***THESE MINUTES REMAIN UNOFFICIAL UNTIL ADOPTED AT THE NEXT CLUB MEETING***
The August 3rd, 2026 monthly HARC meeting was held in Hermiston High School Room 313 and was called to order by President Sam at 19:00.
Member Attendees: AA7TH (Sam), KI7CUS (Dennis), NB7O (Kevin), K7MGO (Michelle), W7JJK (Jeff), KJ7NYZ (Anna),
W7MWK (Mike), W7ILD (Todd), K7TTW (Sam), KD7VX (Whitley), KG7WYY (Fred), Emery (KE7YX), Jim (AA7AZ), KE4TRR (Alan), KM7BHY (Sylvia), N2SRX (Rhett), KM7CGA (Abraham)
Guests:
New Members:
The July 2026 meeting minutes and August 2026 Secretary/Treasurer’s Report were distributed via email by J. Kelso on 07/31/2026. A motion to adopt the July meeting minutes was made by Kevin and seconded by Todd. The motion passed unanimously.
The August 2026 Secretary/Treasurer’s Report was read by Jeff.
Ongoing Business:
- Dennis provided a solar report to the membership.
- Testing – No applicants have registered for testing this month according to Kevin.
- Kevin gave an update on the Wagon Train event. The Wagon Train Committee wanted everyone to have a hat, and everyone had received one except for Fred, who was given his at this meeting. The Committee is also offering volunteers tickets to Round-up and Kevin collected the names of the volunteers who would like tickets and instructed them in how to collect their tickets.
- Carnegie Building Update – On Monday, July 27th, the Hermiston City Manager brought a report about the building inspections that were conducted on the Carnegie Building to the City Council meeting. The building is, in general, in good overall condition. The City Manager also asked the Counsel for permission to approach the interested community groups to form agreements with them for the use of the building. The Counsel gave their permission and so he will move forward with that process. President Sam went on to explain the involvement of the various community groups who have expressed interest in the building and their varying degrees of readiness to occupy the building. He reports that our proposal doesn’t conflict with any of the other plans, so we are moving forward with the process fairly smoothly. Sam has volunteered with the City Manager to “take the keys” as soon as an agreement has been reached. He’s unsure whether or not we’ll be allowed to occupy the building either before or during any remediation/renovation that the City plans to perform on the building.
- Umatilla County Fair Parade – Sam I., Whitley, Todd, Dennis, Jeff, and Anna have volunteered to help at the parade. There will be a brief meeting after the Club meeting tonight to coordinate our plan for this event. We will gather at 4 or 4:30 at our intersection to begin coordinating traffic on the day of the parade.
- Whitley gave an update on the .02 repeater replacement project. He said that there is likely not a lot that will need to be purchased in order to complete the project. He has been reading the manuals to determine what he needs to do to connect the new controller to the GE MASTR II repeater. Dennis reports that he found two additional MASTR II repeaters in his storage that belong to the club.
- Ham radio prep for schools – Anna asked if any Hermiston teachers had gone on https://hamradioprep.com/schools and looked to see if it might be useful in instructing students. Kevin reports that he went on the site and thinks that the teacher materials are free if they register with the site, and the student materials are also available free of charge after the teacher has registered on the site.
- HARC CW Kit – Anna displayed the club’s new CW kit that Whitley has lovingly crafted a beautiful wooden carrying/operating case for. Abraham took the kit home from the meeting to practice CW on.
New Business:
- Anna mentioned that the Hermiston Public Library has a vinyl cutter and a 3-D printer available for public use.
- Kevin did a show-and-tell about the Pebble Radio that he has ordered and received.
- Anna asked if there were any items that the club owned that would be appropriate to sell at the upcoming ham radio swap meet on August 29th in La Grande. President Sam said that it was likely that he would go to sell some of his own equipment.
Announcements:
- Club Breakfast – Saturday, August 15th at Rayz Dayz, Umatilla at 8:00 AM.
The meeting was adjourned by AA7TH at 20:38.
Respectfully submitted by Jeff Kelso, W7JJK.
