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Home My WebLink AboutMarch 3LAH_ECC-FINAL_Minutes_Mar-3-2015 1 ( Emergency Communications Committee: Minutes of Mar. 3, 2015 Roll call (10 members + 7 others): P = present, E = excused, no mark = absent Member Call Sign Attendance Jim Abraham, Co-Chair W6EB P Dru Anderson, Secretary KG6LAD P Bob Anderson KC6ZWG P Andy Fawcett KI6MAF P Jim Heintzelman KD6Y P Edwin R Jones, EC W7WPO P Andrew Kirk WB6CLS P Duncan MacMillan KI6VMY P Scott Overstreet, Co-Chair N6NXI P Sam Wood K6MSR P Others Present Call Sign Attendance Gary Waldeck, Council Liaison K6AIR P Ray Egan - associate W6FQY P Burt Raphael - associate KK6GNB P Bob Rowe - associate AF6LD P Neil Katin AI6FI P Bill Lattin KK6PCA P Kjell Karlsson - guest KD6BPP P 1. Roll Call. 10 Members, 1 CC Liaison, 3 Associates, 3 guests. Sign-in form collected by Secretary. Co-chair Scott N6NXI called meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Minutes for Feb. 3 were approved w/minor edits submitted by Duncan MacMillan. Motion by Bob Anderson KC6ZWG, seconded, & members approved. Secretary to submit final to LAH City Clerk for posting, along with sign-in sheet. 3. Public comments from the floor: a. Items of note brought forward by Dru, Secretary:  Full Scale Emergency Exercise March 23, 0900-1200. SJC airport.  Marsha Hovey reminder of LAH Disaster Council meeting March 10, 10-11:30 a.m.. Scott, Ed, Gary will attend, and Duncan might attend.  Reminder noted of Carol Starbuck’s recon drill March 14. 4. Reports: a. Ed Jones, W7WPO, EC: Ed reminded the group that the required updates to the SCC contact online site are due by April, in order to receive DSW stickers. He said there are only 3 people who have not updated, and offered to assist offline, if needed. LAH_ECC-FINAL_Minutes_Mar-3-2015 2 b. Gary Waldeck, KI6AIR, Council Liaison: Gary cited incidental technical advice not to swim w/an iPhone, noting recent experience with that failure. He reported no town news of impact at this time. c. Antenna ordinance update: Jim W6EB. Jim reported that the first meeting of the Planning Commission sub-committee occurred, attended by Town Planning Director Avila, and commissioners Jim Abraham and Kavita Tankha, with informational input from Gary KI6AIR. Plans are to meet with the Los Altos planner, since elements of their ordinance could be a model for LAH effort. He also reported getting information from the Atherton planners, noting that city has a wonderful antenna ordinance. Dru noted that Bart Lee, volunteer attorney for ARRL, had sent a copy of a book he co-authored on antenna ordinances. Jim cited other names of local attorneys with antenna experience. d. Member activity report: Ray Egan W6FQY. Ray continues to track member and associate participation to meet ECC guidelines. He reported activity of members is ok thus far; associates continue to meet basic requirements. Ray will continue to track and report if participation falls off. The monitoring helps set participation expectations for drills, meetings.  Upcoming May 9 LAH Pathway Run at Westwind barn needs more volunteers since it will need to depend on ECC ham communication support because CERTs are involved in a simultaneous drill that morning at the ARK.  Duncan MacMillan will be the ECC lead for the May 9 Pathway Run, and so far, Andy Kirk and Jim Heintzelman have volunteered. Burt Raphael said he will be at the First Aid station, but can also operate radio there. Duncan needs a minimum of six ham volunteers at the event. Contact Duncan to volunteer. e. Report on roster: Duncan will disperse updates with recent contact information changes. Please refer to the latest for contact information and to an updated list of assignments for Monday night nets. 5. Old Business: a. Field Day June 27/28. Jim W6EB encouraged those who’d like to participate in Field Day to join the FARS activities, or other area clubs who have Field Day plans. 6. New Business: a. Duncan reported that Neil Katin and Bill Lattin each expressed interest in associate membership. Bob KC6ZWG moved and Jim W6EB seconded, that the members approve the addition of Neil and Bill as associate members. The motion passed unanimously. Neil and Bill were in attendance and were welcomed to their new role. b. The annual report to Council by the ECC chairs will be March 31. Scott/Jim sought input for highlights. Gary suggested including the Charter in the presentation. Dru suggested citing the various drills, and preparation during the year of the ECC including the picnic, and several instances of joint drill activity with the LAH CERT team, and the encouragement of the CERT Recon activity. Scott and Jim will work on the presentation as chairs, and welcome input. c. LAH/LAHEG MOU update: Jim and Duncan reviewed the specifics of the LAH Emergency Group, citing a recent meeting with City Manager Cahill. The revision is to broaden the MOU language because the original was too site specific. The revision supports other technical improvements that LAHEG could consider for future improvements. LAHEG holds the license for the operation and maintenance of the W6LAH repeater, used by the town for emergency communications response. Upon a motion by Duncan MacMillan, seconded by Ed Jones, the members unanimously approved a recommendation to the City Council that the revisions to the LAH/LAHEG MOU be adopted. LAH_ECC-FINAL_Minutes_Mar-3-2015 3 7. Tech Talk – Go-kit update: Scott. a. Scott noted that there are 2 kinds of go-kits: 1) have stored handy for ready access – contains town property such as HTs and related gear, plus personal survival gear, for basic minimum hours. 2) a go-kit that everyone builds for themselves for objectives skewed to their particular interest, or for their particular emergency response role. At the April meeting, the Tech talk will be a discussion of the practical collection of for ECC purposes. Gary Waldeck added: “Ask what do you need for yourself, for your needs in an emergency response situation.” Scott referred to the SCC website link http://www.scc-ares- races.org/operations.html#Go_Kit for go-kit basics. He asked members to refer to the, and start with the bare minimums and remembering power source for variety of situations. “Don’t forget personal medication needs.” b. It also was noted that the rechargeable batteries for the town-issued iCom IC- W32A HTs are in need of review due to age. Duncan noted that the previously-purchased lithium AA cells and iCom battery holders have not been distributed, and that can be accomplished at the next meeting. 8. Tech Talk - Andy Fawcett KI6MAF: Packet presentation, Part 2. a. Andy continued from last meeting with his 2-part presentation on Packet information. His focus was the background and explanation of Bulletin Board, i.e. mailbox messaging over frequency, and the use of the Outpost application. He explained the equipment he was demonstrating was a Kenwood 710 – 1200 baud/9600 baud, which you can switch between only if you have TNC inside the radio. b. He referred to several web sites with equipment suggestions including ones you can build yourself. The program he demonstrated was AGWPE – AGW packet engine, website: http://www.sv2agw.com/ham/agwpe.htm. The program AGWPE runs on vista, 7, 8, and 8.1 all versions (home, pro, ultimate). AGWTerminal runs like a terminal emulator program. He showed how to ping the EOC packet station, and the steps of how one would communicate with the packet station at the EOC, and County, and demonstrated how to compose, send, and read addressed packets. In addition, he demonstrated the Outpost program which automates a lot of the packet creation, send, and read work. c. BBS, Andy said, supports more users. He showed the various CNTL keys that aid in interacting with the packet messaging. Those doing checkins on packet should be sure to use the forms available. d. Members gained a deeper operational insight into the world of packet, mailbox/BBS operation. Andy encouraged people to try. 9. Adjourn: At 9 p.m., members approved the motion by Bob KC6ZWG to adjourn. Respectfully submitted: Dru Anderson KG6LAD, ECC Secretary.