October 5th, 2026 Meeting Minutes

***THESE MINUTES REMAIN UNOFFICIAL UNTIL ADOPTED AT THE NEXT CLUB MEETING***

The October 5th, 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: W7MWK (Mike), W7ILD (Todd), KD7VX (Whitley), W7JJK (Jeff), NB7O (Kevin), K7MGO (Michelle),  KJ7NYZ (Anna), K7TTW (Sam), KI7CUS (Dennis), Rhett (N2SRX), AA7TH (Sam), KG7WYY (Fred), AA7AZ (Jim), KE4TRR (Alan), KM7BHY (Sylvia), KK7JLW (Tony)

Guests: Payton I., Tia (KI7JPT) and Aaron K. (KG7YTL), 

New Members: 

The September 2026 meeting minutes and October 2026 Secretary/Treasurer’s Report were distributed via email by J. Kelso on 10/01/2026. A motion to adopt the September meeting minutes was made by Todd and seconded by Kevin.  The motion passed unanimously. 

The October 2026 Secretary/Treasurer’s Report was read by Jeff.

Ongoing Business:

1. Dennis provided a solar report to the membership.

2. Testing – No applicants have registered for testing this month according to Kevin.  Kevin says that it seems that most everyone is taking their tests online these days.

3. Carnegie Building Update – Sam reported that the City is currently drafting a lease agreement of sorts for the Club to evaluate and sign.  The architect is working on a game plan to address the most pressing updates that the building needs.  It is looking as though the building won’t be ready to occupy this year as there is more work to be done before it is ready.  

4. Jeff reported his findings about business checking and savings account interest rates.  Business checking and savings rates are negligible across the board, but business CDs are available from various banks and with various terms and rates.  Jeff proposed that we put $5,000 into a 9-month CD at Banner Bank at a promotional rate of approximately 3.30%.  Todd recommended that we not do anything until the Carnegie Building move-in had taken place.  Michelle moved that we put $2,500 into a 9-month CD with Banner.  Seconded by Kevin.  Motion passed twelve to four with one abstention. 

     New Business:

1. Todd reported that the W7NEO group has obtained a repeater site in Arlington.  The 2-meter repeater will be on  145.190 with a tone of 131.8 and the standard offset.  A Fusion repeater will operate on 444.650 with the standard offset and no tone.  There will also be a packet node on 145.530.  The repeaters should be up and running within the next thirty days.  The 2-meter repeater will be tied into Allstar and the Fusion repeater will reside in the NE Oregon room.  The packet repeater may switch to VARA at some point.  Todd says that the antennas need to be moved up a little bit, but after that the range of the 2m and 450 repeaters should have coverage from west to The Dalles, east to Pendleton, and south to Condon and Fossil.  

2. Jeff proposed that we renew our Hermiston Chamber membership.  Motion made by Todd.  Seconded by Michelle.  Motion passed with two abstentions.  

3. Jeff mentioned that the Chamber service fair is coming up on October 14 and asked if there was any interest from the membership in hosting a table at the event this year.  Kevin said that he and Michelle would have happily done so, but will be out of town on that date.  No other members stepped forward.

4. Anna reported that JOTA will be held from October 16-18 this year.  Anna mentioned that the Club could participate by having members open up their house to a Scouting group to let them use an HF rig.  Anna also shared that the Scouting District will hold an organized event on Saturday the 17th at the Benton County Fairgrounds.  The event will begin at 8 AM and will be open to all hams who are interested in participating.  Anna solicited participation from the membership asking if anyone would be willing to open their house.  President Sam asked members to think about how they might be able to participate and Anna asked that members let her know by Friday if members were willing to participate.

5. Sam announced that club officer elections would be held at the next monthly meeting.  Both President Sam and VP Anna are term limited according to the by-laws and cannot be re-elected to the same offices.  Anna nominated Michelle for President.  Michelle accepted the nomination.  Sam nominated Jeff for Secretary/Treasurer, and Jeff accepted the nomination.  Anna nominated Fred for Vice President and Fred accepted the nomination.  Nominations will remain open until one week before the vote, at which point they will close.  

6. Kevin shared information about the Zombie Shuffle CW event coming up on October 30th.  More info can be found at https://www.zianet.com/qrp/ZOMBIE/pg.html.

Announcements:       

1. Club Breakfast – Saturday, October 17th at Rayz Dayz, Umatilla at 8:00 AM.
2. Dennis mentioned that the Union County ARES HF net is no longer happening.  Dennis thinks that they’re currently using the Mt. Emily repeater (145.150) for their weekly net, instead.   The up/down tone on the repeater is 110.9.  The net takes place every Thursday beginning at 1800 hours.
3. Dennis brought up-to-date band cards from the ARRL to share with anyone who wanted one.
4. Kevin and Michelle brought a bunch of paddles for people to look at and try if they’d like to do so.
5. Rhett brought a Yaesu FT-101ZD that a friend is looking to sell.
6. Todd asked if we could have an update on the status of the webpage.  Rhett reported that he hasn’t done anything with the site yet, but hopes to work on it over the course of the next month and hopes to have progress to show at next month’s meeting.
7. Whitley reports that he went to the repeater site on Saturday and was able to get the MASTR-II repeater receiver working.  He was unable to get the transmitter working, which is odd, because he and Fred were able to get it up and working on their previous trip to the repeater site.  He also swapped in some wiring to be able to hook the controller up to the MASTR-II.

The meeting was adjourned by AA7TH at 19:54.

Respectfully submitted by Jeff Kelso, W7JJK.