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Join us on our weekly Brewton Amateur Radio Union & Rural Radio Preparedness Association analog FM 2M net. Thursday nights
on the WB4ARU Repeater. The frequency is 146.970 negative offset no tone required.
WB4ARU is now the club call of the Brewton
Amateur Radio Union. WB4ARU was the original call of Jimmy Godwin who was the real founder of the BARU. Jimmy was a police
officer with the Brewton, Alabama Police Department and was the main driving force behind forming a club and building a repeater.
Tragically, Jimmy died of an accident while he and his wife were erecting his tower in 1976. Though he was the main person
in securing permission for the tower sites, securing a telephone link between the transmitter and receiver site with the Escambia
County Comission paying the cost of the telephone line, and acquiring the equipment from which the repeater was constructed,
he was killed before the repeater became operational.
The original repeater callsign was WR4BAE, with Johnny Miller, K4VMT as trustee, followed by Scott Hillman, (WA4TYH) KT4CW,
then Leroy Weaver, WD4SBV. The original repeater was a 100 watt tube type transmitter. The recieve antenna was on a
tower 200 feet up. The transmit antenna was across the road on a tower 160 feet up. Both antennas were conected by a telephone
link.
The trustee, Leroy Weaver, moved overseas. The club was mostly inactive and little occurred until 2003.
Club President Larry Fussell N4CBS was
the driving force behind the revival of the club after the years of little activity. If not for Larry, the local ham club
would likely have remained dormant, and there would likely be little amateur radio activity in the area. When Larry persuaded
Leon N4RTT to re-enter the hobby in 2003. They began to search for former club members. They found Scott Hillman, who lived
just a block away. Larry and Leon lived across the street from each other. Leon sent Scott an e-mail, and he responded with
an interesting message about growing up in the house where Leon now lives. Larry then went by to visit Scott at his home.
The first formal meeting of the re-organized Brewton club was held in the ham shack of Leon, N4RTT the following
Saturday morning. Present were Larry N4CBS; Scott, then WA4TYH; Johnny Miller K4VMT; and Leon,
N4RTT.
Scott agreed to become trustee of the
new club and send all the paperwork to the FCC. The new club started out with just 4 people and has grown. The
repeater was kept on, it's original frequency of 146.970, neg offset.
The 146.970 negative offset frequency
has been used by the Brewton club since the mid 1970's
Update:
The BARU repeaters are:
Brewton, AL: 146.970 - 103.5 Hz PL
This is a Yaesu System Fusion DR2 operating in AMS "mode". It operates in both analog FM and Yaesu C4FM digital modes, depending
on the received transmission.
Jay, FL: 145.120 - 103.5 Hz PL YSF DR2 in AMS
Nokomis, AL: 444.775 + 103.5 Hz PL Analog only BridgeCom
Barnett Crossroads, AL: (Under construction)
Damascus, Al: (In Planning)
B.A.R.U. Officers:
President: Larry Fussell(N4CBS)
Vice President David Martin(W4DSM)
Secretary: David Addams(KK4GCN)
Updated: 29 April 2021 (ZM)
Webmasters:Larry Fussell(N4CBS), and Zach Martin(KK4STI)
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