HomeMy WebLinkAboutMarch 5LAHECC_Draft-Minutes_20190305_Secretary.docx 1
Emergency Communications Committee Minutes
Tuesday, March 5, 2019, 7:00 to 9:00 pm
LAH 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
Kavita Tankha,Council Liaison P
Associate Members
Larry Carr KE6AGJ P
Kjell Karlsson KD6BPP P
Peter Evans AI6VM P
Neil Katin, EC K2LL P
Greg Olsen K6XM P
Dave Stewart KJ6JQT P
Bill Lattin KK6PCA E
CERT/Guests
Jay Sutaria jsutaria@gmail.com P
Robert Johnson KG6UWZ P
1.Roll Call: At 1903 hours, Dru KG6LAD called the meeting to order. Ben KK6HH
took the roll call: Attendance: 18 including 9 members, 1 Council Liaison, 6
associates and 2 guests. Since there were two guests in attendance, an
introduction around the table was made to make guests feel at home.
2.Minutes approved: Scott N6NXI moved to approve the February 2019 minutes and
Eduardo KM6LSX seconded the motion. The motion to approve the minutes was
passed with a unanimous voice vote.
3.Council Liaison Kavita Tankha reported she had reached an understanding with the
Town’s Council to her role as a liaison to the ECC:
a.To attend the regularly scheduled ECC meetings.
b.To assist in the ECC’s objectives to advise and support the Town Council.
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c.To advise that the activities of standing committees, such as ECC, does not
overburden Town’s Staff.
d.To take the input/advice from the ECC to the Town’s Council.
e.To freely express her own opinions/advices on the ECC’s activities, actions
and inputs to the Town Council, in order to be consistent with her duty and
voting prerogative on the Town Council.
4.Public comments from the floor:
a.Larry KE6AGJ stated he has formally retired from RECON Ham training
activities. He will continue as a CERT Recon mentor and an ECC associate
member. He brought in 10-12 Ham books as the proposed onset of a “LAH
ham operator Lending Library” for the new and experienced operators. The
books were placed in the Radio Room for access. The group thanked Larry,
and co-chair Dru KG6LAD said she will ensure that a check-out/inventory
process will be developed for establishment of the mini-library. Larry said he
will bring additional books as he goes through his collection, which has been
accumulated over many decades.
b.Dru made a short interim report of the working group to establish synergy
objectives. The group at present consists of Dru KG6LAD, Eduardo
KM6LSX, Scott N6NXI, Neil K2LL, Larry KE6AGJ, and Dave KJ6JQT. The
first suggestion to be implemented from the group’s discussion was to re-
arrange the item sequence of the monthly ECC meeting and, after initial roll,
minutes, and Liaison info, start with a Tech-talk, to be followed with the ECC
committee checkpoint items.
5.Tech Talks
a.Eduardo KM6LSX, co-chair, started the Tech Session by relating his
experience in setting up and using his ham radio/antenna to reach the
W6LAH repeater. Terry KM6LTQ chimed in with his own experience of
getting on the air after overcoming the poor location of his station, thanks to
lots of help from Larry KE6AGJ. Greg K6XM talked about the difference of
wave propagation between HF and VHF/UHF. The propagation of latter is
very much along the line-of-sight, with additional complication of attenuation,
reflection, interference and refraction over a knife edge.
b.Scott N6NXI then leveraged off those issues to give an extensive talk about
“Propagation of Radio Waves and Introduction to Repeaters”. It was a wide-
ranging topic and a lot of discussion as well as questions were raised and
answered. The talk lasted more an hour. Detailed notes, taken by Co-chair
Dru KG6LAD on the flip chart are available to the ECC membership.
6.New Business
a.Dru asked for response/comments/feedback from the those attending as to
whether they liked the new format of putting tech-talk first. She received
mostly positive reaction. She commented that the revised sequence is
among the first suggestions resulting from the “working group”. More ideas
would come.
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7.ECC Activities and related:
a.Neil K2LL reported that Saturday, April 13, is the SPECS Ham Flea Market
and he will send out a request for volunteers for staffing help at the Flea
Market event; time slots are available from VERY early gate check-in through
mid-day cleanup. He also asked all present to reserve Saturday, May 18, for
the County drill, and he will provide more details later. Additionally, the
annual LAH Pathway Run is scheduled Saturday, May11, and he will send
out a volunteer request detail memo.
b.Dru KG6LAD reported that Eduardo and she are working on updating the
membership/associate membership list to check for Town and DSW
requirements complete, including attendance requirements for full members.
Members as well as Associates, are required to complete the Live-Scan
screening for the Town’s DSW.
8.Reminders: Please check online schedules for activities in the following:
a.In our back yard: SCC CERT Academy March training session will be at the
LAH Town Hall, beginning March 4 and continuing Mon & Wed nights, 6-9 p.m.
for 3 weeks, Sat, March 23 practice drill 8:30 a.m.- 12:30 p.m.
i.Sign-up at: https://losaltoshillscert2019.eventbrite.com/
b.LAH town events: http://www.losaltoshills.ca.gov/calendar.aspx.
c.County ARES/RACES courses & events: http://www.scc-ares-
races.org/aresraces.htm
d.CERT activities:http://www.lahcfd.org/community-programs/public-classes
e.EMERGENCY ALERTS:
i.LAH: http://www.losaltoshills.ca.gov/381/EMERGENCY-ALERTS
ii.AlertSCC: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/alertscc/Pages/home.aspx
f.ECC QRG (Quick Reference Guide): (Link being updated.)
g.SPECS information: www.Specsnet.org Northern SCC ham activities, links to
ham training,
9.Adjourn: At 21:05, the meeting was adjourned on a motion made by Bob
KC6ZWG, seconded by Ed W7WPO, and approved with no dissent.
Respectfully submitted: Ben Hu KK6HH, Secretary