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HomeMy WebLinkAboutApril 5LAH_ECC_FINAL-Minutes_Apr-5-2016 1 ( Emergency Communications Committee Minutes DATE: Tuesday, April 5, 2016, 7 – 9 p.m. Council Chambers: 26379 Fremont Road, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022 Member Call Sign Attendance Jim Abraham, Co-Chair W6EB P Dru Anderson, Secretary KG6LAD P Bob Anderson KC6ZWG P Andy Fawcett KI6MAF E Jim Heintzelman KD6Y P Ben H. L. Hu KK6HH P Edwin R Jones, EC W7WPO E Andrew Kirk WB6CLS E Duncan MacMillan KI6VMY P Scott Overstreet, Co-Chair N6NXI P Sam Wood K6MSR P Council/Staff Call Sign Attendance Gary Waldeck, Council Liaison K6AIR P Associates Call Sign Attendance Bill Gibbons, associate K6GH P Neil Katin, associate AI6FI P Greg Olsen, associate K6XM P Burt Raphael, associate KK6GNB P Bill Lattin, associate KK6PCA P Public: Kjell Karlsson, public KD6BPP P Craig Miller, public WA6OXK P 1. Roll Call: Co-Chair Scott N6NXI called the meeting to order @7 p.m. Roll call 8 members/3excused absences. Gary K6Air requested to be excused for the May meeting. BH: Roll Call: Co-chair Scott N6NXI /Jim W6EB Gary K6Air requested to be excused for the May meeting. 2. Minutes: March 1 DRAFT minutes. Motion to approve, with minor corrections noted, made by Scott N6NXI, second by Jim KD6Y. Voice approved 7; 1 abstention from Bob KC6ZWG because he was not in attendance at the March meeting. 3. Public Comments from the floor: a. Dru, Secretary, reminded everyone that in the last distribution, City Clerk Deborah Padovan included instructions on how to automatically receive agendas of choice from the town website. The process for distribution of draft minutes will be determined. Signup at http://ca-losaltoshills.civicplus.com/list.aspx b. Dru noted that the minutes will not be distributed by the town, so they need to be distributed in another way, likely by the secretary or other officer. Bill K6GH said that he had suggested a Wikispace where such draft items could be uploaded for review with a private sign -on. Dru pointed out that the committee is part of the public agency and things need to be transparent, LAH_ECC_FINAL-Minutes_Apr-5-2016 2 so alternate communication processes need to be considered with caution. Draft minutes are prepared by the committee secretary for review and vote by the members. Gary K6AIR will take the issue of distribution process of the minutes to the town for advisory. c. Dru KG6LAD relayed that Town Clerk Padovan had distributed a flyer on how to submit articles for the quarterly town newsletter. There were no newsletter volunteers. d. Dru KG6LAD called attention to the town Pathway Run/Walk on May 7, and the need for volunteers; Additionally, Neil cited that volunteers were needed for the May 14 CERT Exercise and the May 21, County ARES/RACES exercise. e. Sam K6MSR asked whether any member of ECC has an updated frequency list so he could program his Yaesu HT radio, which he intends to use for remotely turning on/off K6AIR repeater. Scott cautioned that FCC required a remote method to turn off a repeater in case of emergency and he wanted to make sure the process met those requirements. Sam, along with Neil AI6FI, Ben KK6HH will meet as a subcommittee to implement the HT programming, remote control, and appropriate repeater operation. 4. Reports: a. SCC EC: Ed W7WPO, EC. – Not reporting due to his absence. b. LAH City Council report: i. Gary K6AIR reported that the problem for the repeater K6AIR was found, thanks to Scott N6NXI. The root cause was that the two circulators of 2m and 70 cm were swapped into their respective wrong band. So far, all the components seem to work fine, and none were damaged. Therefore, he said, both repeaters should be put back to work property shortly. ii. He said there was nothing to report from the town this month. c. Roster Report: i. Duncan KI6VMY reported that Andy KI6MAF, whose term to expire in April, asked to be made an associate member. ii. A motion to make Andy KI6MAF an associate member was made by Dru KG6LAD, seconded by Scott N6NXI; passed with unanimous voice vote. iii. Duncan showed the rotating schedule of net control assignments for Monday night LAH net, and asked that anyone who needs to change his/her schedule directly negotiate with another person, and advise Duncan of the change. d. Member/Associate report: Ray Egan W6FQY. Deferred, due to his absence. 