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HomeMy WebLinkAboutJanuary 6 EmergencyCommitteeMinutesJan_044 1 MINUTES TOWN OF LOS ALTOS HILLS EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE Tuesday January 6, 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. Rick Ellinger, KJ6NU vi. Bob Fenwick, K6GX, Council Liaison vii. David Gilmour, Vice Chairman, WQ1K viii. Ed Jones, W7WPO ix. Bob Lisbonne, KG6HOD x. Scott Overstreet, N6NXI xi. David Pratt, K6LWT xii. Ed Radlo, AJ6V xiii. Robert “Smitty” Smithwick, W6CS xiv. Maynard Stevenson, W7MVT b. Members Absent i. Ray Egan, W6FQY ii. Bob Hall, KF6DHX iii. Jack Trollman, WB6JZY iv. Al Whaley, N6RPR v. Sam Wood, K6MSR c. Visitor: Steve Garcia of the Town Staff. 2. Approval of Minutes: The minutes were approved as submitted without opposition. Smitty Smithwick further led a group compliment to Dru Anderson for consistently capturing the essence of the meeting discussion in the minutes. 3. Report from Chairman Jim Abraham. a. Jim briefly discussed progress and some of the complications encountered on the D-Star project. b. He also noted that he plans to attend the NARCC annual Board of Directors meeting on Jan. 10. c. The town hall antenna plan should be presented to the town council in March. Ray Egan is out of town for most of January; work will continue after his return. d. Jim announced that an exercise with the town staff participating is in the planning stage. Steve Garcia will address the group later in the meeting about the plans. 4. Report from Vice Chairman Dave Gilmour: a. Dave reported on the D-Star status: He said we have 4 D-Star radios and have deployed them in close proximity and tested them in standard communications, digital voice communications, and data communications. We have demonstrated the ability to connect from a standard computer, over a local area network like the one that might exist within an EOC, into one D-Star radio, across the radio link to another D-Star, into another "EOC" local area network, and out to the public Internet. Speeds achieved were approximately half of standard DSL connections, more than adequate for text email and messages like RIMS reports, and more than 50 times as fast as the packet radio links that currently perform that function. Next steps are to test relaying functions, electronic mail, and congestion behavior of the D-Star system. b. Dave reported he has been in contact with NARCC Secretary Tom DeLasceaux, who has the action item to get the repeater frequency conflict resolved. He is making arrangements to listen to our net night. He did confirm that they had listened to the net on previous EmergencyCommitteeMinutesJan_044 2 Monday nights and had not experienced any interference. They want to do one more test Thursday at 8 p.m. on the repeater. Dave asked as many as possible to join the repeater net at that point to help out. c. Dave brought up the RIMS report discussion and Rick covered the RIMS format issues. He described some organizational issues to resolve between ham packet rooms and internet RIMS. Rick cited shelter management and Red Cross management as areas especially needing digital data going through smoothly and neatly. He noted this would contribute to eventual success in passing information. d. There was further discussion about various standardized approaches to ensure that essential information, during emergency activity, is filed to the county. There was general agreement that the form needs to be in electronic form and that there needs to be confirmed standards for consistency in data delivery and response. 5. Report from Secretary Dru Anderson: a. She welcomed everyone to the 2004 year and encouraged continued volunteer energy toward the unfolding LAH ECC capabilities preparation. b. She reminded those attending of the upcoming SPECS annual meeting, dues paying, and vote for new officers. The meeting will be Saturday, Jan. 17 @ 9 a.m. at the El Camino Hospital. c. She and Chairman Jim Abraham presented the completely signed award to Scott Overstreet for service to the LAH ECC as its initial chairman and initiator of organized preparation of town amateur radio volunteers for emergency service. The group gave the award earlier, but there were a few signatures missing due to schedule logistics. 6. Special Report from Steve Garcia on the planned Earthquake simulation exercise –“when the hills are shaking.” He proposes a during-the-week exercise, during the business day, to test town of Los Altos Hills preparedness. The group agreed that the date of Tuesday, Feb. 24, @ from 9 – 11 a.m. would be a good time. During discussion, it was suggested that the CERT volunteers, as well as Red Cross, be involved to understand the delineation of roles and the management of role intersections, as well as the SPECS repeater and our own repeater. Steve said he’d like to have people in the field reporting to EOC, reporting damage to residences, and get experience on how to document at town level, how do we put into RIMS reports, and how do we use packet. It was suggested to ensure there are mobile units and that the county OES leadership be aware, as well as the police and fire departments. It was suggested that the CERT/ECC interaction be addressed by having 2-person teams. Steve said he will work with County OES. Steve also wants to execute a shift change to practice the transition. He noted he will be looking to how to interact with staff members in their SIMS role and the proof point is to get experience in working together in emergency situations. The group suggested contributions of micro scenarios in the planning process, but encouraged that the scenario message should emanate from town staff to ensure town objectives are fulfilled. a. Action: Dru will check with others on SPECS board on whether need permission from SPECS to access the repeater for the drill. b. Whoever is serving as EC on a shift is in the SIMS position and is in charge of EC in that EOC location. c. The drill is planned Tuesday, Feb. 24, 9-11 a.m., with post drill discussion following. d. The LAH ECC volunteers are to notify Rick Ellinger by email if they can participate. And everyone is encouraged to submit to him a micro scenario. 7. Report from EC Rick Ellinger: He reminded the volunteers that there is a countywide drill on Jan. 17 from 2-4 p.m., with the scenario to be determined. He also noted that there is a County OES meeting on Jan. 15 at 7:30 p.m. at the Sheriff’s building. Smitty and Rick will attend and encouraged others to join them. There was a discussion of the concern about the effectiveness of the county’s repeater for the entities in the North County who have a problem getting through. Rick suggested getting together with folks from the other northern communities to discuss the radio shielding issue that is common. 8. Presentations from the floor: a. There were no further discussions proposed. 9. The meeting was adjourned at 8:58 p.m. The next meeting is Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2004, at 7:30 p.m.