June 12, 2023 Meeting Minutes

The June 12th, 2023 monthly HARC meeting was held at Hermiston High School in Room 302 and was called to order by President Sam at 19:00.  

Member Attendees: KI7CUS, W7ILD, KJ7NYZ, W7JJK, AA7TH, KE7YX, AA7AZ, W7MWK, KJ7SMT, KK7JLW, KE4TRR

Guests:  Paul R., a gent with a private fire fighting company.

New Members: None

The May 2023 meeting minutes and June 2023 Secretary/Treasurer’s Report were distributed via email by J. Kelso on 06/01/2023.

A motion was made by Todd to adopt the May meeting minutes as presented.  Seconded by Mike Kimsey.  Motion passed unanimously.

The June 2023 Secretary/Treasurer’s Report was read by Jeff K.  

 

Ongoing Business

1.   Dennis provided a solar report to the club.

2.   Good Shepherd Hospital project – Whitley and Chuck are both absent from tonight’s meeting.  Alan reports that he met Matt Moore at the hospital recently.  Alan and Matt looked at both the boardroom and the roof and found that there are no obstacles between the boardroom and the roof that would impede the installation of one or more antennas on the roof.  Alan also delivered a Diamond X50A antenna and a Diamond X510HDN antenna to Matt Moore.  On another note, Alan, Emery, Whitley, and Sage DeLong, Umatilla County Emergency Manager, went to Igloo A940 at the Depot to inventory the ARES equipment that is stored there.  Whitley took a partial spool (about a third of a roll) of RG-213 coax out of the igloo to use in hooking up an antenna at the hospital.  Alan thinks that we may need more of that coax in order to install additional antennas for the hospital.  Nothing is presently installed or connected at the hospital.  Alan reports that Chuck believes that the AV control panel that exists in the hospital board room might be able to be converted into a coax patch panel to allow the hookup of a radio go-kit to the antennas that are to be mounted on the roof.  A lengthy and vibrant discussion around the installation of an HF antenna at the hospital ensued.

3.   Repeater interference issue – Jeff K. received an email from Ken Rau, K7YR with the IACC (Eastern Washington repeater coordinating body) detailing the interference issue and listing some items of fact in regards to the problem.  Jeff replied to everyone asking the trustee of the interfering 146.425 repeater (WA7DMR.  Trustee is Robert Chattam, AF7PR) if he’d like to meet at our club’s repeater site to have one last shot at fixing the repeater interference issue.  Robert replied all offering to try a Motorola XPR 8300 or 8400 repeater at our site in place of the Yaesu DR-1X and if the repeater solves the interference issue, to give the repeater to the club for use at our location.  Jeff K. said that he’d take the repeater trustee’s offer to the HARC membership at tonight’s meeting for a vote and then get back to him with the club’s answer.  Todd made a motion to reject the offer.  Seconded by Mike Kimsey.  Motion passed unanimously.  Jeff Kelso will communicate with the coordinating body and the repeater owner to notify them of our decision.

4. Black Mountain repeater maintenance trip – Dennis says that July is our window to go up to the Black Mountain site.  He needs to know who is interested in going to the repeater site so that he can get their names on the application paperwork.  He knows that Stuart Bottom would like to go on the trip.  After some conversation by various members, it was decided that July 22nd would be the date of the trip.  The members who said that they’d like to go are Todd, Emery, Tony, Dennis, and Mike K. 

5. Boardman 4th of July parade update – HARC has committed to do the Fourth of July parade.  Anna will be there as the on the ground coordinator.  Jeff K. volunteered to help.  Sam may be able to help, but has to check with his wife.   Dennis will be there.  

6.   Field Day – June 24&25 site change suggestions.  Emery, Whitley, Mike, and Anna went to look at the cabin property and decided that the ground wasn’t level enough for campers.  The group then went to Drift Fence campground, and found that the campground was muddy with deep ruts that would be problematic for a low-clearance vehicle.  There’s a potential area across the road from Drift Fence that is level and has enough room for approximately 10 campers according to Anna.  Emery made a motion to change the location of Field Day to Drift Fence with the possibility of the area across the road as a backup location.  Seconded by Todd.  Motion passed unanimously.   Anna will provide the meat and Whitley will cook it.  

     New Business  

1.  Jeff K. noticed that we were due to have an election for a Board of Director position that expired in March, 2023 that is currently held by Whitley Smith.  Jeff proposed that we take nominations at this meeting and then vote on the position at the next meeting.  Emery nominated Whitley.  No other nominations were received.
2. Future events – Irrigon Watermelon Festival Parade – July 29th
3. Umatilla County Fair Parade – August 5th
4. Sam talked to a design company and came up with a logo for the club.   Sam asks that the club look at the logo that he’s come up with and if the club approves, then the design company will make the digital files required to produce items (patches, etc) for club members.  The fee for the company is $125 per hour and he estimates that there’ll be less than three hours of work.  A motion was made by Todd for a budget not to exceed $375 to pay to  Ashbeck Design Company to see what they can do with the logo.   Seconded by Mike K.  Motion passed unanimously.

Announcements:       

1. Club breakfast – Saturday, June 17th at Rayz Dayz, Umatilla at 8:00 AM.

The meeting was adjourned by AA7TH at 20:32.  

Respectfully submitted by Jeff Kelso, W7JJK.