The May 9th, 2022 monthly HARC meeting was held at the Agape House and called to order by KJ7NYZ at 19:01.
Member Attendees: KJ7NYZ, KI7CUS, W7JJK, KD7VX, KE7YX, W7ILD, KE4TRR, KE7JML, KF7WQ, KJ7SMT
Guests:
New Members: None
The April 2022 meeting minutes and Treasurer’s Report were distributed via email by J. Kelso on 05/02/2022.
A motion was made by Emery to adopt the April meeting minutes as presented. Seconded by Todd. Motion passed.
The April 2022 Secretary/Treasurer’s Report was read by J. Kelso.
Dennis McKenry gave a solar report to the membership.
Ongoing Business
1. Todd is working to submit a 299 form to his contact at the USFS in regards to the club’s hope of putting a repeater on Carney Butte. He mentioned that the USFS is extremely concerned that there be absolutely no environmental impact as a result of locating the repeater on the Butte. The acceptance or denial of our application will likely hinge on that point, according to Todd.
2. Whitley went to Don’s house and picked up some additional gear from his trailer and house that the family is hoping to sell. Whitley brought the equipment to the meeting. Todd made a motion that the club evaluate the radio gear that Whitley brought to the meeting, come up with a price, and then offer that price to Don’s family. Seconded by Emery. Motion passed unanimously.
3. A letter was written by Anna to Tom Roberts and Paul Gray to let them know of the ARES/RACES equipment that the Club has in storage. Tom and Anna spoke on the phone and Tom said that they have space at the office in Pendleton in which to store the equipment. He’d like to go with club members to our storage unit, load the gear onto a pallet and take it to storage in the Sheriff’s office. After that, the Club will need to figure out how to dispose of the rest of the equipment in order to get out of the storage shed rental obligation. Club members will go to the storage site and will make a keep/discard decision on the equipment that remains. Anna will call Tom Roberts to schedule pickup of the ARES gear from the storage unit.
4. Anna contacted Teri A. at the school district about the possibility of using the old fairgrounds property for Field Day. The school district will consider the request and make a decision as soon as tomorrow morning and Jeff K. will report the decision to the club’s email group.
New Business
- Jeff relayed that Mike Duffy asked the club to write a letter of support for the Friends of St. Peter’s group’s plans to install a radio station in the old St. Peter’s Church in Echo. Todd made a motion to have the club write a letter in support of the concept. Seconded by Whitley. Motion passed.
- Following up on the possibility of installing an emergency communications station at Good Shepherd Hospital, Chuck B. discovered that the Facilities Manager was the same person as it was before (Matt Moore), but he wasn’t at the meeting to discuss the matter further.
- Emery discussed the possibility of using DCS on the 02 in an effort to put a stop to the interference that has happened for the last couple of years on that repeater. Emery offered to send an email to the club mailing list to ask the membership if anyone would be negatively impacted by the implementation of DCS on that repeater.
- Dennis went up to SIllusi Butte to inspect the club’s repeater shack the day after the copper theft incident was discovered (May 5th.) He said that everything appeared to be intact and that no break-in or theft had occurred in our shack.
- Jeff K. asked the club membership what they thought about increasing the physical security at the repeater site in light of the recent copper theft incident on the Butte. A discussion ensued but the consensus was that since we’re such a small presence on the hill, we should not worry about doing anything to improve physical security as it may imply that there are items worth stealing inside the shack. It was suggested that a plastic plaque should be installed on the outside of the repeater so that authorities would know who to contact in the event of a break-in, but no action was taken on that suggestion.
- Jeff K. asked the club membership what they thought about purchasing a repeater controller for the two club repeaters at Sillusi Butte. The membership seemed to be generally in favor of pursuing the option once SCOM releases their new controller. http://www.scomcontrollers.com/
- Dennis brought up the idea that we put a repeater on the Carty natural gas generating station. The idea was not favorably accepted as it was thought that access would be problematic.
- The HARC breakfast will be the Saturday after next (5/21/22) at Rayz Dayz at 8AM.
- Dennis announced that Wednesday the 18th is the FEMA interoperability exercise on 60m, Channel 1.
- Todd said that on May 22nd the Oregon Trail Rally event will be taking place in the Dufur and Goldendale areas. The comms are provided by radio amateurs. Todd said that he’d share the simplex frequency plan with anyone who is interested in volunteering for the event. The Oregon Trail Rally web page has information for spectators at https://oregontrailrally.com/.
The meeting was adjourned by KJ7NYZ at 20:40.
Respectfully submitted by Jeff Kelso, W7JJK.
