1976
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 in Brewton.
Tragically, Jimmy died of an accident while he and his wife were erecting his tower in 1976. Though he was the main
charcter 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.
1976
First Ham Repeater on the air in the Brewton Area.
The original repeater callsign was WR4BAE, with Johnny Miller, K4VMT as trustee, followed by Scott Hillman,
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.
At The First Ham Radio Club meeting in Brewton present were K4VMT - Johnny Miller, WA4TYH (Now KT4CW) - Scott Hillman,
and K4HJC - Houston Bray.
From 1976-1991 no records have been found. The club was active few records were kept if any.
May 1991
President for the Club was Leroy Weaver W4SDB. Vice President was Jimmy Stanton. Sec/Teas was Wanda Weaver.
1991
First Club Newsletter sent out to club Members. Wanda Weaver started the newsletter. The newsletter was called The
Radiator. The newsletter lasted until 1994.
1991
Testing Session had 19 people taking a test.
1991
A phone patch was added to the 2 Meter Repeater. It allowed club memebers to make phone calls.
1991
New Repeater Controller added for HF Remote Base and for CW Practice. Each Club member had also a Mail Box so they could
access voice messages left for them on the repeater.
1991
A HF Remote on the 146.970 Repeater allows Leroy W4SDB to make a contact to a station in Salt Lake City, Utah by
using his HT in Brewton.
1991 Club gets active in RACES.
1991 Club members raised money for club by collecting Aluminum Cans to sell.
February 1992
Testing Session held in Brewton. 14 people took a test. All passed. Two people showed up from as far away as Shalimar,
Florida.
April 25, 1992 at 11:24am
The Brewton Club launched a small ballon from Brewton. It landed on Whitting Field just North of Milton, Florida.
1992 Perry Watson is teaching Morse Code over the Brewton and Monroeville Repeaters nightly at 9pm.
February 1993
The Brewton Club Repeater was hooked up to The Southwest Alabama Area Emergency Net. The net covered Mobile, Brewton,
Greenville and Monroeville. Net control was Barbara N4YYW and Howard KD4EJA.
July 1993
A community Raffle was held to raise money for the club. Over 500 dollars was raised.
August 1993
TShirts were bought for Club Members. Jerry Carroll N7ILT was in charge of getting the TShirts.
1994 Lightning hit the repeater at the recieve site and took it out.
1995
The First 2 meter net on 146.970 was started. The Net was on Sunday
Night at 8:30pm.
September 1995
Club sets up a Food Concession Table at the Appleton, Alabama Fire Station Turkey Shoot to raise
money for the club. Harold KE4YWK was in charge of getting this set up.
1996
New G-7 Antenna installed on the split repeater site. The split site had one reciever for recieve
and one for transmit. It was connected by a phone line.
1996
First Club Web Site went online. Web Site was set up by Jeff N4TY and Jerry N7ILT.
March 1997
Harold KE4YWK is elected new President.
May 1997
Jeff N4TY takes over Secretary from Wanda AC4EJ. Jeff continues the newletters that
Wanda did. The new name for the newsletters changes to the Telegrapher's Log.
May 24, 1997 A Fox Hunt was held by the Club.
June 1997
The South Alabama Radio Club (SARC) and the Brewton Amateur Radio Club
(BARU) hold a joint Field Day. The Field Day was held at the campus of Lurleen B. Wallace Jr College in Andalusia. Contacts
were made to 6 foreign countries and 44 states. Over 600 contacts were made. Both clubs decided to have seperate Field
Days the following year.
August 1997
A Fox Hunt was held by the BARU in Flomaton, Alabama. Harold
Baggett KE4YWK was the fox.
September 1997
The Last Telegrapher's Log was published by Jeff Ward N4TRY. He also quit from Secretary.
No more newsletters were sent out.
September 1997
Repeater only operating with a few Milliwatts.
1998
Jeff Ward N4TY and David Martin W4DSM and Johnny Miller K4VMT get a working
Digipeater up. The Digipeater is a Kantronics KPC-3 Plus, Icom IC 2000 running 50 watts. The antenna is located 430 feet above
sea level.
Late 1998
The Brewton Amateur Radio Club breaks up. With No Repeater working members quickly loose interest
in the club.
2003
Larry Fusell, N4CBS gets Leon, N4RTT back into
Ham Radio. (Larry and Leon were not part of the origional club). They go looking for Ham Radio operators in the Brewton area.
They find Scott Hillman, KT4CW ex WA4TYH. The Brewton Ham Club is started back up.
2003
Before the new club could secure a repeater everyone used 146.520 simplex to talk to each other in the
Brewton Area.
2003-2004
Scott KT4CW gets a working 2 meter repeater back on the air. He makes the repeater out of two mobile radios.
The 146.970 repeater comes back on the air. The duplexers from the old club are re-tuned and working again.
October 2005
Chris KI4GGH, Starts selling old radios on Ebay. The old
radios were donated by Franklin KF4TH, and Johnny K4VMT. The money made will be used to purchase a new Hamtronics
Repeater for the club.
November 18, 2005
Franklin KF4TH, and Johnny K4VMT, install a new Hustler
2 meter antenna on the tower. The antenna was purchased and donated to the club by Franklin.
December 5, 2005
Franklin KF4TH, and Johnny K4VMT, change out the old
Times Microwave Coax and install coax that was donated by Franklin.
Around December 20, 2005
Franklin KF4TH, and Johnny K4VMT, install the new
Hamtronics repeater in the shack and it is fired up and working.
November 18, 2006
A NEW DB224E Repeater Antenna is installed at the site on the top of
the the tower. The new antenna was purchased and installed by club member donations. A new antenna was purchased because a
lightning strike took out the old antenna.
February 2010
The Brewton Amateur Radio Union starts back the weekly 2 Meter Net after many years of not having one. Chris KI4GGH is
the new Net Control for the Net. The new Net is on Monday Night's at 8pm on 146.970.
July 2010.
Franklin K4FTH, and Johnny K4VMT make a backup repeater using 2 mobile radios. The backup repeater will be
used if the main repeater goes down. As of July 2010 The Brewton club has working a Hamtronics Repeater, One Backup
Repeater made by Scott, KT4CW and another backup repeater made by Johnny and Franklin.
May 6, 2011
The BARU was invited to set up a station at the Century, Floida Saw Mill Days Festival. Johnny Miller K4VMT and Scott
Hillman KT4CW run a QRP CW Station. Jim Hamric KJ4UQJ run a QRP Voice Station. About 20 on air contacts were made.
The Saw Mill Days was held at the Historical Park, corner of Jefferson Avenue and 4th Street in Century Florida.
8:30
am until 4 pm
October 18, 2014
JOTA Station Setup at The Boy Scout Hut Troop 42 in Brewton, Alabama.
May 2015
A New Yaesu C4FM Digital Repeater replaces the current analog homebrew 2 meter
repeater. The New Repeater can now take digital signals in and convert them to analog. The New Repeater can also be switched
to Narrowband FM.
June 2015
Another New Yaesu C4FM Digital Repeater is purchased plans
are to set it up on UHF at another tower spot. Not currently on the air.
