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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFebruary 3 EmergencyCommitteeMinutesFeb_04 1 MINUTES TOWN OF LOS ALTOS HILLS EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE Tuesday, February 3, 2004 7:30 PM Town Hall, 26379 Fremont Road, Los Altos Hills 1. Roll call: a. Members Attending: i. Jim Abraham, Chairman, W6EB ii. Dru Anderson, KG6LAD, Secretary iii. Robert Anderson, KC6ZWG iv. Peter Berman, K6PJB v. Ray Egan, W6FQY vi. Rick Ellinger, KJ6NU vii. Bob Fenwick, K6GX, Council Liaison viii. Bob Hall, KF6DHX ix. Ed Jones, W7WPO x. Bob Lisbonne, KG6HOD xi. Scott Overstreet, N6NXI xii. Ed Radlo, AJ6V xiii. Robert “Smitty” Smithwick, W6CS xiv. Maynard Stevenson, W7MVT xv. Al Whaley, N6RPR xvi. Sam Wood, K6MSR b. Members Absent i. David Gilmour, Vice Chairman, WQ1K ii. David Pratt, K6LWT iii. Jack Trollman, WB6JZY (Jack has moved to another city and is inactive.) 2. Approval of Minutes: Ed Radlo moved; Bob Anderson seconded that the minutes were approved as submitted with minor change from Jim that Dru will submit to Karen Jost for file copy. 3. There were no presentations from the floor. 4. Report from Chairman Jim Abraham: a. He reported on town attorney rules regarding Brown Act and behaviors and what it affects in committee activity within and beyond meetings. Committees are advisory in service and, as such, decisions do not bind the town, so there was some question as to the impact. The important thing is to be aware of the rules and to keep action within the bounds of the committee meeting. Action: Bob Fenwick will clarify the impact with Steve. b. Jim reported that there has been $500 spent on the D-Star project. Also, he proposed that we buy 7 IC-2720 radios and antennas, mag mounts, and power supplies necessary to provide to the EOC, as well as to portable and control operators. c. Recently, in the D-star work, folks had digi-peater going with data transmission and 4 radios working at same time, one working as simplex digi-peater. Jim, Bob Lisbonne, and David Gilmour participated. The next milestone is to ensure that the system works from Jim’s location to the county site. d. Next steps: think about SW needs for demonstrate sending RIMS reports, etc.; the range we can get, and to see if can reach county EOC. The group suggestion is to do a system design, define where the radios go and how much bandwidth needed. The idea is to set up standards and process with a repeater schema. e. Bob Anderson reported on the proposal to get more material from ICOM and perhaps seek federal and state funding. Bob is the liaison to the town’s Emergency Preparedness Group and he said the EPG would like to look at proposal for the value of this to the town. The suggestion is to first do a system architecture design for features, which Jim is pulling together. Bob said ICOM said they would like a format procedure that could be used as model. Can the equipment be leveraged? Action: The system architecture design plan is intended to be pulled together in a month. EmergencyCommitteeMinutesFeb_04 2 f. Jim reported good news relative to repeater frequency coordination issue that has been underway for 2 years. The NARCC official responsible for the final say had one last test on a Thursday night in Jan. and he determined there was not a problem, and no interference. So the ok on the repeater frequency is a done deal. Bob Fenwick said this is great news, he commended the effort that was challenging, but he was pleased it is done. 5. Report from Vice Chairman Dave Gilmour: None. Dave out of town. Deferred. 6. Report from Secretary Dru Anderson: a. She reported that the SPECS Board – the newly seated board – met Sunday, Feb. 1, and she reviewed the highlights of the meeting. From Los Altos Hills, Rick Ellinger is the new SPECS treasurer and Dru Anderson is now first vice president; Scott Overstreet is a key participant in the SPECS repeater and the building of the new equipment. b. Dru gave an update on the ham clubs (ASVARO) Flea market plans and location status for 2004.The SPECS flea market in July raises funds that are put toward the SPECS repeater. Dru is in charge of the SPECS flea market this year and asked for volunteers to help and to begin cleaning garages and work benches for donations. c. She reported approval for the town ECC to use the SPECS repeater for the town emergency drill on 2/24. Smitty possibly can have the DX club repeater also be available. d. She gave a brief update on the status of the town committee web pages, noting that a standard template had been developed. 7. Special Reports: a. Ray Egan gave an antenna report and said he has 3 volunteers and intends to have the framework for the antenna plan this month. The suggestion is to be understanding of potential neighborhood concerns. The group discussed tower alternatives and pros and cons of the various possibilities, and also discussed other concerns. b. Ed Radlo reported on the recent county drill and noted that we were able to communicate by 6 means: the 440, 220, 2m, 2m simplex, 35 mhz city to city simplex, and the repeater. Everything we tried by voice worked. Negatives: there was an allegation that our repeater was interfering with Palo Alto and Stanford on 146.76, but it was not clear it was a problem. c. The group discussed the equipment array that is in our ECC, and noted its strengths and weaknesses. There also is repeated concern with the county repeater and its potential effectiveness in the event of a real emergency. It was noted that it either should be beefed up, or another repeater should be used. d. Rick noted that the drill very much a success. He reviewed the need for improvements in message procedures during an event. He also gave hints on how to determine where the biggest need, in an emergency, might be by listening to radio traffic – or lack of it in a particular area – as there may be serious problems indicated from the silences. e. When it gets really busy on voice, he said we still need to monitor county and city, however weak their signal is. In reality, the county could possibly be split in 2 from a communications standpoint in the event of a real emergency, such as an earthquake. Packet, again, was unsuccessful and it’s not clear as to why the packet transmissions did not get through to county. f. The LAH ECC command center, in its current configuration, has a maximum of 2 to operate comfortably but ideally it would be better to have capacity for 3-4 positions. g. Rick noted the participation in the drill and thanked those who were either at the town center or operating from their home units. He and Ed both commented that our group sounded very professional in the handling of the drill items. 8. Report from EC Rick Ellinger: a. Rick. Regarding the town drill planned on Feb. 24, it will be an opportunity to shadow the town staff members and their EOC roles. b. News from county level and above is that the current blue (DSW) ID card will evolve to a county card. Not everybody needs one, but if you want one, let Rick know. 9. Presentations from the floor: There were no further discussions proposed. 10. The meeting was moved by Ed Radlo and seconded by Bob Anderson to be adjourned at 9:27 p.m. The next meeting is Tuesday, Mar. 2, 2004, at 7:30 p.m.