HomeMy WebLinkAboutFebruary 7LAHECC Minutes 170207 Final
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Emergency Communications Committee Minutes
Tuesday, February 07, 2017, 7 – 9 p.m.
LAH Council Chambers: 26379 Fremont Road, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
Members Call Sign Attendance
Jim Abraham W6EB P
Dru Anderson, Co-Chair KG6LAD P
Bob Anderson KC6ZWG P
Jim Heintzelman KD6Y P
Ben H. L. Hu KK6HH P
Edwin R Jones, EC W7WPO P
Andrew Kirk WB6CLS P
Duncan MacMillan, Secretary KI6VMY P
Scott Overstreet, Co-Chair N6NXI E
Sam Wood K6MSR P
Council/Staff --- ---
Gary Waldeck, Council Liaison K6AIR P
Associate Members --- ---
Ray Egan W6FQY P
Bill Gibbons K6GH P
Neil Katin K2LL P
Bill Lattin KK6PCA E
Craig Miller WA6OXK P
Greg Olsen K6XM P
Carol Starbuck K6PIG P
Dave Stewart JK6JQT P
Public --- ---
Barry Bruins KK6PVC P
Larry Carr, SEC KE6AGJ P
Jim Clark, Cupertino EC N6JRC P
Harry Guy KM6CRD P
Marsha Hovey, LAH OES KG6CYV P
George Hurst, LAHCFD P
Kjell Karlsson KD6BPP P
Jim Oberhofer, Cupertino EC KN6PE P
Bert Raphael KK6GNB
1. Roll Call: Noting the presence of a quorum of 6+ members, co-chair Dru Anderson
KG6LAD called the meeting to order @ 1900 hours. Attendance (27): 9 members, 1
liaison, 7 associates, 9 public.
2. Notes: Upon motions by Andy Kirk WB6CLS, duly seconded, the notes from the January
03, 2017 informal discussions were unanimously accepted for inclusion to these minutes by
the members present. See attachment 1.
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3. Public comments from the floor:
a. “911 Emergency Service in a Communications Outage:” Guest speaker, Jim
Oberhofer KN6PE, EC of Cupertino, delivered a presentation illustrating the
vulnerabilities of power-outage with the current telecommunications network, as it is
a wide departure from landline with centrally located battery power source. He
made a proposal to remedy how cities, like Cupertino, LAH, and Saratoga, which
rely on the Santa Clara County 911 service, could still gain access in time of power
failure. The proposal is to provide MAC communicators with proper training to
staff County EOC to relay 911 traffics. The attendees appreciated Jim’s presentation
and will track Jim’s effort making its way in Cupertino and to SCC-ARES. See
Attachment 2 for Jim’s overheads.
b. Code of Conduct, and DSW updates: Marsha Hovey, LAH staff emergency
management, reviewed recently-approved Code of Conduct by Town Council and
the requirement for all DSWs to be fingerprinted and to undergo criminal
background checks during the coming year. The first, local administration of the
fingerprint process will be held on March 13 and will focus on LAH staff plus ECC
and CERT hams; with others to follow in subsequent sessions. Ultimately, all DSWs
will be certified to the same level of checking/review by LAH HR/City Manager
before their DSW status is renewed. Marsha summarized basic LAH activation and
training concepts she’s developing for LAH volunteers. See attachments 3 -6.
Foothill/LAH MOU: Marsha also reviewed the MOU, which is being changed to
reflect allowing DSW access (during drills and emergencies) to the bathroom
facilities in the new FHDA administration building being constructed in Lot 7. See
attachment 7 for the draft of the revised MOU.
c. FHDA new Admin Building: Barry Bruins KK6PUV and Dave Stewart JK6JQT
provided an update on the future home for the ARK behind the new building and the
potential location of emergency antennas on the roof. A natural gas hook up was
suggested by Jim Abraham W6EB based on all the problems of keeping gas-powered
generators active over time while the gasoline is deteriorated and clogs up the
generators. This is exactly what happened to our generators at the temporary location
for our radios in Trailer 2. All hands interested/able to provide antenna design
advice were asked to email Dru ASAP. Any design issues, including cable routing,
conduits, and additional services need to be surfaced quickly.
