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Home My WebLink AboutMay 2LAHECCMinutes170502-FINAL.doc 1 ( Emergency Communications Committee Minutes Tuesday, May 02, 2017, 7 – 9 p.m. LAH Kitchen: 26379 Fremont Road, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022 Members Call Sign Attendance Jim Abraham W6EB E Dru Anderson, Co-Chair KG6LAD P Bob Anderson KC6ZWG E Jim Heintzelman KD6Y P Ben H. L. Hu KK6HH E Edwin R Jones, EC W7WPO P Andrew Kirk WB6CLS P Duncan MacMillan, Secretary KI6VMY P Scott Overstreet, Co-Chair N6NXI P Sam Wood K6MSR P Council/Staff ------ Gary Waldeck, Council Liaison K6AIR A Associate Members ------ Andy Fawcett KI6MAF P David Gilmour WQ1K P Kjell Karlsson KD6BPP P Neil Katin K2LL P Bill Lattin KK6PCA E Public ------ 1.Roll Call: Co-chair Dru Anderson KG6LAD called the meeting to order @ 1906 hours. Attendance (12): 7 members, 0 liaison, 5 associates, 0 public. 2.Notes & Minutes: Noting the presence of a quorum of 6+ members, Dru called for motions to approve outstanding minutes. Upon a motion from Sam Wood K6MSR, duly seconded, the February 07 meeting minutes were approved as written by unanimous vote. Upon a motion by Jim Heintzelman KD6Y, duly seconded, the April 04 meeting minutes were approved as written, which include the notes from March 07 by unanimous vote. 3.Public comments from the floor: a.Pathways Run/Walk volunteers needed (from agenda item 6.b.): Bill Lattin KK6PCA asked for two more volunteers to which Jim H and Andy Fawcett KI6MAF volunteered. ECC participants also include Ed Jones W7WPO, Andy Kirk WB6CLs, Neil Katin K2LL, and Ben Hu KK6HH. LAHECCMinutes170502-FINAL.doc 2 b.Monday-night nets: Neil Katin noted that he was about to publish a updated NCO assignment sheet for the LAH city net and suggested he would send out the next revision to include the CERT Recon (ham) list, hoping for greater participation in the next update. 4.Reports: a.Final Review, ECC Responsibilities: David Gilmour WQ1K reviewed the draft of ECC responsibilities/charges creating a final draft from comments from the floor referring to “Develop and train according to Town requirements….” in bullet #5. Upon a motion by David, duly seconded, it was unanimously resolved that the co- chairs should submit the final draft of ECC responsibilities/charges to the City Council for their consideration at the next opportunity. b.LAH City Council Report: Gary Waldeck K6AIR was absent. No report. c.Emergency Coordinator Report: Ed Jones encouraged interested parties to participate in the County drill on May 20. There will be a meeting of CERT Recon and ECC members to discuss suggested emergency communication training classes for various levels of field and NCO functions on May 04 in the EOC at 1300 hours. It was also noted that a CERT search and rescue drill would be held immediately after the Pathways Run/Walk on May 06. d.ARK antenna: No update but the ARK appears to be at least accessible at the moment with the movement of construction equipment. Comments were made that the proposed location of the antenna on the new admin building is less than ideal from that requested (shadowing from Black Mountain antennas), apparently due to the feelings of the architect. The question of whether natural gas would be provided for the ARK emergency generator could not be addressed. ¨Dru said she could check with Gary Waldeck concerning any natural gas provisions. e.Member/associate sub-team activities: See 5.c. below. No other reports. f.Suggestions for outreach for new members: David Gilmore noted that the Monday- night nets do not appear to offer much interest or to be particularly inviting. He suggested that check-ins be shortened followed by exercises to provide training. Asking selected parties to leave the net, check other connections and report back to the net was one example mentioned. It appeared that the consensus was that the informal chitchat of the current local net could use some change/enhancements. g.Status of HF antenna placement: It appeared that members preferred to play out the placement of the antenna on the PHWD water tank before expending effort on seeing if the Westwind Barn offers the same pathology as the EOC (noisy solar cell inverters). ¨ David Gilmore will follow up with Jim Abraham K6EB to see if any progress is being made with PHWD. More at the June meeting. 5.Old Business: a.Approval of laptop purchase for ARK: Upon a motion by Dru, duly seconded, it was unanimously approved that a laptop be requested of the Town IT department to support packet operations at the ARK including the following characteristics: 15" 1080p screen, Intel i5 (mid-range CPU), 8 GB RAM, and 256 GB SSD. The price should be $700 - $800. LAHECCMinutes170502-FINAL.doc 3 b.Future fast-packet (56Kb) support: At the April meeting, the members unanimously approved that the ECC request a budget of $1,500 for the purchase of 3 each fast- packet TNCs – one each at the EOC and ARK plus one as a spare. Upon a motion from Dru, duly seconded, it was unanimously resolved that the issue should be pursued as soon as SCC-ARES-RACES has tested their implementation. Status of the radio availability can be checked at: http://nwdigitalradio.com/category/udrx-440/ c.Battery plan for current stock of Icom W32 HTs: ¨ Duncan KI6VMY indicated that he would be assembling our current stock of lithium AA batteries into battery holders, to be stored in appropriate W32 HT equipment boxes, ready for distribution in times of emergency. The applicable quick-reference guide from the QRG will also be inserted in the boxes. d.QRG: ¨ Dru will note the URL for the QRG at the bottom of future agendas for easier reference (under “Reminders”): https://goo.gl/h93sye. 6.New Business: a.Security access (generator, EOC, radio room inventory storage): A combination lock box is being purchased for the radio room to house the keys for the ECC equipment closets. A City Council chambers key found in an unsecured location in the EOC has been returned to inventory by Deborah Padovan. The lock for the generator enclosure has been changed but there is still no access/work-around to the transfer switch room in City Chambers if the generator fails to start. b.Town Picnic, June 04: Neil noted that the CERT organization (LAHCFD) does not intend to be bringing their trailer to the picnic, which begs the issue of where the ECC will secure its table for its usual display. It was the consensus of the attendees that the value of presenting the ECC at the picnic did not justify the effort. Therefore, the ECC will not have a presence at the picnic either. The following members will not be attending the picnic this year; Ed Jones, Andy K, Duncan, Jim H, and David. 7.Tech Talk: David Gilmore provided an impressive demonstration of his new DMR (Digital Mobile Radio), which appears to be gaining considerable popularity in user groups compared to that resulting from manufacturer-driven digital radio schemes such as D-Star from iCom. 8.Adjourn: There being no further business; the meeting was adjourned at 2035 hours. Respectfully submitted: Duncan MacMillan KI6VMY, secretary