The August 8th, 2022 monthly HARC meeting was held at the Agape House and called to order by Anna at 19:01.
Member Attendees: KI7CUS, W7JJK, KE7JML, KE4TRR, KE7YX, W7ILD, KD7VX, AA7AZ, KJ7NYZ, W7OLI, AA7TH
Guests:
New Members: KK7BWS – Jason
The July 2022 meeting minutes and Treasurer’s Report were distributed via email by J. Kelso on 08/03/2022.
A motion was made by Kevin to adopt the July meeting minutes as presented. Seconded by Ian. Motion passed.
The July 2022 Secretary/Treasurer’s Report was read by Jeff K.
Dennis McKenry gave a solar report to the membership. A healthy discussion of solar flux and current propagation conditions ensued.
Ongoing Business
- Tom Roberts is going to stop by the storage unit on Monday the 15th to pick up the County’s gear. Someone from the Club will need to meet him there to get him into the unit. We’re hoping that Dennis can take the HARC gear from the unit at that time so that the club can stop renting the storage unit. Whitley committed to being there to facilitate the removal of ARES equipment by Mr. Roberts.
2. A grant application for $6,300 was submitted to the GS Hospital Foundation for ham radio equipment in their EOC and we’ll know in September whether the grant has been approved or not.
3. Sam wrote an application for the AWS InCommunities Grant program. It was submitted by Jeff K. on behalf of the club. The grant application asked for an HF radio, VHF/UHF radio, antenna, and other gear to be owned by HARC. We asked for a duplicate set to be located at the Good Shepherd Hospital EOC so that we’ll be able to train on the use of the radio gear there. We’ve pledged to provide 10 people to train as operators on the equipment that we’ve asked for in the grant and have provided specific metrics around its use at the hospital. We’ll know by August 29th whether or not we’ve been awarded the grant.
4. Emery says that the interference is back. Emery will spend the next month recording the interference to document its existence and its correlation with the DMR repeater actively transmitting. Emery says that the interference takes place when the DMR repeater is transmitting and someone keys up the 02 repeater. It was agreed that a log of the interference and recordings (if possible) would go a long way toward bolstering our position with the repeater owner and the frequency coordination body in Washington.
5. Dennis gave a report on the three parades that the club participated in (Boardman 4th of July, Irrigon Watermelon Festival, and UC Fair.) The Boardman parade had a new organizer who was inexperienced in the running of the parade but overall, the parade went smoothly. The Irrigon parade organizer wasn’t on time to the check-in booth but after she arrived, the parade went fairly smoothly. The Umatilla County Fair parade went as well as could be reasonably expected given the setup of the intersection and check-in booth.
6. Kevin handed out Pendleton Whisky koozies and wooden tokens to the people who volunteered to monitor the repeater during Wagon Train. Kevin announced that there will be a hot wash and he would be announcing that event once a date has been set.
New Business
- The HARC breakfast will be a week from this Saturday (8/20/22) at Rayz Dayz at 8AM.
- The school district has computers to donate to the club if there is any interest.
- A conversation ensued around starting a ham radio club in the school district.
The meeting was adjourned by KJ7NYZ at 20:37.
Respectfully submitted by Jeff Kelso, W7JJK.
