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Friday, May 10, 2002
Simi Valley Emergency Preparedness Expo 2002 [Source: Ventura County Star; Photos by Tracy Justus]  Preparedness will be paramount when the city of Simi Valley and county of Ventura emergency response crews and the equipment they use are put on display at Saturday’s eighth annual Simi Valley Emergency Preparedness Expo. The event, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. is being held in conjunction with the Simi Valley Street Fair and Taste of Simi events on Tapo Street, north of Eileen Street. The attractions will include demonstrations, public safety exhibits, vendors and an array of units and equipment from local, county, state and federal agencies, said Brice Wilson, Simi Valley’s Emergency Services coordinator. “This will be technically informative for adults and it’s just very awe-inspiring for anyone that wants to look at spectacle, military stuff, etc. We wanted to make it something people would want to respond to,” Wilson said. “The primary purpose of doing it, though, is for public education.” About 100 local volunteers are involved in making the event happen, Wilson said. About 11 a.m., four skydivers will formally begin the expo by descending with an American flag during the playing of the National Anthem. Helicopters from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and Mercy Air Service will then circle the event and land for close-up viewing. One event will include a team of canines and handlers from the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, demonstrating their ability to locate a victim trapped in a car beneath a pile of debris. The simulated disaster scene is being created by Dave’s Towing, G.I. Rubbish and Home Depot. Ventura County fire personnel will use emergency equipment to remove the victim, who will then be treated by paramedics and loaded on a Mercy Air Service medical helicopter and flown to Simi Valley Hospital. Admission to the Emergency Preparedness Expo is free. Thursday, May 09, 2002
211 Pursuit [Source: Freq Of Nature]  HEAR THE PURSUIT FROM START TO FINISHAt about 10:30 pm on Wednesday evening a robbery occurred at Leo's Liquor in Simi Valley. The suspect, wearing a blue jacket with a green hat, took the cash from the cash register at gun point then left in a dark colored green or black BMW. Simi Valley Police units quickly set up around town to watch the roads and freeways leaving Simi Valley and the EVSO (East Valley Sheriff's Office), located on a road that leaves the valley, was notified. Prior to the robbery call there was an attempted rape called into police with the suspect being chased off by passerby's near the Creekside Apartments. Many of the Simi Valley Police units were set up on a perimeter waiting for a K-9 unit to arrive (K-9 units are on call 24 hours a day and this K-9 unit was responding from his home). Some units were cleared from the perimeter to respond to the robbery call. About thirty minutes after the robbery occurred Simi Valley Police Unit Paul-15 started to follow a vehicle matching the description of the robbery suspects vehicle into the San Fernando Valley. When Paul-15 had enough units to back him up he "lite 'em up", a police term for pulling a vehicle over with the red and blue lights on a police car, and the vehicle failed to yield. LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) arrived in the pursuit with their helicopter Air-11 and other ground units. The suspect stopped briefly to let a passenger and a seven year old child out of the vehicle, which he allegedly carjacked from the two. A short while later the suspect jumped out of the car, while shooting at police, and entered a house. An LAPD SWAT team happened to be in the area on a non-related assignment and diverted to put a quick end to the stand-off. The suspect was taken out of the house, limping from a gun shot wound to the buttocks.
