HomeMy WebLinkAboutOctober 2LAHECC_Minutes_20181002_FINAL.docx 1
Emergency Communications Committee Minutes
Tuesday, October 2, 2018, 7:00 pm
LAH Town Hall Council Chambers: 26379 Fremont Road, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
Members Call Sign Attendance
Dru Anderson, Co-Chair KG6LAD P
Eduardo Arias, Co-Chair KM6LSX P
Bob Anderson KC6ZWG E
Jim Heintzelman KD6Y A
Ben H. L. Hu, Secretary KK6HH P
Edwin R Jones W7WPO P
Terry Kearney KM6LTQ P
Andrew Kirk WB6CLS P
Scott Overstreet N6NXI P
Sam Wood K6MSR P
Council/Staff
Gary Waldeck, Council Liaison K6AIR P
Associate Members
David Gilmour WQ1K P
Neil Katin – EC K2LL P
Greg Olsen K6XM P
CERT/Guests
Mauri Okamoto-Kearney KM6LXC P
1.Roll Call: At 1900 hours, Eduardo KM6LSX called the meeting to order. Ben KK6HH
took a roll call: Attendance (13) 8 members, Council Liaison Gary K6AIR, 3 associates
and 1 CERT/guests. Dru KG6LAD, along with all present, congratulated Neil K2LL
nominated for 2018 Emergency Management Awards (EMA). It was first announced on
September 22 at CERT drill by Marsha Hovey.
2.Minutes approved: Scott N6NXI, and others identified some typos and clarifications in
the September meeting minutes draft. Scott moved to approve the minutes with
corrections; Dru seconded the motion, and it was passed unanimously. Final minutes
will be submitted by Dru to the city clerk for posting on the town website.
3.Public comments from the floor:
a.Comments scheduled for Larry KE6AGJ, deferred because of absence.
4.ECC Activities and related:
a.Council Member Gary K6AIR, Liaison, reported that the City’s negotiation of the
placement of the HF antenna with Purissima Hills Water District went well. Issues
such as cable feed for the antenna and the cabinet space needed for the radio are
resolved. Currently the Water District would like to explore the re-positioning of their
antenna relative to the ECC/LAH antenna to get better signal coverage around the
LAHECC_Minutes_20181002_FINAL.docx 2
Town. To this end, Gary requested two representatives from ECC to work with the
Water District to determine impact, if any, of a repositioning of the ECC/LAH
antenna. Scott N6NXI Neil K2LL volunteered.
b.Neil K2LL, EC:
i.Neil reported that the upgrade costs of two Yaesu DR-1X to -2X to be $1,000
plus shipping and suggested asking the Town for the funding. Scott N6NXI
pointed out that these units would be excellent backups for the W6LAH
repeater. Sam K6MSR cautioned that Yaesu would ask for paperwork to
commit deploying these repeaters within 1 year of upgrade to get these
favorable prices. Scott said he would consult with members of LAH
emergency group, that operates the town’s W6LAH repeater, to develop the
document plan to deploy the upgraded repeater within the time specified.
Dru moved, seconded by Eduardo, to forward the recommendation for
funding to the Town’s City Manager. The motion was approved by all
members present.
ii.Additional headsets, foot-switches in the EOC for scribes and operator for
submittal and purchase: deferred to the next meeting.
iii.Neil reminded the group that on Oct 27, 2018, there will be a joint exercise of
the County ARES/RACES and CERT. He urged anyone interested to sign up
at the county ARES/RACES web site at
http://www.scc-ares-races.org/aresraces.htm
5.Neil stated that he would soon update the SPECS LAH NC duty roster and asked
everyone to inform him of their availability for duty. David WQ1K responded that he
would like to be put back on the list.
a.David WQ1K reported on the AREDN status and plan:
i.While many possible applications for AREDN have been discussed,
including VOIP, a promising first application would be to provide the town
with emergency connectivity to WebEOC in an emergency.
ii.The test of communication between EOC and La Cresta Repeater site was
very successful, attaining ~50 mB/sec data rate using Ubiquiti equipment
and AREDN software.
iii.A test is planned to be performed between the La Cresta Repeater site to
Channing house of the county ARES/RACES.
iv.Further connections to Foothill College and other sites still need to be
worked on.
v.As the first step, David stated he would make a specific proposal for
establishing an AREDN set-up at La Cresta site after discussing with the
LAHEG.
6.New Business:
a.Neil K2LL reported he had completed the necessary administration procedures and
could now initiate purchase “listen only” ham radios for Recon efforts involving non-
ham licensed participants.
7.Tech Talk:
a.Class II Discussion: Larry AE6LGJ. Deferred because of absence.
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b.On-going discussion of development of base level suggested trainings for the town’s
amateur radio oriented DSW volunteers, which includes the ECC members,
associates, as well as CERT ham volunteers.
i.Co-chair Dru Anderson reported she’d asked Marsha Hovey, emergency
planning coordinator, about the town’s DSW baseline suggested
requirements as related to ham volunteer activities. At the October meeting,
Marsha had asked for two inputs: 1) who or whom are her initial town
volunteer contacts in an emergency for communication help; 2) suggestions
for effectively tracking the volunteer hours expended on behalf of the town,
for participation, drill and duties, or actual emergencies. This is for the town’s
logistical purposes. Dru asked for group discussion.
ii.Neil suggested three essential courses offered by the County ARES/RACES
would be very useful for ECC:
Field Operations, Message Passing and Net Control.
He said these courses are given on a regular basis by the County, and to
check the Jan and Feb 2019 county training schedule. They could be offered
at LAH if enough Ham operators (at least 15) are interested.
iii.Mauri KM6LXC volunteered to track the training so we would know who was
trained to do what, and to check historical training log information as well.
Dru asked Terry and Neil to lead the effort to identify relevant training
suggested and to ensure documentation is up to date. This would ensure
that training, the drill participation, and hours spent are all properly
documented.
iv.There was a confusion about whether ICS-100, and/or 200, and/or NIMS
700 are required for DSW. Dru will ask Marsha to clarify and report back to
Terry and Neil so they can incorporation into the training plan to be
discussed at the next meeting.
8.Reminders: Please check online schedules for activities in the following:
a.LAH town events: http://www.losaltoshills.ca.gov/calendar.aspx.
b.2018 County ARES/RACES courses & events:
http://www.scc-ares-races.org/aresraces.htm
c.CERT activities: ttp://www.lahcfd.org/community-programs/public-classes
d.EMERGENCY ALERTS:
i.LAH: http://www.losaltoshills.ca.gov/381/EMERGENCY-ALERTS
ii.AlertSCC: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/alertscc/Pages/home.aspx
e.ECC QRG (Quick Reference Guide): https://goo.gl/h93sye.
f.SPECS organization: 2018 activities, links to ham training, www.specsnet.org
9.Adjourn.
a.At 20:30, Ed W7WPO moved to adjourn; seconded by Eduardo KM6LSX, and
unanimously approved.
Respectfully submitted: Ben Hu KK6HH, Secretary