The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutMarch 2LAHECC-20210302-FINALMinutes_KK6HH-Secretary.docx 1 Emergency Communications Committee Minutes Tuesday, March 2, 2021, 7:00 pm to 8:55 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 E Bob Anderson KC6ZWG P Ben H. L. Hu, Secretary KK6HH P Edwin R Jones W7WPO P Terry Kearney KM6LTQ E Andrew Kirk WB6CLS P Scott Overstreet N6NXI P Jay Sutaria KN6JAY P Sam Wood K6MSR P Council/Staff Stanley Mok, LAH City Council Council Liaison P Associate Members Neil Katin K2LL P Peter Evans AI6MV P Larry Carr KE6AGJ P Kjell Karlsson KD6BPP P Duncan MacMillan KI6VMY P Craig Miller WA6OXK P Guests: Denise Gluhan, LAHCFD KM6IFY P Victoria Bebee, LAHCFD KN6HOU P J Logan, LAHCFD, General Manager P 1.The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by co-chair Dru Anderson KG6LAD. Followed by a rollcall of members with a quorum of 6 members present, then the other two members joined in to make 8 members at 7:05 pm. a.Roll Call: Attendance:18 including 8 members, LAH Council member and Liaison Stan Mok and 6 associates, and 3 guests. KD8BPP Kjell attended the meeting at 8:45 pm. b.Dru introduced our new Council Liaison, Stan Mok to the ECC. Stan gave a summary of his past life and working experience and expressed his eagerness to help the Committee to be successful in building better LAH emergency communications. c.Minutes of Feb. 2, 2021, prepared by W7WPO Ed Jones: Approved on a motion by Scott N6NXI with note of a typo pointed out by Jay, KN6JAY. Seconded by Jay. There was a unanimous roll call approval of the 6 members present. Ed W7WPO and Andy WB6CLS had audio difficulty at the time of the vote, but subsequently emailed the secretary their concurrence. LAHECC-20210302-FINALMinutes_KK6HH-Secretary.docx 2 2.EC Report: a.Neil K2LL, EC, noted that the Fundamentals of Emergency Communications (Zoom) course offered by County ARES®/RACES would be on 3/27 and the training exercise “Message Passing Practice”, on 3/16 (Tuesday night). Peter AI6MV inquired about the C4 credential at the County level, and Neil answered that C4 is equivalent to the former trainee status of Mutual Aid Communicator (MAC), the most basic credential, and could be obtained after taking two basic courses and equipped with a go-kit. b.Emergency Responses Guidebooks availability status; County DSW participant status. Jay KN6JAY asked whether the frequency list in the QRG could be simplified. Other members offered their input. Dru concluded by asking Jay and Neil to work on the issue together and report back at a later meeting. 3.Repeater Report: Equipment status by Scott Overstreet N6NXI Scott stated that LAH repeater W6LAH and its backup are all in good working order. SPECS repeaters are all functional at the site of El Camino Hospital, but the 2 m repeater was relocated at an undisclosed site in LAH. When Peter AI6MV asked about the backup power for these repeaters, Scott replied that the LAH repeater and its backup used Diesel powered-generators that could last a couple of days without refueling and then a battery backup for a week. The battery backup was not tested to such a duration. The 2 m SPECS repeater relocated to LAH has a huge battery backup and the ones at the Hospital are backuped by the emergency power backup system of the Hospital. Dru asked about the power backup of EOC, Scott answered that it was supposed to be backed by the LAH emergency generator but had not been tested for quite a while. Stan, LAH Council member, and ECC Liaison mentioned there was a substantial funding request to the Council for an upgraded emergency generator and he would make certain that Heritage house backup requirement is reflected in the proposal. 4.Tech Talk/Community Service opportunity. a.Guest presentation: Denise Gluhan KM6IFY gave a concise and clear discussion of the FireWise program. Her slides are attached in the Minutes. Three salient points were made: 1.In view of recent California wildfires, it is important to reduce wildfire risk for the residence within LAHCFD. While individual improvement efforts by homeowners are helpful, the wildfire risk is really a neighborhood affair as fire embers do not observe the boundaries of an individual property. 2.Therefore, it is important to have a community organized within a neighborhood to plan and take action to reduce wildfire risk. LAHCFD is prepared to help with such a multi-year endeavor to make the neighborhood be recognized as a national “FireWise Community.” Such recognition could help gain a favorable fire insurance premium in addition to the reduction of wildfire risks. 