequency available (especially in the Northern half of Georgia) that will
work.
As
I stated earlier, your GA staff wants to conduct the affairs of the SERA in a
professional manner. To do this
we need everyone’s cooperation, especially the existing repeater owners.
Our coordinations depend upon an accurate database, which can only be
as accurate as the information that existing repeater owners keep us informed
about. This is the reason that
the data sheets are sent out each year for you to verify and correct any
information about your repeater. Some
of you are very prompt with this and there are those who have not returned the
data sheets in several years, which makes us suspect that perhaps these
repeaters MAY NO LONGER be in existence.
We refer to these as “Unknown Repeaters.”
If these repeaters are truly non-existent, then the repeater pair needs
to be returned to the available frequency pool for someone else to use.
If you suspect, and can verify that a repeater is “Non-Existent”
please contact Pete or me for the necessary procedures to free these
frequencies for others to use.
We encourage your membership in the SERA. You now may join on-line, by using
your credit card, at http://www.sera.org/credit_renew_route.htm
If you have any questions or comments about Georgia SERA matters, please feel
free to contact me or any other member of the staff. We are all equally
qualified to answer your inquiries. Your
Georgia SERA TEAM looks forward to working with you.
73,
Pete Seabolt, N4KHQ
Georgia SERA Director
ANNOUNCING
ON-LINE FREQUENCY COORDINATION FOR
Georgia Repeater Owners/Trustees!
After
visiting the SERA coordination page to obtain our Coordination
Policy and Guidelines,
you may apply on-line for your frequency coordination (or re-coordination)
using the Georgia SERA Form 03. Please note that this link is only for
prospective or current Georgia repeater owners/trustees.
Georgia
SERA Form 03
A Note From Your Director
A
Note From Your Director:
