HomeMy WebLinkAboutDecember 1LAHECC_20201201_FINAL-Minutes.docx 1
Emergency Communications Committee Minutes
Tuesday, December 1, 7:00 to 8:30 pm
The meeting was held via ZOOM Online Video Conference
Members Call Sign Attendance
Dru Anderson, Co-Chair KG6LAD P
Eduardo Arias, Co-Chair KM6LSX P
Bob Anderson KC6ZWG P
Ben H. L. Hu, Secretary KK6HH P
Edwin R Jones W7WPO P
Terry Kearney KM6LTQ P
Andrew Kirk WB6CLS P
Scott Overstreet N6NXI P
Jay Sutaria KN6JAY E
Sam Wood K6MSR E
Council/Staff
Kavita Tankha, Vice Mayor Council
Liaison P
Associate Members
Dave Stewart KJ6JQT P
Peter Evans AI6MV P
Larry Carr KE6AGJ P
Duncan MacMillan KI6VMY P
Robert Johnson KG6UWZ P
Kjell Karlsson KD6BPP P
Neil Katin K2LL P
Guests:
Harry Guy, Los Altos Ham N6GUY P
Victoria Bebee KN6HOU P
Denise Gluhan, LAHCFD KM6IFY P
J Logan, GM LAHCFD P
1.At 19:00 hours, Dru KG6LAD, Co-Chair, called the online Video meeting to order.
a.Roll Call: Ben did the roll call: Attendance: 19 including 8 members, 7 associates,
Council Liaison, and 3 guests. Andy WB6CLS had difficulty with audio but he could
listen, and he had phoned Dru to voice his votes.
b.Minutes of October 6, 2020, approved: Scott N6NXI moved to approve the minutes and
Eduardo KM6LSX seconded. The minutes were approved unanimously by a roll call
vote by all 8 members present.
2.Council Liaison: Kavita Tankha, vice mayor: Kavita reported that nothing new on the
Council other than continuing work with LAHCFD to implement and improve on the
feedback from the last County Board of Supervisors meeting. She noted there were more
than 120 LAH citizens who spoke during the Supervisor meeting in support of LAHCFD,
LAHECC_20201201_FINAL-Minutes.docx 2
and she noted that it would be an excellent list to recruit some of them for CERT or ECC.
Dru responded that the recruiting work is being worked on with Eduardo KM6LSX and
welcomed the suggestion.
In responding to Dru’s query about the Council deliberation on the term limits of associate
members for the Standing Committees, Kavita replied that there were no votes taken place
in the Council due to lack of support for the proposal. She herself did not support the term
limits proposal because there was no need. For most committees, she said, all qualified
volunteers could join.
3.EC Report Update and Activities: Neil K2LL expressed his thanks to those who volunteered
at Los Altos FOLP. He also asked for volunteers to staff 4 NCO’s for the coming January
SPECS UHF/Main nets. Peter AI6MV & Ed W7WPO both did so. Dru might also do so in
late January and would confirm later. Neil asked anyone else to send an email or call him
for the task.
4.Public Comments from the floor:
a.Guest Presentation: Harry Guy N6GUY responsible for HAM operation at 11/29 FOLP,
told us:
1.There was one ham net for Shadows; there were no Checkpoints or Rovers
because of the small size of the event.
2.Typically, it was a challenging communication environment for Ham as there were
noises and loud music playing. This was particularly demanding for the 3 Hams
handling shadowing tasks because some principles moved rapidly in the crowds
and the shadowing ham had to not only deal with the noisy communication channels
but also try to stay close to the principles.
3.Because of Covid-19, FOLP this year had floats stationary while letting the
audiences drive by in their personal vehicles.
4.The NCO, Art WA3AW, did stay at home to do the job remotely.
5.CERT’s from both LA and LAH served to direct auto traffic.
6.The FOLP lasted from 5:30 to 7:30 pm and there were about 400 vehicles, and the
last car passed by on time.
7.Harry showed some nice pictures of the FOLP “non-parade” moments.
8.He thought that CERT did an excellent job in directing traffic and worked well with
the Los Altos Police.
b.LAH CERT team results on FOLP traffic control: Dave KJ6JQT reported:
1.There were 9 sign-ups but only 6 were able to show up due to COVID-19 concerns
and other reasons.
2.He admonished all CERT members to be flexible as there were so many unknown
and unforeseen events.
3.Dave stated little preparation was done but others pointed out that he had a multi-
page write-up for the task. Both Neil K2LL and Victoria KN6HOU chimed in to praise
David for a job well done.
4.All cars behaved nicely without incidents.
