HomeMy WebLinkAboutJuly 17Minutes
Town of Los Altos Hills
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
Monday, July 17, 2006 @ 6:30 PM at the LAH EOC
1. Roll call:
Member Call Sign Attended Absent
Bob Anderson, Vice Chairman KC6ZWG P
Bob Hall KF6DHX P
David Gilmour WQ1K E
David Pratt K6LWT E
Dru Anderson, Chairman KG6LAD P
Jim Abraham W6EB E
Maynard Stevenson W7MVT P
Rick Ellinger, Secretary KJ6NU E
Sam Wood K6MSR P
Scott Overstreet N6NXI P
"Smitty" Smithwick W6CS P
Al Whaley N6RPR P
Ray Egan W6FQY E
Edwin R Jones, Secretary W7WPO P
Lynn McLeod KG6YIT P
Terry Smith K7YNO E
Jerry Tomanek KI6BYL P
Associate Members Call Sign
Peter Berman K6PJB
Bob Lisbonne KG6HOD
Ed Radlo AJ6V
Bob Fenwick K6GX
Other Hams present
Committee Council liaison Dean Warshawsky was not present.
1) The meeting was called to order at the EOC, roll taken, and pizza and sodas, procured
by the Chair, was enjoyed by the membership as part of informal “training” night.
2) During the social portion, Sam Wood gave a talk on the history of his UHF network. It
was started in 1974 on the 5.8 gigahertz band in the days of tubes, wave guides and
klystrons. There were nodes at Los Altos Hills, Grizzle Peak, Mt. Diablo, and
Sacramento. Later, the system grew to have nodes on other local peaks. Sam has a
group of phone numbers in each node exchange area allowing phone patch through
each node. The system was used during the Oakland fire both as fire control center and
as a means of making phone calls out of the area.
3) Al Whaley gave a talk, with a handout of guidelines describing what an AEC is, and
necessary skill sets and experience. Al currently is working with Larry Carr at the county
level. It was discussed that AECs need to be comfortable with acting in place of an EC,
should the need arise. Larry, DEC, also is looking for Mutual Aid Coordinators.
4) Ed Jones gave the newer members Lynn McLeod and Jerry Tomanek a quick overview
of the ICOM 2720 and some of the things to watch for while being SPECS net control.
Jerry Tomanek then operated as net control with assistance from Lynn McLeod. Dru
Anderson ran the local net and check-in.
5) Simultaneously, Scott Overstreet gave the remainder of the group a tour of the new EOC
antenna “tree”. This is the 60-foot tall Cingular cell tree is co-located with the town’s 4
emergency ham antennas. The ham antennas had been painted with special camouflage
paint to blend into the tree. Scott, Ray, Jim are working on the radio hookups to the newly
mounted antennas.
6) Approval of June minutes was moved by Maynard Stevenson, seconded by Bob
Anderson.
7) Scott Overstreet requested a map of the locations and functions of all the radios to be
connected to the new antenna tree. Ray, who was absent from the meeting, has been
working with Lynn on that drawing and placement. Dru will ask Ray and Lynn for an
update for the next meeting.
8) Sam Wood pointed out that the generator was not locked. It was decided that the
generator must be locked and that we need a key box accusable to the members. This
will be brought to the town’s attention.
9) Chair Dru Anderson noted that every year in July, the town committees need to review
and elect new or re-elect officers for the next year. Al Whaley moved that Anderson be
re-elected as chairman, which was seconded and approved. Anderson asked the
membership to approve moving Ed Jones from assistant secretary to secretary. In Rick’s
absence, she asked that Rick, who is RACES EC, carry on with focus on EC/AEC
preparedness. The group supported the suggestions.
10) The next meeting will continue focus on group familiarization with the radio setup and
continued training on the tools. Ed, as Chief Radio Officer, will lead that hardware training
effort and Rick will be asked to provide a module of EC/AEC training.
11) Leftover pizza and soda was dispersed.
12) The meeting was Adjourned at 2100
Respectfully submitted,
Edwin Jones W7WPO
LAHECC Secretary