3.One of the critical elements of such a plan is to meet the minimum wildfire risk investment annually. The bi-annual Branch Chipping Program offered by LAHCFD is more than enough to meet the obligation. Anyone who is interested in organizing such a community could contact Denise KM6IFY at dgluhan@lahcfd.org. 5.Public Comments from the floor a.LAH CERT: Focus for 2021by Victoria KN6HOU - Events and Activities (a Slide in the presentation is enclosed) b.Planning and coordination of events with ECC. Discussion of objectives and planning for a Zoom/Radio drill on the emergency ham communication protocol by Victoria/Dru and the group. Peter AI6MV inquired whether there were drills at EOC independent of CERT ones. Neil answered that prior to Covid-19, there were twice per year but always together with CERT as the numbers of volunteers not only overlapped but also too few LAHECC-20210302-FINALMinutes_KK6HH-Secretary.docx 3 participants to have a separate drill. After some discussion, Dru proposed to have a separate discussion group by Neil and others on the subject. c.J Logan, GM LAHCFD, asked whatever happened to the proposal to have an antenna mounted on the peripheral of the La Cresta water tower to facilitate wideband communications between the EOC and the County. Neil K2LL replied that the short answer was that the discussion of the antenna installation between Town staff and the Water district was stalled due to other matters between the two parties. Peter AI6MV, also a PHWD board member, opined that there might have been a miscommunication and he asked that the antenna installation proposal be re-submitted to the water district. Neil replied that he would do so in consideration of the current schedule of the original project leader, David WQ1K. Stan Mok, our Town Council Liaison, offered to help and asked for clarification of the issue. Neil and Peter were asked by Dru and both agreed gladly to brief Stan separately. Scott N6NXI also brought up an earlier proposal for an HF antenna to be placed on the site. 6.Old Business a.Inventory: Jay Sutaria KM6JAY: Jay commented that he was pursuing addition of a serial # of a mobile radio unit located at the PHWD office, for emergency use. That detail will finish the inventory update. Peter AI6MV volunteered to follow up at the PHWD office, to get Jay what he needs. b. Reminder: Please send your favorite recipes of Ham Bakes to Dru KG6LAD. She explained she is assembling a “Ham Bake” recipe collection. 7.Continuing efforts: ECC Goals for 2021. Dru KG6LAD, Eduardo KM6LSX a.Goal #1: Suggestions & volunteers for membership recruitment outreach. b.Goal #2: Work with Town Emergency Management and LAHCFD CERT technical services on the coordination of processes and training/activities for emergency response, particularly unique to the Covid-19 restrictions. 8.Health and welfare check-in. Dru asked in turn the well-being of all 16 participants with either video or voice connection. All responded to be doing well and some reported they had completed or were just about to complete the 2-shot Covid vaccine sequence. 9.Adjourn. At 20:54, Bob KC6ZWG moved to adjourn, seconds by Scott N6NXI and Sam K6MSR, and all members present with activated voice connection agreed to the motion vocally. 10.Reminders: See online schedules for activities in the following: LAH town events: http://www.losaltoshills.ca.gov/calendar.aspx. EMERGENCY ALERTS: LAH: http://www.losaltoshills.ca.gov/101/Emergency AlertSCC: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/alertscc/Pages/home.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 SPECS Monday Night Net information: www.Specsnet.org Northern SCC ham activities/Monday night net script. Respectfully submitted: Ben Hu KK6HH, ECC Secretary Slide Presentation Attachments Follow: a.Denise KM6IFY’s presentation on FireWise Community b.Victoria KN6HOU’s slide summary on the presentation on the CERT program activities. LAHECC-20210302-FINALMinutes_KK6HH-Secretary.docx 4 FireWise Slide presentation: Denise Gluhan KM6IFY, LAHCFD Emergency Services Mgr. LAHECC-20210302-FINALMinutes_KK6HH-Secretary.docx 5 LAHECC-20210302-FINALMinutes_KK6HH-Secretary.docx 6 Upcoming: From Victoria Bebee KN6HOU, CERT Program General Analyst (hot link for above): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvDMiBSeIBfyjKyZp_koZtg