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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMarch 5 1 Final Minutes Town of Los Altos Hills EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE March 5, 2013 @ 7:00 PM, LAH Council Chambers Roll call (12 member +1 attendees): P = present, E = excused, no mark = absent Member Call Sign Attendance Jim Abraham W6EB P Dru Anderson KG6LAD E Bob Anderson KC6ZWG P Ray Egan W6FQY P Andy Fawcett KI6MAF P Bill Gibbons K6GH E Jim Heintzelman KD6Y P Edwin R Jones, EC W7WPO P Andrew Kirk WB6CLS P Duncan MacMillan, Chair KI6VMY P Scott Overstreet N6NXI P Bob Rowe, Vice Chair AF6LD E Miles Seiver, Secretary KI6LDU P Maynard Stevenson W7MVT P Sam Wood K6MSR P Others Present Call Sign Attendance Gary Waldeck, Council Liaison K6AIR P 1. The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by chair Duncan MacMillan KI6VMY, who took roll call (see attached ICS 211A Check-in List). 3. Review and approve past meeting minutes – Duncan led review of the minutes of the 2/05/2013 ECC meeting. Scott Overstreet N6NXI asked item 7.a. be modified to more accurately reflect what will happen to the 3.5GHz microwave radios donated to the Town in the event that they are not used after 90-days. The minutes were unanimously approved as amended (7.a. last sentence: "..., the radios will be removed from Town storage."), upon a motion by Jim Abraham W6EB. 4. Public comments from the floor – None. 4. Update on the County and State – EC Ed Jones W7WPO distributed 2013 stickers for County and Town DSW cards. Scott Overstreet N6NXI reported that SPECS is looking for a new individual to run the weekly 220/440 UHF net. He asked the ECC to support the continuation of the UHF net by providing an additional net control for the nights when LAH has SPECS net duty. Jim moved that the ECC stand behind keeping the SPECS UHF net and that the ECC provide an additional net control during our month of acting as SPECS net control. The motion passed unanimously. 5. Comments by Council Liaison – Comments reserved for agenda item 6d. 2 6. Old business – a. Associate status & monitoring participation – Ray Egan W6FQY distributed a chart of ECC member and associate member participation in the weekly Town net. Scott suggested that the ECC associate members who have not participated at all during the 90-days covered by the chart be removed as associate members. The committee agreed with this idea. Scott also asked whether any of the non-participating associate members of the ECC current possessed Town-issued radios. Duncan was unsure about the status of radios held by non-participating ECC members and will report at the April meeting. b. CERT - EOC communications & MV packet upgrade – Andy Fawcett KI6MAF reported that there is a new CERT reporting form that required that the packet set-up in the ECC be updated. This caused some issues with ARC-EOC packet communication. A help request has been submitted and an interim workaround is in place. c. Interim EOC (due to unsafe assessment of Heritage House) – Jim reported that Town engineer Richard Chiu thought that it would be prohibitively expensive to retrofit the Town chambers to the standards needed to qualify as an EOC. Thus, the Town wants to retain the Heritage House as an EOC, which would not have to be brought up to full EOC earthquake standards due to its small size. Practically, the alternate EOC will be in the Town Council chambers complex which will have a duplicate equipment of the Heritage House emergency communications set-up but be completely separate for redundancy. A monopole antenna (~60 feet) will need to be provisioned at the rear of the chambers. In addition, spare radio inventory will be relocated to the closet at the back of the chambers. Gary asked that the ECC prepare an architecture and equipment list to recommend to the Town staff for the alternate EOC. Andy will provide a list of the equipment needed for packet. Jim also reported that there are issues with the backup power generator for the Heritage House and thought it would be best to get backup batteries. d. 3.5 GHz microwave radio application 90-day clock – Sam Wood K6MSR reported that the radios are now in the Town public works building. Sam invited individuals interested in the radio technology to come to a meeting with their previous owner. May 25 is the date by which a use for the radios must be determined or the radios will be removed from Town premises. 7. New business – a. Radio room closet & inventory – Duncan shared pictures of the organized radio room closet. The next step is to do an inventory of the equipment. b. Update of ECC pages on LAH website – Ray thought it would be good to include basic emergency communications information for non-members and non-member amateur radio operators. c. Our Town newsletter article (now June) – Duncan will distribute an article on the ECC that will go in the upcoming Town newsletter. 8. Upcoming events (https://www.scc-ares-races.org/activities/events.php) a. First Electronics Flea Mkt of 2013, 3/09, De Anza by WV Amateur Radio Assoc. b. CERT drill, 3/13, 7:00 pm; LAH Town Hall c. Message Passing - Tabletop, 3/16, 9 am, TBD d. Fundamentals of Emerg. Comm., 3/20, 6 - 9:30 pm, Milpitas 3 e. SCC OES Large Animal Evac class, 3/27, 6:30 pm; LAH El Monte Fire Station f. Packet Level 1 - Part B training, 4/06, 9 am -noon, SV Public Safety HQ g. SCC OES Large Animal Evac class, 4/03, 6:30 pm; LAH El Monte Fire Station h. CERT 5-week class, 4/09+, 6 - 9 pm; 5th: May 11, 9:00 am - noon i. EC Council Meeting, 4/11, 7:30 - 9 pm, SCC EOC j. Amateur Radio License Training Testing, 4/20, 8 am - 5 pm, Los Altos Hills k. Comm. Exercise, The TECH Challenge, 4/20 & 4/21, The TECH l. CERT BBQ, 5/11, noon 9. Adjournment – There being no further business, it was moved and unanimously approved to adjourn at 8:10 p.m. Prepared and respectfully submitted by Miles Seiver, KI6LDU, secretary.