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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSeptember 31 Minutes Town of Los Altos Hills EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE September 03, 2013 @ 7:00 PM, LAH Council Chambers Roll call (10 members + 5 others): 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 E Andy Fawcett KI6MAF P Jim Heintzelman KD6Y P Edwin R Jones, EC W7WPO E Andrew Kirk WB6CLS P Duncan MacMillan, Chair KI6VMY P Scott Overstreet N6NXI P Bob Rowe, Vice Chair AF6LD P Miles Seiver, Secretary KI6LDU E Maynard Stevenson W7MVT P Sam Wood K6MSR P Others Present Call Sign Attendance Larry Carr, Sec. Emerg. Coordinator KE6AGJ P Greg Olsen K6XM P John Pfefferle KJ6CBX P Dave Stewart KJ6JQT P Gary Waldeck, Council Liaison/Mayor 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). 2. Review and approve past meeting minutes – Duncan led review of the minutes of the 08/06/2013 ECC meeting. Upon a motion by Jim Abraham W6EB, duly seconded, the minutes were unanimously approved, as written. 3. Public comments from the floor – None received. 4. Update on the County and State – None received, Ed Jones W7WPO not present. 5. Comments by Council Liaison – Mayor Gary Waldeck K6AIR noted that he would be meeting later this week with Mike Sanders, LAHCFD, and Marsha Hovey, Town safety consultant, to discuss the impact of the SCC Emergency Preparedness Council report (mentioned at the last meeting and distributed to all members and associate members, fyi). In passing, he noted that Sunnyvale emergency employees provide both police and fire services. 2 6. Old business – a. "Now what?!" class for CERT hams, 9/17 – Larry Carr KE6AGJ, section emergency coordinator, described the upcoming 2-hour class he is developing for CERT hams, with the objective of getting them comfortable pressing the PTT and becoming effective communicators, with a minimum of jargon in the process. Currently, 10 hams have registered, with about half having the human interface-challenged Baofeng HT (Baofeng UV-5RA 2-way radio, dual-band UHF/VHF 136-174/400-520 MHz). He is developing a cheat sheet for the Baofeng HT as well as a class outline. The class will provide about 30 minutes of theory of operation, an equal amount of hands-on HT programming of frequencies and the balance spent on how to use the HTs. Listening in on the SPECS Monday night net and checking-in on the LAH local net will be encouraged. Help from ECC hams would be appreciated to work 1-on-2 with students. The following 5 volunteered to help: Andy Fawcett, Andy Kirk, Dave Stewart, Greg Olsen, and Duncan b. Help desk volunteers, 9/07 & 10/26 – Duncan noted that, as in the case of Larry's class, a request for help exists for the county-wide drills this Saturday and on October 26. Please see the email Duncan forwarded concerning shifts and how to volunteer. c. ECC activity summary & LAH website – Reporting for Ray W6FQY, Duncan noted that participation in the local Monday night nets has been improved to a dozen or greater participants. Keep it up, please. d. Back-up EOC – Jim Abraham reported that a superficial, one-page quote in the amount of $152k was received by the vendor the Town approached for the monopole antenna tower, including a line item for unspecified radio equipment. Jim has a consultant friend who he will ask to comment on what might make sense in our situation. Duncan wondered if, given the order of magnitude of pricing, whether we shouldn't revisit re- routing the antenna heliax to an junction box outside the Heritage House and providing a second, remote connection to the Council Chambers, when/if needed. More at the next meeting. e. 3.5 GHz radio application – Sam K6MSR described how the current occupants (e.g. OOL) and commercial activities at the Black Mountain antenna farm make that site problematic. His opinion is that KFRC barely works using that location and our use of the 3.5 GHz radios will not provide a workable/robust architecture to provide enhanced communications to/from the ARK. Given that the extended time to find a use for these radios has not proved out, Duncan asked for a motion to call an end to the evaluation process and have the radios removed from Town property. Jim Abraham provided the motion, which was seconded and passed unanimously. Sam took the action to have the radios removed from Town storage, including the matched sets of radios currently in the radio room closet at the Heritage House. f. Vests & helmet update – Duncan is in contact with the supplier of the CERT vests, which do not appear to be ANSI-compatible (reflective stripping). The consensus was that ANSI-compatibility was not a show-stopper. After the meeting, Duncan showed interested members the light and heavy vest sets purchased last time. 7. New business a. Town property tags – Duncan noted that we have a supply of the tags and will be affixing them, where appropriate. They are too large for HTs and the suggestion was to use a hand-held etching/engraving pen to inscribe the LAH number on HTs. 3 b. Foothill EOC suitcase radio programming and testing – Duncan showed the Pelican case containing the Kenwood TM-71A dual-band radio and 20A power supply for storage in the ARK and use, as needed, at the Foothill EOC (Building 1900). Scot N6NXI donated a 20-foot coax cable to attach the radio to the antenna wall receptacle and Jim Abraham crimped lugs and installed the power distribution cable to the power supply. Thanks to both. Andy Fawcett said he would take a look into how to program the radio. Jim Heintzelman KD6Y and Greg Olsen K6XM expressed interest in helping test the unit at Foothill. Duncan will make arrangements with Foothill. c. Membership – Maynard W7MVT asked to be placed on associate status, indicating that he would like to stay in the rotation for Monday night nets and participate in drills but that night-time meetings/driving and hearing in the Chambers environment were problems. Upon a motion from Duncan, duly seconded, Maynard Stevenson's resignation as a member was unanimously accepted and he was made an associate member of the Emergency Communications Committee, with thanks for his past and continuing participation. 8. Upcoming events (https://www.scc-ares-races.org/activities/events.php) italics = new listing a. Fundamentals of Emergency Communications., 9/04, 1800, 777 S Main St, Milpitas b. Annual County-wide CERT Drill, 9/07, 0700 - 1700, Moffett Field c. Net Control in Disaster Communications - Type III/B, 9/07, 0900, SV Public Safety HQ d. LAH Volunteer Recognition Dinner, 9/07, 1800 - 2100, Fremont Hills CC e. CERT "Now what?!" ham class, 9/17, 1900 - 2100, FH Fire Station f. Message Passing - Tabletop, 9/21, 0900, SV Public Safety HQ g. CERT 24-hour Drill, 9/28, 1000 - 1000 9/29, various LAH h. Net Control in Disaster Communications - Type II, 10/05, 0900, SV Public Safety HQ i. Quarterly EC Council meeting, 10/10, 1900, SCC EOC 9. Adjournment – There being no further business, Jim Abraham moved to adjourn at 8:03 p.m., which was duly seconded and unanimously approved. Prepared and respectfully submitted by Duncan MacMillan for Miles Seiver, KI6LDU, secretary.