February 2nd, 2026 Meeting Minutes

The February 2nd, 2026 monthly HARC meeting was held in Hermiston High School Room 313 and was called to order by President Sam at 19:01.

Member Attendees:   KI7CUS (Dennis), W7JJK (Jeff), KJ7NYZ (Anna), KK7JLW (Tony), AA7TH (Sam), KD7VX (Whitley),  KE7YX (Emery), W7MWK (Mike), W7ILD (Todd), NB7O (Kevin), K7MGO (Michelle), KM7BHY (Sylvia), KE4TRR (Alan), N2SRX (Rhett)

Guests:  Rory R., KJ7PAH (Frank T.)

New Members: None

The January 2026 meeting minutes, February 2026 Secretary/Treasurer’s Report, and 2026 Annual Routine Expenditures List were distributed via email by J. Kelso on 02/01/2026.  A motion to adopt the January meeting minutes was made by Todd and seconded by Emery.  The motion passed unanimously.

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

Ongoing Business:

1. Dennis provided a solar report to the membership.
2. Testing – We have had no applicants this month, according to Kevin.  He’ll take down the online sign-up tonight.  A discussion ensued around the need for testing in general.  
3. Fourth Thing – Jeff will send an email to the local radio station to ask about a tour.  Jeff will also send an email to the Chamber asking about a Chamber Connection show date in March.
4. Winter Field Day – Sam characterized the WFD as a success.  Anna recommended that the club produce and display some signage for next year’s event, and she also said that we might want to coordinate with Sage DeLong from Umatilla County to see if the County would like to have any involvement.  Anna then mentioned that we should obtain rubber cord covers and a door jam for next year’s event.  Jeff will provide an after-action report to the City again this year as the club has promised to do.   A mention was made of having the club acquire a foot switch/headset combo and some barrel connectors.    Emery mentioned that the club could make use of a dummy load for the 2m side of the radio.  Rhett mentioned that the club might want to obtain an easy-to-deploy 2m/70cm antenna for use during WFD. Anna said that region locators and a map to help identify locations for our contacts would be useful.  We were allowed to park on the grass this year, and we were allowed to use EOTEC’s electricity, which was great!  Todd wondered why we aren’t using the antenna trailer that is in Whitley’s back yard and has sat unused for decades at the event.  It was subsequently suggested that we have a Fourth Thing around re-discovering the antenna trailer and potentially refurbishing it for use.

     New Business:

1. Approval of Annual Routine Expenditures – Motion to approve expenditures was made by Kevin and seconded by Whitley. The motion passed unanimously.  
2. Todd made a motion to reimburse Rhett and Anna for their WFD-related expenses.  The motion was seconded by Mike.  The motion passed unanimously.
3. Board member position #1 election – Whitley was nominated for the position.  Nominations remain open until one week before the election.  A vote will take place at next month’s meeting.
4. Club-owned 2m Winlink gateway/packet BBS – An informal showing of hands was made and there seemed to be a decent interest in starting a club-owned Winlink gateway.  Anna said that she would keep the email conversation going via the club’s email reflector.
5. Club purchase of CW key and oscillator –  Sam proposed that the club purchase a CW key and an oscillator so that anyone who was interested might be given the opportunity to use it during Field Day or during any other practice sessions.  Kevin said that he has a kit that he recommends to CW students and said that he would send out more information about it via the email reflector.  We will gather recommendations via the email reflector, decide what to purchase, and potentially approve the expenditure at a future meeting.
6. Lewis and Clark Trail On The Air and Wagon Train – Kevin had the form to enroll our club in the LCTOTA event (June 6th – 21st) in hand and said that he would sign and submit it if the club approved.  Mike made a motion to have the club participate in LCTOTA again this year.  Todd seconded the motion.  The motion passed unanimously.  Kevin said that the annual Wagon Train event will be from June 23rd through the 26th, and they are looking for volunteers to monitor the radio in case help is needed during the event.
7. Whitley reported that he’d made a trip to the repeater site on Sunday because the repeater wasn’t identifying itself.  He made a couple of changes to the settings on the repeater and he found that the transmitter was on high power, so he changed it back to medium power.  He said that he had to reset the power to the repeater in order to make it start IDing again.  Whitley also mentioned that there are two fans inside the repeater box and that the one that runs constantly is “getting pretty noisy.”  He’d like to ask the club to purchase a replacement fan.  Todd moved that we acquire a fan by any means, including purchasing it.  The motion was seconded by Kevin.  The motion was approved unanimously.

Announcements:       

1. Club Breakfast – Saturday, February 21st at Rayz Dayz, Umatilla at 8:00 AM.

The meeting was adjourned by AA7TH at 20:16.

Respectfully submitted by Jeff Kelso, W7JJK.