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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMarch 2 ECCMinutesMar_04_Final 1 MINUTES TOWN OF LOS ALTOS HILLS EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE Tuesday, March 2, 7:30 PM Town Hall, 26379 Fremont Road, Los Altos Hills 1. Roll call: a. Members Attending: i. Jim Abraham, W6EB, Chairman ii. Dru Anderson, KG6LAD, Secretary iii. Robert Anderson, KC6ZWG iv. Peter Berman, K6PJB v. Ray Egan, W6FQY vi. Bob Fenwick, K6GX, Council Liaison vii. Bob Hall, KF6DHX viii. Ed Jones, W7WPO ix. Bob Lisbonne, KG6HOD x. Scott Overstreet, N6NXI xi. David Pratt, K6LWT xii. Ed Radlo, AJ6V xiii. Sam Wood, K6MSR b. Members Absent i. Rick Ellinger, KJ6NU ii. David Gilmour, WQ1K, Vice Chairman iii. Robert “Smitty” Smithwick, W6CS iv. Maynard Stevenson, W7MVT v. Al Whaley, N6RPR vi. Remove from Roster: Jack Trollman, WB6JZY (Jack has moved to another city.) c. Visitors i. Steve Garcia, LAH public safety officer. 2. Approval of Minutes: David Pratt moved and Ed Radlo seconded that the minutes be approved, as submitted, with minor changes 3. There were two comments from the floor. a. Bob Fenwick asked about back up power for the repeater and back up power for HTs, etc. b. Bob Anderson: reported on the Ashcroft talk relative to community safety at an AAFS (forensics) meeting he attended in February. 4. Report from Chairman Jim Abraham: a. D- Star update. We have had the digi-peater running but haven’t been able to do very much this month. We have improved the antenna somewhat. He noted that the State has an extensive RIMS reporting and management SW program. HE has asked for an evaluation copy. He hopes to give demo to council by the March or April meeting. b. Jim announced that we are officially coordinated with NARCC. Our application says “coordinated.” This achievement has been echoed by 2m coordinator, the NARCC president, and secretary. The group acknowledged and praised the work for the “impossible being achieved.” Coordination, it was observed, is not an easy task. c. Jim covered the Feb. 24 town exercise. Six from LAH ECC participated. David Pratt, Ed Jones, Scott Overstreet, Bob Fenwick, Jim Abraham, and Rick Ellinger. The common observation is that space at LAH EOC is limited and ineffective. The hams need the whole room. Steve Garcia said efforts are being made. d. Jim noted we need people other than hams to help be scribes during a drill or actual event. Post assessment of the drill is that the ham team will have its own white board separate from the town EC. It was evident that non-ham helpers are needed. Also, we need a logger tool. Sam offered that he knows someone who builds loggers. The committee will look into that possibility. Also, we need someone who can work the map while the net control is functioning. ECCMinutesMar_04_Final 2 5. Report from Vice Chairman Dave Gilmour: None. Dave was out of town. Deferred. 6. Report from Secretary Dru Anderson: a. Web page report. She met with City Manager Maureen Cassingham, Karen Jost, and Sara Joiner, to review status of committee web page structure. Web call signs have been added to the ECC committee site. The group needs to identify what links it would like to have off the committee page. b. Dru reported on the SPECS Flea Market planning activity and the new location for the ASVARO Flea Market series. She asked ECC members interested to help her in synchronizing volunteers for the food, SPECS donations table, and other duties. Dru is vice president of SPECS and, as such, responsible for this year’s planning. She noted that she will be out of town the actual date of the event (July 10), but is doing the planning early. Proceeds support the SPECS repeater, which has been re-built with much contribution from several folks within the LAH ECC membership. c. Suggestions were made to advertise the new location (off 101 in Sunnyvale). d. She also noted that SPECS is looking into ensuring that organization has the appropriate liability insurance coverage. Jim will look into the same issue for the LAH ECC. 7. Special Reports: a. Steve Garcia reported on first EOC exercise. The purpose was to test the town’s ability to receive information and execute. He described the flag process that was used. In the EOC, a lot of information was coming in, and the task was to transfer the information to the entities. He said the town learned from the experience that it needed to manage white boards better and the message flow better. He said the town learned “what a good resource the ham operators are, in watching hams work and the effectiveness to the town in an emergency situation.” Bob Anderson suggested a longer stress test of the system and the proposal is for an exercise 6 months from now to be a 4-hour exercise. On another note, Heritage House remains the town EOC. Steve and others noted that the drill was an “Excellent exercise with Improvements needed in managing message flow.” The drill had a note of added realism that the ham operators provided with their disciplined communication process. “We learned a lot,” Steve said. b. Bob Fenwick praised the effort and asked for a summary report at the next council meeting. Steve will present. 8. Report from EC Rick Ellinger: a. Rick gave a ham view report on the town’s Feb. 24th exercise. He said it was evident that we need a fast charger for the W32s. He explained that we were running on the town repeaters. He stressed the need for scribes to help the ham reporting activities. He suggested actively recruiting a cadre of scribes and runners. Supplies are an issue. b. David Pratt’s observation was that we spent a lot of time waiting for next message and there was a challenge to getting information to flow out and back to the EOC. c. Ed Jones noted that every red flag seemed to be next to a fire plug, so parking was a problem. d. Next time, with enough resources, the suggestion is to split the town between the 2 repeaters so the group could process information faster. e. Town has never had a drill of this scale before and Rick would like to have a formal report to route up to the county EOC. f. Town picnic coming up in June and is an opportunity to recruit from the town for additional participation for support and/or ham participation in the LAH ECC. g. He suggested we review participation in drills, etc., as we refine preparedness. 9. Ray Egan gave an antenna report: He has looked at tower configuration alternatives. He said it is clear from a visibility standpoint, that the tubular fixed is the best tower. It requires professional installation and maintenance and it would becomes a fixed location for antennas. Other things he noted are: a. Lattice fixed is best design from standpoint of flexibility, but the most visible. b. Crank up tower alternative is a moot point if one considers that there are probably city fixed needs. And it is more expensive than the fixed towers. c. The Issues are visibility, maintenance, and climbability. ECCMinutesMar_04_Final 3 d. Fixed are less costly and less maintenance than crank up towers. Wind issue not significant. Crank up installation can be done by city crews. Tubular and lattice require professional installation. The tower has to be engineered for 70 mph winds. e. It was agreed that Ray will put together info on 80 foot lattice fixed with the antenna that he knows about. 10. Presentations from the floor: There were no further discussions. 11. New business. Bob Hall: demonstrated hat light. It was suggested that it be purchased in volume for the group. Rick discussed the emergency flasher. Bob suggested we develop a list of folks who have portable generators as a resource in emergencies. The group also discussed: a. The idea of a couple of county-provided trailers with emergency supplies. Need equipment to run the EOC no matter what the town does. b. Radio controlled clocks. c. Dru was volunteered to order 30 hat lights; Scott will check into extra batteries. d. Yellow flashers. 12. The meeting adjournment was moved by Bob Anderson, Scott Overstreet seconded, and the group adjourned at 9:35 p.m. The next meeting is Tuesday, April 6, 2004, at 7:30 p.m.