4. Reports:
a. SCC EC: Ed Jones W7WPO reviewed participation in recent SCC-ARES-RACES
training courses and the game plan for the upcoming drill, which will focus on
practice as NCO (Net Control Operators) during an imaginary chemical spill. All
hands should first sign on at the County ARES/RACES website, review attachment
8, and call in on W6LAH at 2:00 pm on Saturday, February 18 to participate,
starting by providing damage assessments from their home (note concerning check-
ins: call-signs should be repeated at the end of those transmissions to NCO).
b. LAH City Council Report: Gary Waldeck K6AIR asked that the ECC review its
charter against the Town’s General Plan to see if the ECC charter supports the Plan.
He welcomes any proposed changes that we would like to make to the Plan or our
charter. The co-chairs will put this subject on the agenda for the March meeting
and a memo will be produced to Gary by the end of March.
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c. ARK movement report: Duncan MacMillan KI6VMY presented photos of the new
arrangement of ECC voice and packet radios in trailer 2 located beside the Fire
Station. This temporary ARK place is located in the far northeast corner of lot 7.
Until and unless improvements are made in power and antenna mounting at the
trailer location, responding hams should use an extension cord to the Fire Station for
power and should use bungee cords to secure the tri-band antenna to the utility
stanchion in front of the trailer. The dead battery and stale gasoline/clogged
generator encountered when the trailer was opened support Jim A’s comment on
natural gas, Item 3.c. above.
d. Member/Associate report: Ben Hu KK6HH commented on data gathering activities.
Ben will report on the activities of members and associates on a quarterly basis
(April, July, October, and January) and the January report will provide a summary of
the previous year's participation levels.
e. Roster Report: Neil Katin KK2LL reported that there were no additions/deletions.
5. Old Business:
a. Reports by the sub-committees on progress in 2016; goals for 2017: Duncan noted
that inventory has been updated to reflect movement of ECC gear to Trailer 2. The
radios assigned to CERT for their old FMRS system remain to be returned to
inventory at the HH EOC radio room. Other inputs deferred to the March meeting
6. New Business:
a. Town-owned HT utilization: A discussion of next steps will be deferred to the
March meeting, including possible issue to hams as part of car-carried Go Kits for
active participants to programming and making the HTs ready for distribution during
an emergency. Duncan will issue inventory iCom IC-W32As to Greg Olsen
K6XM and Craig Miller WA6OXK, who have offered to see what it takes to get
those units into service as new operators. They will report back at March meeting.
b. QRG & SPECS annual meeting update: Neil K2LL noted that all edits have been
included in the draft QRG. He noted that the SPECS meeting (Jan 28) went well, but
with a slightly smaller audience, likely due to the change of venue (Hillview
Community Center) and schedule conflicts. The new hands-free law, which has
serious impacts amateur radio, was discussed at the meeting. Duncan noted there is
a Change.org petition to clarify/change the law for amateur radio and for which
signatures are being sought. Duncan will provide Dru with the Change.org URL.
7. Tech Talk: Deferred in the interest of time to the March meeting.
8. Adjourn: There being no further business; the meeting was adjourned at 2117 hours.
Respectfully Submitted: Duncan MacMillan KI6VMY, secretary
Attachments:
1. LAH ECC Notes 170103 Final.pdf
2. Slides: “911 Emergency Service in a Communications Outage” by Jim Oberhofer
3. Code of Conduct for LAH appointed persons 170207.pdf
4. DSW Operational Performance Guidelines 170107.pdf
5. DRAFT Volunteer Activation Policy Jan 2017 v3.pdf
6. DRAFT DSW Training Plan 170207.pdf
7. DRAFT updated Foothill College Use MOU 170127.pdf
8. Drill instructions 170218.pdf