A Note From Your Director

"Only Positive Mississippi Spoken Here!"

Coordination exists to facilitate and enhance your repeater operation. You may support repeater coordination in Mississippi in the following ways.

Join SERA as a Full Member with your repeater membership.
Encourage repeater users to join SERA as associate members.
Be involved. Communication, more than a mode, is content.
Keep your coordination current. Coordinate changes. Return datasheets.
Keep us updated concerning your address and phone number changes.
SERA, strictly a volunteer organization, is here to serve you. It is what you make it. Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

We appreciate our new Assistants who are diligently working their way through the learning curve. We appreciate your patience as our team marches toward excellence!

Thank You
J. Steven Grantham, AA5SG
SERA Mississippi Director

State Director & Vice Director - Your Frequency Coordinators

Repeater Journal Correspondent

We are glad to announce that we finally have a Repeater Journal correspondent for the State of Mississippi. Larry Wagoner, N5WLW, recently volunteered to cover all news on what is happening with FM repeater, FM simplex, and D-Star operations. You can reach Larry at n5wlw@sera.org. Please take time to add him to your club's mailing list, or feel free to send him any news that you have heard about in your area!

Steve Grantham, AA5SG
SERA Mississippi Director

Other District Information

If you have a coordinated repeater in Mississippi, you should receive an annual SERA Data-Sheet package from our records office. I strongly urge you to return your signed Data-Sheet each and every year to attest to the accuracy and validity of the data contained therein. Be diligent and accurate should you make changes to the data printed on the sheet. It will be reviewed. Significant changes to your repeater system can result in a change of coordination status by default. Therefore, any significant changes to your repeater should also be documented on the proper SERA coordination application form and then be submitted to your coordinator for review. If you are removing your repeater from service, you may surrender your frequency assignment by making a notation on and returning your signed datasheet or by completing and submitting the applicable SERA form. Policy has been established that requires the database manager to remove listings from the Journal and other publications should the annual datasheet not be returned for a specified number of consecutive years.

All repeater coordination applications are screened based on exact site location, antenna height, ERP, and other installation specific data. Please keep in mind that not all applications pass as submitted. This is particularly important to consider as you plan for your new repeater installation. The two-meter band, at 144-148 MHz, is very popular, and also very crowded. This makes the chances of realizing a successful new two-meter repeater coordination less probable than ever before. Alternatives to the very popular two-meter band include the bands at 222-225 MHz and 440-450 MHz. Here in Mississippi, we have only a very few repeaters on the band at 222 MHz, which has propagation characteristics quite similar to those of the two-meter band. This makes it a very good band for mobile and portable VHF operations, and presently also an excellent choice concerning a potential successful result from your application. Though the band at 440 MHz is already well populated, with repeaters and users alike, the prospects for a successful coordination and frequency assignment there are still very good. Of course, there are higher and lower frequency bands that may also be considered.

In the wake of recent regional disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, many folks are taking advantage of some new opportunities to fund and implement new repeaters. Understand that the repeater site you may have been given, or have otherwise arranged for, may not fit (or work) on two-meters. Therefore, you are advised to wait for the results of your application for frequency coordination before you start construction. Please do not get caught in the trap of buying frequency or band specific equipment and antenna systems and constructing those where they can't be coordinated.

Finally, those coordination requests that are not completely or properly submitted may encounter delays in processing. Please send your completed forms and applications to the appropriate coordinator as listed in this document.

Thanks Again!
Steve Grantham, AA5SG
SERA Mississippi Director