5. Old Business: a. ECC QRD (Quick Reference Guide): Sub-committee update: lead Neil AI6FI asked that it be deferred to the next meeting. b. Status: Cell Tree modifications: Scott N6NXI reported no change since last month. Jim W6EB mentioned that AT&T now supplied its own electric power while paying back LAH town the electricity costs of last 3 years. Gary K6AIR stated that there is some battery backup for the cell repeater. c. Update: 220 MHz equipment purchase for packet station at EOC. Neil reported that the subcommittee, consisting of Andy KI6MAF, Jim KD6Y, and Neil, put together a proposal and sent an email to the co-chairs and Dru KG6LAD. A motion was made by Dru KG6LAD, seconded by Ben KK6HH, and unanimously approved by voice vote to recommend purchase of three systems comprising radios, Triplexers, TNC’s and cables for the use at the EOC and the ARK locations, and one spare set. The total cost estimate for the three systems is $1,800. d. Status: Background/security check clarification from City manager: Jim W6EB reported that he was advised there is no town requirement for fingerprinting or LAH_ECC_FINAL-Minutes_Apr-5-2016 3 background check for ECC or other committee members at this point. Further updates will be made when available. 6. New Business a. 2016 Sumer Drill ideas such as treasure hunt with mobile radio: i. Scott N6NXI mentioned treasure hunt using mobile radio has been valuable for training and finding dead-spots for radio transmission around the town. ii. An FYI: the County drill, RDF search and Locate practice, is scheduled July 9, 2016. iii. Scott said he had participated in “transmitter hunts” before and found the experience was very useful and a delightful exercise. iv. Scott summarized that “Treasure Hunt” and “Transmitter hunt” concepts would be used, and he welcomed other ideas. b. Discussion of the making use of the Icom IC-7000 HF Transceiver with 100 Watt output: i. Jim W6EB asked the group’s thought on what is the best usage of the radio. Scott N6NXI suggested a subcommittee come up with the best use of the radio and hence the appropriate antenna. ii. Volunteers for the subcommittee are Jim KD6Y, Craig WA6OXK, Greg K6XM together with Scott N6NXI. iii. Dru suggested that the usage of the HF radio should have a focus on emergency communication, in addition to some basic usage training and drill. iv. It was suggested that the location of the Icom radio shack could be at either the EOC or at Westwind barn. Further discussion will be by the subcommittee. v. Jim W6EB introduced the request to Craig Miller WA6OXK that he consider joining as an associate member. With Craig’s consent, Dru moved to accept Craig WA6OXK as an associate member of the ECC; Jim KD6Y seconded the motion, and members approved unanimously by voice vote. c. Volunteers are needed for: i. The 15th annual Los Altos Hills Pathways Run/Walk 9am May 7. Volunteers need to report earlier. ii. Neil stated that Richard Green of LAH CERT will be in charge of the volunteer response for CERT; Neil is the event communication manager. He will be glad to represent ECC volunteers as well for the event. Neil will send out email request for volunteers to ECC members. iii. Neil also noted that Saturday May 14 is the joint exercise with CERT, and volunteers are needed. iv. On Saturday May 21 is the County drill with city participation. Ed W7WPO will coordinate, and volunteers will be needed. 7. Tech Talk: a. Neil presented an excellent and succinct discussion on the message passing lesson/practice at the SCC level. He distributed the County handout of 2014 version of “message passing”, and then presented a shortened version. He distributed 14 slides to the group that he had extracted from the 3-hour county course. Thus, the group received the essence of the “Message Passing” in a few minutes, with encouragement to sign up for the SCC ARES/RACES course on June 4. With a few exercises, he demonstrated that “message passing” needs, first of all, for efficiency and clarity, the learning and mastering of the key words (Prowords), together with the phonetic alphabet. He emphasized that lots of practice is important, in order to be LAH_ECC_FINAL-Minutes_Apr-5-2016 4 able to pass a 25-word message of Form 213 correctly in a 2-5 minute time, with 2 minutes being the “proficient.”. 8. Upcoming Events: a. Planning Commission: revised antenna ordinance consideration April 7: i. Duncan stated that the revised antenna ordinance was not discussed in the ECC meeting and therefore it is inappropriate to use any phrase such as “supported by ECC” in the discussion of revised ordinance. ii. Dru stated the ordinance is the responsibility of the Planning Commission to discuss and make recommendation to Council. Therefore, she opined that it is not appropriate for the ECC, as a committee, to take further action on ordinance revisions. Individual members, she noted, are welcome to express their views to the Planning Commission sub-committee and/or to the Planning Commission. iii. Scott noted that the town had not asked ECC’s input, as a committee, on the revised antenna ordinance. iv. Gary K6AIR added some highlights and comparisons of the revised ordinance, such as noting that erecting an antenna over 45’ would require administrative review and notification of neighbors. 9. Adjourn: On a motion by Jim KD6Y, seconded by Bob KC6ZWG, and passed by unanimous voice vote, the meeting was adjourned. Respectfully Submitted, Secretary Dru Anderson KG6LAD; thanks to Ben Hu KK6HH for his assistance with notes.