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Home My WebLink AboutJanuary 71 Minutes Town of Los Altos Hills EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE January 07, 2014 @ 7:00 PM, LAH Council Chambers Roll call (10 members + 6 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 P Andrew Kirk WB6CLS P Duncan MacMillan, Chair KI6VMY P Scott Overstreet N6NXI P Bob Rowe, Vice Chair AF6LD P Miles Seiver, Secretary KI6LDU E Sam Wood K6MSR P Others Present Call Sign Attendance Kjell Karlsson KD6BPP P Greg Olsen K6XM P John Pfefferle KJ6CBX P Bert Raphael KK6GNB P Dave Stewart KJ6JQT P Gary Waldeck W6AIR P 1. The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by chair Duncan MacMillan KI6VMY, who took roll call via attached ICS 211A Check-in List. 2. Review and approve past meeting minutes – The attached agenda was followed. Duncan led a review of the minutes of the November and December ECC meetings. Upon a motion by Bob Anderson KC6ZWG, duly seconded, the minutes were unanimously approved as written (Jim Abraham W6EB abstaining). 3. Public comments from the floor – John Pfefferle KJ6CBX noted that print art for car placards are available on the CERT wiki. He showed a version printed on magnetic stock, which might be of interest. Duncan will check into gaining access to the CERT wiki for ECC members/associates. 4. Update on the County and State – Ed Jones W7WPO noted the upcoming EC quarterly meeting to be held on 01/09, see Item 8 below. He will report on content at the February meeting. 2 5. Comments by Council Liaison – Gary Waldeck K6AIR described the results of the ongoing discussions between the CERT, Town and ECC organizations, most recently earlier today with Mike Sanders, Rich & Nancy Green, Marsha Hovey, Gary, Carl Cahill, Dave Stewart KJ6JQT and Duncan (via phone) in attendance. The types of information required by the Town and getting back-ups for Town staff outside of working hours are getting closer to definition. Gary described the desire to provide a more reliable/higher throughput link between the ARK and EOC. An analysis will be performed by Sam Wood K6MSR (assistance by Jim Heintzelman KD6Y) to identify commercial data providers (e.g. Cruzio, www.cruzio.com/ - services provided on Mt. Allison, southeast of Fremont in the east Bay) to flesh out the services provided, line-of-sight issues, bands used, equipment and service $ and reliability history. An email before the next meeting on progress being made would be appreciated. Otherwise, a report will be on the agenda for the February ECC meeting. 6. Old business a. ECC activity summary – With Ray Egan W6FQY on travel, Duncan showed his 2013 activity report, noting the highest number of check-ins by Scott Overstreet N6NXI (49), closely followed by Andy Kirk (48). The members complimented Ray on the thoroughness of his report. Duncan reported that Miles Seiver KI6LDU will not be able to attend meetings due to his Stanford workload, where he is a double major and now has a study group meeting on Tuesday evenings. All hands commented on how they appreciated Miles' past efforts, including acting as secretary for multiple years. It was the consensus that Miles should resign as a member but be encouraged to stay on as an associate. Duncan will talk to Miles about that process. Duncan asked for volunteers to act as secretary: disappointingly, none heard. (After the meeting Duncan and Bob Rowe decided alternate duties until the July elections.) Duncan encouraged members to take the Introduction to and Fundamentals of Emergency Communications courses that are given periodically, see Upcoming events, Item 8 below. It was the consensus of the group that Ray be asked to maintain a listing of the courses taken by members and associate members as part of his activities. b. LAH website – Duncan took the attendees through the Town website's Be Prepared button (http://www.losaltoshills.ca.gov/emergency-preparedness) at the bottom right of the main page as well as the Calendar, which now includes our Monday-night nets. Lastly, the new 1-page instructions for non-ECC hams who would like to help in an emergency was shown (http://www.losaltoshills.ca.gov/city-government/standing- committees/emergency-communications), linking to what a Town ham should know in responding to an emergency, including reporting Mike-Mike assessments. c. Back-up EOC –Jim Abraham described the Town's continued frustration with AT&T's third-party antenna vendor (Ericsson sp?), with the decision being to proceed developing a heliax redesign for our radios. We can consider making that redesign, in part or whole, a prerequisite to accepting any AT&T redesign of their antenna arrangements. The concept will be to provide a pad-mounted radio equipment cabinet closer to the antenna tree, with a patch panel arrangement supporting cable connections to remote control heads in the EOC radio room and Council Chamber annex. Hopefully, the Heritage House will survive future events but, if it doesn't, the patch panel will support running a separate set of radio control heads to be located at the back of Chambers. A practical test of control heads operating over 250 feet of 3 cable needs to be accomplished. Jim A will work with Richard Chui and Steve Padovan on this design with a report is requested for the February meeting. d. Vests & helmet updates – Duncan noted that the Ohio CERT vest vendor has been snowed out over the past few days. The idea is to provide CERT-like vests in orange with certain items removed, including the tie-bag on the upper back. Scott said he would provide the ID of our old vendor for one last look in that direction - one issue being that the second, silk-screen vendor is apparently out of business. 7. New business a. LAH SPECS & UHF/220 net control duties for January (UHF/220: Duncan 1/06, Bob Rowe 1/13, Jim H 1/20; SPECS net: Ed 1/06, Jim A 1/20) – Duncan noted the importance of using these as training opportunities and that we should not rely on the "usual suspects" who don't need the practice. Scott volunteered to take the 1/27 UHF/220 net. Hearing no further volunteers, Bob Rowe AF6LD conducted a drawing where Sam Wood received the 1/13 SPECS net control assignment and Ray Egan was selected for 1/27. If Ray's travel does not bring him back by the end of January, Bob Anderson KC6ZWG will stand in for him. b. Ham/CERT/Town meeting recap, 01/07/14 – See Gary's comments under Item 5 above. c. Associate member consideration (John Pfefferle KJ6CBX) – Duncan noted that John has checked-in 13 times, attended 5 ECC meetings and participated very well in the September 24-hour drill during 2013. John also provides needed additional coverage in the southern part of Town. Upon a motion by Duncan, duly seconded, John Pfefferle is elected as an associate member of the ECC.participated . 8. Upcoming events (https://www.scc-ares-races.org/activities/events.php) a. EC Council Quarterly Meeting, 01/09, 1900+, County EOC b. SPECS 2014 Annual meeting, 01/11, 0800 coffee, 0900 meeting, ECH c. ARES/RACES County and City Quarterly Drill, 01/18, 1300, cities d. CERT drill (ICS expectations, traffic control, smoke alarm), 01/29, 1900, LAH CC e. Field Operations Level 1- Part A, 02/01, 0900, Cupertino f. Intro to Emergency Communications NIGHT CLASS, 02/19, 1800, Milpitas g. Field Operations Level 1 - Part B & Level 2, 03/01, 0900, SV Public Safety HQ h. Fundamentals of Emergency Comm. NIGHT CLASS, 03/19, 1800, Milpitas 9. Adjournment – There being no further business, it was moved and duly seconded to adjourn at 8:11 p.m., which was unanimously approved. Prepared and respectfully submitted by Duncan MacMillan for Miles Seiver, KI6LDU, secretary.