MAARS was formed in May 1980 to support the migration from Chuck’s local area repeater into the large regional system it is today. Today, we utilize several receive sites scattered in SE Wisconsin and Allstar to offer users a balanced repeater system.
In 1976 Chuck N9EGR (then WB9ZCT) bought a brand new 100-watt Motorola repeater.
The repeater was then coordinated on 147.18 MHz and was located at his parent’s house on 72nd and Locust.
In 1978, Chuck moved the repeater to higher ground on a tall barn in Menominee Falls. Chuck requested permission from Menominee Falls to put up a 100ft tower, but that permission never came.
In 1980, the repeater was moved to Dan’s WB9DCX 100ft tower on 76th and Florist.
Shortly thereafter, Chuck investigated the 200-foot tower on Sandburg Hall at UWM.
With his neighbor and UWM Maintenance Supervisor Bob KA9CEK, the two contacted Rudy Tichy, Director of Physical Planning and Construction, John J. Solonthe, Secretary of UWM, and John Bedore, WD9IUV, then President of the Amateur Radio Society at UWM. The group presented the UWM leadership with information on how the proposed repeater location would benefit UWM and the community. In 1981, the group obtained permission from the UW-Milwaukee Chancellor; in October 1981, the repeater relocated to its present location. The frequency was changed to 145.13 to prevent interference with the Libertyville, IL repeater.
In May 1980, The Milwaukee Area Amateur Radio Society (MAARS) was formed to help support Chuck’s repeater. Also, an affiliation was formed with the Amateur Radio Society at UWM for their help in obtaining the repeater location.
The first members of the society were:
- Chuck N9EGR SK
- Bob KA9CEK
- John W9KSP (First Club President) SK
- Steve WB9UEN ( Now W9MCU ) SK
- John WD9IUV
- Casper W9UMO
- Jerry KA9CEJ
- Gregory KB9BU
In August of 1982, MAARS installed and activated its first remote receive site, the first one in Southeastern Wisconsin. The antenna and feed line were located at Glen’s WD9BCP house, purchased from a repeater club for $300.
Since the repeater now had better reception than transmit power, Chuck and Bob asked WAR (Wisconsin Association of Repeaters) for a power increase from 400watts ERP to 1000watts ERP.
In 1986, the second remote site installed at Newburg went online.
The Jackson remote site was formed in 1991 by a special arrangement with Milwaukee and Waukesha ARES 146.670MHz and Milwaukee Repeater Club 146.910MHz to share one antenna on a commercial AM radio antenna. