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Home My WebLink AboutJune 31 Minutes Town of Los Altos Hills EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE June 03, 2014 @ 7:00 PM, LAH Parks & Rec Center Roll call (9 members + 6 others): P = present, E = excused, no mark = absent Member Call Sign Attendance Jim Abraham W6EB P Dru Anderson KG6LAD P Bob Anderson KC6ZWG P Ray Egan W6FQY E Andy Fawcett KI6MAF P Jim Heintzelman KD6Y E Edwin R Jones, EC W7WPO P Andrew Kirk WB6CLS Duncan MacMillan, Chair KI6VMY P Scott Overstreet N6NXI P Bob Rowe, Vice Chair AF6LD P Sam Wood K6MSR P Others Present Call Sign Attendance Bill Gibbons K6GH P Elise L Scher KI6PUO P Greg Olsen K6XM P Bert Raphael KK6GNB P Carol Starbuck K6PIG P Gary Waldeck K6AIR P 1. The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by chair Duncan MacMillan KI6VMY, who took roll call as documented in the attached ICS 211A Check-in List. 2. Review and approve past meeting minutes – Upon a motion by Scott Overstreet N6NXI , duly seconded, the version 2 of the May 6, 2014 minutes are unanimously approved as written. 3. Public comments from the floor – Carol Starbuck K6PIG described the annual LAH 4th of July parade and the need for 3 to 4 hams to act as shadows to CERT GMRS operators. Hams were encouraged to email Carol with their availability. Attendees were reminded that the annual LAH Volunteer Appreciation Dinner will be held at a new venue, the Los Altos History Museum, on Friday, July 11 beginning at 6pm. 4. Update on County and State – Ed Jones W7WPO noted that LAH will be responsibe for the SPECS and UHF/220 Monday night nets for July. The following members volunteered: DATE SPECS UHF/220 7/7 Bob A Andy K 7/14 Ed Duncan 2 7/21 Dru Dave Gilmour 7/28 Andy F Gary W aldeck 5. Comments by Council Liaison – Gary Waldeck K6AIR reported an issue of someone (not an ECC member) inadvertently finding their way onto the fire station's protected link in the process of testing WiFi connectivity. Be careful. 6. Old Business a. Pathways Run, 5/10 – Andy Kirk WB6CLS reported that the use of K6AIR repeater seemed to work well. Bill Gibbons K6GH suggested that members check computer downloads of standard frequencies since he found the offset for the repeater was incorrect, explaining his initial problems from station #11. b. Town EOC/CERT drill, 5/14 – Duncan described the report of the working group tasked with resolving the use of CERT Incident Report and ICS-213 Message Forms, with the position that hams will be presented with completed ICS-213 forms rather than IRs by message requestors. Upon a motion by Scott Overstreet N6NXI, duly seconded, the report of the working group dated 5/31/14 was accepted and adopted as the position of the ECC. c. Town Picnic, 6/01 – Gary reflected that the recent picnic was, in his opinion, the best in many years - everyone seemed to be fed and the displays showed real activity in Town. Special thanks to Dru KG6LAH and Ed Jones W7WPO for getting the ECC table together and staffed. d. Back-up EOC –Duncan's draft memo to Carl Cahill and Gary Waldeck was discussed. An additional question (6. What is the direction from the Town on the alternative EOC scenario that the ECC should engineer and price?) was suggested as well as providing more background on the difficulty of using the CC (Council Chambers) as an EOC. Upon a motion from Duncan, duly seconded, was unanimously resolved that the memo is approved with edits to add a question 6 and up to two (2) additional sentences of background information on the use of the CC as an EOC. e. Increasing ARK/EOC connectivity – Andy Fawcett KI6MAF is continuing to workon his replacement software to replace OUTPOST for ARK to EOC packet radio communications. 7. New Business a. Increasing K6AIR effectiveness at the ARK are termed out – The performance of K6AIR during the Town Drill was discussed and CERT consideration of a directional antenna for CERT net control use (Lot 7) was noted. A number of other potential antenna variations were discussed, including crank-up antennas, borrowing/renting such a unit as an experiment, etc. Realizing that the problem has not be characterized, a volunteer was requested to chair a subcommittee which will experiment with various HT and mobile radios in Lot 7, including the use of the ARK's existing antenna to communicate with K6AIR. Andy Fawcett volunteered to chair this effort, hoping that we benefit from those findings at our July meeting. 3 8. Upcoming Events (https://www.scc-ares-races.org/activities/events.php) – Members were asked to review the following: a. Packet Ops - Type II, Adv/Troubleshooting, 06/07, 0900, Cupertino Community Center b. Message Passing - Tabletop, 06/21, 0900, SV Public Safety HQ c. Fundamentals of Emergency Comm. NIGHT, 06/25, 1800, 1000 Villa St, MV d. ECC elections, 07/01 - chair, vice chair and secretary e. Los Altos Hills July 4th parade, 07/04, 1000, Fremont Road f. Cupertino July 4th Fireworks Event, 07/04, 1600, Cupertino High School g. EC Council Meeting,07/10, 1900, venue TBD h. Search & Locate practice, visual & radio direction finding, 07/12, 0800, venue TBD i. Net Control - Type III, Part A training, 08/02, 0900, Cupertino Community Center j. Cross-band Repeating/Antenna Fundamentals, 08/16, 0900, venue TBD k. Introduction to Emergency Comm. NIGHT, 08/20, 1800, 777 S. Main St, Milpitas l. Net Control - Type III, Part B training, 09/13, 0900, SV Public Safety HQ 9. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:10 pm upon a motion by Bob Anderson KC6ZWG, duly seconded and unanimously approved. Prepared and respectfully submitted by Duncan MacMillan KI6VMY