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Home My WebLink AboutSeptember 4LAHECC_Minutes_20180904_FINAL.docx 1 Emergency Communications Committee Minutes Tuesday, September 4, 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 P 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 Larry Carr KE6AGJ P Neil Katin – EC K2LL P Andy Fawcett KI6MAF P Craig Miller WA6OXK P Duncan MacMillan KI6VMY P Bill Gibbons K6GH P CERT/Guests Mauri Okamoto-Kearney KM6LXC P Marsh Hovey KG6CYV P Kavita Tankha P 1.Roll Call: Eduardo KM6LSX started the meeting @1900 hours. Secretary Ben KK6HH took the roll call: Attendance: (19), 9 members, Council Liaison Gary K6AIR, 6 Associates, and 3 CERT/Guests. a.Dru KG6LAD introduced Kavita Tankha, candidate for LAH town council. Kavita formerly served on the LAH Planning Commission. Kavita expressed her interests in learning more about the Town’s Standing Committees, ECC included. Scott N6NXI explained to her the founding and the mission of ECC, and, in addition, clarified the meaning of the FCC-issued Call signs. Attendees briefly introduced themselves by call sign and committee function. 2.Minutes approved: Scott suggested corrections to the draft of the August meeting minutes; minutes were moved, seconded, and approved unanimously Dru will make the corrections and then submit to the Town Clerk. LAHECC_Minutes_20180904_FINAL.docx 2 3.Public comments from the floor: Larry KE6AGJ reported on lessons learned from the August 18 Joint Cert/ECC drill. One of the goals achieved was to demonstrate that the Recon team could report the status of town’s critical infrastructures directly to EOC without waiting for the CERT’s report. He also noted that after some time, he realized he had difficulty reaching the Recon teams. This was due to an issue with the W6LAH repeater that has been identified and is in process of being repaired. In the meantime, W6LAH is back on and fully functional by using backup equipment. Larry stated that he would establish a protocol for Recon in the event of any and similar failure with repeater access. 4. ECC Activities and related a.Member/Liaison Gary K6AIR. Noted he had no report. b.Neil K2LL, EC i.Asked for volunteers for Oct. 27 County Drill and he would shortly send out the notification. ii.Alerted members to join 9/22 CERT Drill, esp. to re-open and re-activate ARK trailer as it has stood dormant for a long time due to construction at the Foothill college. iii.Asked whether two Yaesu DR1X needed to be upgraded to DR2X as the costs to upgrade are modest. The new DR2X is much improved, as pointed out by Sam K6MSR who had done the upgrade for his own DR1X. However, the usage of an upgraded DR2X needs to be discussed in the next Oct. ECC meeting and Neil will take the lead. c.Update on AREDN: David WQ1K. Deferred. 4.New Businesses a.Status of the inventory – Mauri KM6LXC reported she has several meetings with Duncan KI6VMY, who formerly managed the inventory, to become familiar with the tracking process. She listed two items to be clarified: i.Location of an iCom 2721: Scott reported that the unit is under repair. ii.Items listed as needed for Alternative EOC, but not purchased. Neil K2LL answered that these items have not been purchased because at this time, we don’t have an identified storage area for them. Marsha Hovey mentioned the possibility of purchasing a communications trailer and shared details of Palo Alto’s process for getting a communication trailer for their maintenance department. Discussion then turned to other items needed for the Alternative EOC, proposed but was not procured. Councilman Gary K6AIR pointed out that all large budget items should be bundled in some logic entities, then requests for funding of these entities needs to be submitted no later than April 30 of each year, in time for the town’s budget planning for the next fiscal year. Budget planning, he said, begins then, in May and is finalized in June. Other items that were discussed: Orange Vests /Lime Helmets for ECC members no longer conform to standard. The Vest should now be in the color of lime Green class 2. Additional headsets, foot-switches are needed in the EOC for scribes and operators. Scott N6NXI requested that Neil provide a detailed list for these LAHECC_Minutes_20180904_FINAL.docx 3 items so that ECC could approve them. These were identified as a more immediate need. Other, more extensive equipment needs should be put in a plan in early spring to take to Council for budget consideration. Upgrade for 2 DR-1X repeaters in inventory: Neil pointed out that the Yaesu upgrade offer is only good until Dec. 31st; he said it would be $300 to upgrade to a DR-2X and $500 to a DR-2X w/LAN Unit. 6. Tech Talk: Marsha Hovey passed a handout and gave a comprehensive discussion on the draft that she has been working on that covers: o Roles and Responsibilities o EOC communications o DSW Activation o Alternative EOC example: Palo Alto’s approach. o NOTE: A copy of the summary EOP key points that Marsha handed out accompanies these minutes. Dru showed the Town’s memo on the rules regarding the governance of the standing committees. She suggested a sub-committee develop a plan to track the Ham activities in order to document the communication proficiency and readiness of the town’s Ham operators, including those at ECC and CERT ham team Neil concurred that the tracking is to inventory expertise and proficiency Marsha suggested tracking annually the total volunteer hours in training, drills, and other exercises. 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: http://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. At 20:52, Bob KC6ZWG moved to adjourn, and Eduardo KM6LSX seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned after a unanimous voice vote. Respectfully submitted: Ben Hu KK6HH, Secretary