5.Peter AI6MV, who was on duty admitting the cars into the float areas, stated that the
last car was supposed to be admitted by 7 pm with a sign stated as such, but he still
admitted a few cars following as he did not want to disappoint the children in those
cars, which people commended.
c.FOLP participation comments: J Logan of LAHCFD enthusiastically praised the
teamwork of CERT/ECC of Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, and the Los Alto Police
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department in helping make FOLP a successful event. She emphasized that such
collaboration across different jurisdictions is essential for future work as fire and other
disasters do not recognize political boundaries.
5.New Business: Special Summary: Nov 18 Virtual “first hour of operation” drill:
a.Results of on-line virtual drill via Zoom and LAH repeater net. Larry KE6AGJ reported
that
i)There were 12 participants, 9 on Ham radio through LAH repeater and 3 texting to
Dave KJ6JQT while watching/listening on the Zoom.
ii)Larry felt the same operation procedure could be scaled up to 60 or more
participants.
iii)In 10 minutes, he got the Mike-Mike reports from all 12 participants.
iv)He would like to encourage more Ham to practice as NCO and would do more
training for that.
v)Dave opined on an issue while receiving the text messages in the drill:
(1)There were no problems with the Mike-Mike report at the initial phase.
(2)When Larry asked for skill/experience levels from the participants with 4
questions in tandem, such as operation experience in ARK, EOC, and others.
(3)When he got a responding text message such as yes, yes, no, yes to Larry’s 4
questions, he had difficulties to match the answer to any of the 4 questions as
there were no pre-arranged documents/agreement to these impromptu
questions in sequence.
b)Larry mentioned that in real emergency situations, he felt he would need to ask some
unforeseen/un-documented questions to the participants.
6.Documentation for “The first hour….” and suggestions: Neil, K2LL, EC.
A lot of discussions ensued, including general praise of the document, and Neil’s and
others’ efforts in its development. The gist of the discussions and specific aspects were
as follows:
-The document could be simplified. The counter-argument was it had been revised
and simplified many times. There were no specific suggestions as to what
simplification could be done. There was a comment that although it can be loaded
on one’s mobile or laptop for field reference, it might be helpful to have a “quick”
physical card.
-In an emergency, one must be flexible and does not have the time/means to consult
any documents. The counter-argument is that the document is for training and
reference purposes. Once mastered, it only needs to be consulted in some specific
circumstances.
-Whether the document is for CERT or ECC? The counter is for both.
The clarification need is whether there are any differences between CERT and ECC
response expectations? Does there need to be an update or alignment of the ECC
QRG, or does it cover/supersede that material?
-In an emergency, does one go to ARK/EOC or turn on the radio to the LAH
repeater? It was noted that the current Pandemic can pose restrictions in response.
7.Public Comments from the floor:
a.LAHCFD Emergency Service Management: Updates on LAFCFD event/activities:
Victoria KN6HOU, showed the future CERT training/Zoom meetings in slides, the
details of which were sent to us via email.
8.Old Business:
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a.Status on inventory, final. Jay KM6JAY, who is completing the inventory, was excused.
Dru KG6LAD reported that she would soon get the Serial # from the mobile radio that
was lent to Purissima Hills Water district (for emergency response and drill
participation), to complete the inventory list that Jay has been working on. It was not
clear whether there will be a ham operator to use the radio there after the District
Secretary, a ham operator, retires. Dru noted that there is interest in maintaining the
radio position at PHWD, and she will find out more information.
b.Ham Bake activity - Pandemic alternative: Dru KG6LAD reported she had been
collecting recipes from contributors to past Ham bake events, and she asks that past
contributors please email her their recipes, or ones they would have brought if there had
been a traditional event this year.
9.ECC Development Report: on-going.
a.Goal#1: Develop an outstretched letter to registered LAH area Hams: Dru reported that
Eduardo KM6LSX had offered to help.
b.Goal#2: Coordinate the training and participation activities with the Town’s Emergency
Management team. Dru noted that she would work with Marsha KG6CYV for any
updates.
10.Group health and welfare go-around share - All were well.
11.Registration reminder: Register by Dec. 9 for the SCC EMA Volunteer of the Year Awards
“Zoom meeting” on Dec. 10 to honor Terry KM6LTQ and Mauri KM6LXC.
12.Adjourn: At 22:02, the meeting ended with thanks extended to the participants.
13.Reminders: See online schedules for activities in the following:
●LAH town events: http://www.losaltoshills.ca.gov/calendar.aspx.
●CERT activities: LAH County Fire District:
http://www.lahcfd.org/community-programs/public-classes
●County ARES/RACES courses & events:
http://www.scc-ares-races.org/aresraces.htm
●EMERGENCY ALERTS: LAH:
http://www.losaltoshills.ca.gov/101/Emergency
●AlertSCC:
https://www.sccgov.org/sites/alertscc/Pages/home.aspx
●SPECS Monday Night Net information:
www.Specsnet.org Northern SCC ham activities.
Respectfully submitted: Ben Hu KK6HH, Secretary