The September 1st, 2025 monthly HARC meeting was held at Hermiston High School in Room 311 and was called to order by President Sam at 19:01 without a quorum present.
Member Attendees: AA7TH, KE7YX, KJ7NYZ, KI7CUS, W7JJK, KD7VX, AA7AZ
Guests: None
New Members: None
The September 2025 Secretary/Treasurer’s Report was read by Jeff.
Ongoing Business:
- Dennis provided a solar report to the membership.
- Testing – Nobody has signed up to test according to President Sam.
- Ione Radio Class – Todd was not present to give an update. Anna wondered if we could facilitate an equipment donation to the class from recent silent key estates.
- September Fourth Thing – Sam thought that Kevin might invite us out to a POTA location once the temperature drops to a more comfortable level. Another idea that arose was that the club might take a field trip to the repeater site. Whitley mentioned that he would like an opportunity to gather ideas from people to see what they would like the new repeater controller to do. He is open to ideas from all club members.
- Good Shepherd Update – Anna said that Chuck emailed Matt Moore at Good Shepherd to ask about the antenna installation. Matt responded by saying that they have the funds for the project now and that they would soon have the cable and antenna installed on their roof.
- The Amazon grant cycle has come around again, and President Sam mentioned that applications are due on September 10th. If anyone has an idea, they should bring it forward sooner rather than later. Anna mentioned that another AWS grant opportunity would arise in January.
New Business:
- The Great Shakeout is happening on the third Thursday of October. Sam says that he is OK with anyone registering for the event and saying that they are a member of the HARC. Sam said that we would vote at the next HARC meeting to see if we would like to participate as a club.
- Anna asked the members in attendance if they had responded to the City of Hermiston’s survey about what to do with the Carnegie Library building. President Sam said that he responded to the survey and Whitley said that he had done so as well. Jeff agreed to notify the club membership when further opportunities arise for community input on the matter.
Announcements:
1. Club Breakfast – Saturday, September 20th at Rayz Dayz, Umatilla at 8:00 AM.
2. Emery told a cautionary tale about a product called a “Digirig” which is a sound card interface that is evidently prone to ground loops. These ground loops can cause noise on its signal and even inadvertent transmissions if the Windows computer audio levels are not high enough (< 90%).
The meeting was adjourned by AA7TH at 19:55.
Respectfully submitted by Jeff Kelso, W7JJK.
