The History of MARA

In the late 70's and early 80's there were only few 2-meter repeaters in southern Maine. For that reason the 146.70 Litchfield repeater was the prime repeater in the Bath-Brunswick area. In 1979, Peter Russell, K1MJP of Orr's Island, and Bruce Randall, KA1BFM (now W1ZE) of Phippsburg put their combined resources together to build a 2-meter repeater to service the Bath/Brunswick, Sagadahoc County and northeast Cumberland County area.

Several months of hacksaw, drill and solder work at Peter's work bench and in Bruce's ham shack, the original 146.34/.94 repeater was built and operating in Bruce's basement, with an ID of K1MJP/R. The heart of the repeater was a Heathkit two-meter receiver strip and a VHF Engineering transmitter kit Bruce had built in California a few years before.

During the construction phase, hams in the area started lending moral and financial support to the project. On the air discussions by local hams fostered interest in setting up a repeater users group. On a spring evening in 1980, in the basement family room of Bruce's QTH, a group of hams met to see what the repeater looked like. Over coffee, beer, chips, dip and cookies a repeater club started to take form. Here are some of the folks who attended the original kick-off meeting of the Merrymeeting Amateur Radio Association:

Mike Adair (N1MA) Mike Evringham (KA1OR) Brian Bubar (N1CHN) Dana McCerdy (KB1CV) Peter Russell (K1MJP) Bob Mead (WA1ZGN) Chuck Bullett (W1AEK) Bruce Randall (W1ZE) Geroge Szadis (K1GDI)

Shortly after the kick-off meeting, Peter Russell got permission from Casco Cable to locate the repeater at their Mt. Ararat TV receiving site in Topsham. This proved to be a very good site. However, within the first year of operation we had problems with the 146.940 frequency. There were old scanners in the Topsham area; many of them were used by volunteer fire personnel, and with their lack of selectivity and tendency to hear intermod mixes as well as the intended frequency, we started to receive complaints. It was not our problem, but with the interest of keeping good relations with the town fathers we opted to change our repeater frequency pair to 147.210/810. The following year was a big re-engineering year for the MARA. The Heath receiver and VHF Engineering transmitter were replaced with a repeater made from a GE Master-Pro and we changed the call sign from K1MJP/R to Mike Adair's call of N1MA/R. Mike had a shorter call. Shortly there after, Mike Evringham (KA1OR) built up a telephone interface and autopatch service was added to the repeater. Not long after that event the KA1OR repeater (444.400/449.400) was built and installed at the Mt. Ararat site.

In addition to supporting two repeaters the MARA interests broadened. The first year had the MARA participating in Field Day. DR Doug Most, a Brunswick oral surgeon and MARA member,offered his farm's hayfield as our first site. In addition, that Sunday morning Doug came out with boxes of Frosties donuts to nourish the night and early morning CW and "Brew Crew" of N1MA, WB6X, KB1CV and a few other brass pounders. Since then the MARA has participated in every Field Day from the Meadowbrook Campground in Phippsburg. In recent years Field Day has become one of the major events.

In the late 80s all commercial 2-way services, including the MARA repeaters, were asked to vacate the fire tower on Mt. Ararat by the State of Maine (owner of the facility). The owner of the Oak Hill tower facility in Brunswick, Bill Messier, K1MNW allowed the MARA to build a small hut and use an existing tower to facilitate the repeaters. The repeaters remained on Oak Hill until 1993 when intermod from powerful paging systems, less than a hundred feet from the two ham repeaters, got the better of the situation. We started looking for a new site. Since we were a non-profit organization involved in community activities, Bowdoin College offered their Cole's Tower (150-foot dorm building where WBOR resides).