Metrolink vs. Vehicle [Source: Freq Of Nature]  More photos... A vehicle, driven by an 82 year old Simi Valley man, was struck by a west bound Metrolink train just after 5:00 pm on Wednesday. A second vehicle was struck by the first vehicle as it was ricocheted from the tracks. The 82 year driver of the first vehicle, who was in full arrest when paramedics arrived, was transported code-3 ALS (Advanced Life Support) by AMR (American Medical Response) ambulance to Simi Valley Hospital where he was pronounced dead. The driver of the second vehicle was also transported to Simi Valley Hospital by AMR for minor injuries and was released later that night. There were conflicting reports about the position of the crossing guard at the time of the accident. The incident (Sycamore Incident) attracted a large crowd and grew even larger as news helicopters started arriving on the scene. Traffic and crowd control appeared to be a nightmare as the occasional confused driver drove passed the traffic cones into the scene and on lookers walked between emergency vehicles and past caution tape. Tuesday, May 07, 2002
Line of Sight [Source: BayScan] Q: Is it true what is said about line of sight and what you can pull in from antenna?  Gary Sellani You will find some hams talk about the knife edge effect in diffracting radio waves, but I always suspect they were inhaling. Note that a good rule of thumb for the radio horizon is distance in miles = 1.4*sqrt(antenna height in feet). [Technically, you need to do this for the transmitter and receiver, then sum the distances, but the transmitter height usually dominates the calculation.] Generally the transmitters that you are trying to receive are very high, so you don't have to put the antenna any higher than is needed to have an unobstructed path to the source. Here is a good source on the radio horizon calculation: Understanding the radar horizon There is a calculator on this page: Horizon calculator - radar / visual Harry Marnell "Line of sight" is generally true except for shortwave frequencies, which are usually defined as below 30 Mhz. Those frequencies more readily bounce off the ionosphere and the earth, causing them to travel great distances, skipping along, hence the word "skip." When atmospheric conditions, sunspots and the like are just right, higher frequencies will skip great distances as well. It's not all that unusual for frequencies up in the 30 & 40 MHz range to skip hundreds or, more likely, thousands of miles; when that happens you're able to hear traffic from the east coast come booming in here in California, and the best places to look are the 33 MHz fire freqs, and 37, 39 & 42 Mhz police freqs. But back to line of sight. It's a pretty flexible kind of thing, not "exactly" line of sight at all. It's generally applied to frequencies above 30 Mhz, but radio waves also will bend, bounce off mountains, buildings, etc. "Line of sight" for radio waves is more of a general concept than than an immutable law of physics. Lots of variables are going to play with your reception; location, antenna type, location, coax, location, frequencies, location, receiver sensitivity & selectivity, location, atmospheric conditions, location, etc. It's impossible to accurately predict what you'll pick up from where, the only sure method is trial and error. Sometimes simply moving an antenna a few inches or a foot or two will make a world of difference is picking up certain transmitters. ya just gotta play with it. Sunday, May 05, 2002
Suspect named in killing of L.A. County sheriff's deputy [Source: AP-Wire]   MONTEREY PARK – A 25-year-old man was identified Wednesday as the alleged killer of a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy, and authorities said he had threatened to "execute" any police officer who stopped him. Armando Garcia, who goes by the names Daniel Garcia and "Chato," was being sought for investigation of shooting Deputy David March during a traffic stop Monday in Irwindale, 25 miles east of Los Angeles. The Sheriff's Department described Garcia as 5 feet 6 inches tall and 230 pounds with short black hair combed straight back, dark complexion, a mustache and a tattoo on his back or shoulder that says "Garcia." "There's indication that he was a significant (drug) dealer" and may be an illegal immigrant, Sgt. Rick Myers said. Garcia had a previous arrest in El Monte for an alleged weapons violation and was suspected of involvement in two attempted murders in Baldwin Park that took place in November and February, sheriff's representatives said. No details were released. "He reportedly was an individual who carried a 9 mm (gun) along with himself everywhere he went. He said if he's ever pulled over that he would in effect execute the cop," Sheriff Lee Baca told a headquarters press conference. "He's a cold-blooded murderer who has literally done something that has impacted the lives of not only of an individual deputy sheriff who was a good, kind, decent man but he has also affected the entire morale of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department," Baca said. "We're not going to rest until we find this individual." Authorities were looking for a 1989 black, four-door Nissan Maxima with the license number 4BCZ512. March, 33, stopped the car at midmorning. The driver got out, met the deputy near the back of the car and shot him several times before fleeing, Deputy Steve Jauch said. The reason March stopped the car may never be known, Myers said. March, a Santa Clarita resident, was with the Sheriff's Department for seven years and was assigned to the Temple City station. Family members ask that in lieu of flowers to please make a donation to: Children of the Night 14530 Sylvan St. Van Nuys, CA 91411 800/551-1300 www.childrenofthenight.org |