When the two repeaters were moved to Cole's tower, the 147.210 MHz repeater received a new Kendicom receiver and the 444.400 MHz repeater received new GE UHF transmitter and receiver strips with a new ACC controller. Cole's tower is a good location with a controlled environment and emergency generator power in case of power outages. In February of 1997 the MARA's club call sign was changed from KB1BRU to KS1R under the vanity call sign program. KS1R was originally Bruce Randall's (W1ZE) call before he moved to California in 1983. Now KS1R/R is the ID on the Association repeaters.

The MARA has been involved in community events since it's founding. Over the years the MARA has provided communications for such community and charity events such as Bath Heritage Days, March of Dimes walk in Brunswick and the yearly Merrymeeting Wheelers Dan Michaud Memorial Century bike rides to raise funds for the American Cancer Society. Dan, who died of cancer in the mid 80s, was one of the original founding members of the MARA. In 1995 The MARA in cooperation with the Androscoggin club set up a special event station at the home of Civil War hero, president of Bowdoin College and Governor of Maine, Joshua Chamberlain in Brunswick to commemorate the end of the Civil War.

In 1996 the MARA reorganized from an elected officers organization to a Board of Directors form of government in an attempt to stimulate activity, streamline general meetings and get small business process out of the general meetings. The by-laws were rewritten to reflect this change. In addition the membership fee was lowered to $10 per year with only two levels of membership, Full Member ($10) and family member ($2 per additional family member). This dues structure is still in effect today.

2002 brought some major changes and additions to the MARA. In the early part of the year, the technical committee floated an idea to the membership on Internet linking for the 444.4 repeater with kinks to other repeater systems around the country and world. Mark Rideout, N1JIM started playing with the I-Link Ham Radio to Internet system. Within a few months, Mark had a working link station at his QTH in Bowdoinham connected to the I-Link (now EchnoLink) system and in turn it is linked to the 147.21 repeater. With this new mode, local hams that were limited to just VHF and UHF amateur activities had a new mode on the repeater to try. Activity on the repeater increased and the membership in the MARA grew from about 25 paid members to over 50.

During this same time frame we were advised that our site on Cole's Tower would be lost in a few years when site manager Pete Russell, K1MJP plans to retire. We started looking for a new site. In conversations with Oak Hill tower site manager Bill Messier, K1MNW the MARA was offered the opportunity to relocate back to the Oak Hill site. To accomplish this move additional funding would be required to pay for power and necessary hardware to make it all happen. MARA President Loren Dudley (W1LHD) and Sagadahoc County AEC (+ KS1R Trustee) Bruce Randall (W1ZE), both members of the Sagadahoc County LEPC, approached the Sagadahoc County EMA to see if they would assist the MARA in the repeater relocation by funding the electrical power and assist in installation hardware. In turn, the MARA's 2-meter repeater would become the Counties ARES Amateur Radio repeater to assist the county in the event of emergency or disasters. The County said, "great idea" and did the funding.

In August of 2002 the relocation took place and the 147.21 and 444.4 repeaters now are back on Oak Hill with improved mid coast coverage.

In the process of doing the repeater relocation work, Site Manager, Bill Messier said he would like to use the abandoned telephone company microwave building and tower as a Amateur Radio learning Center and asked if the MARA would like to get involved in making it happen. The answer was an enthusiastic yes. As of this writing the Amateur Radio Learning Center (ARLC)facility is making headway and we all hope it is something the Amateur Radio community will use and enjoy in the years to come.
During the spring and summer of 2003, Bill Messier (K1MNW), Bruce Randall (W1ZE) and Peter Russell (K1MJP) put their heads together, took two of Bills 1.2 GHz FM transceivers and assembled a third repeater on Oak Hill. That repeater runs in parallel with the 444.4 MHz. There is also a push to promote ATV and help Bill Messier/K1MNW build an ATV repeater on Oak Hill

We hope this short history of the MARA has given you an idea of who we are and what we do. If you are not a member, all of us in the MARA invite you to join us at a meeting, use our repeaters,join us during special or community events and consider joining our friendly Association that promotes the radio art through Amateur Radio.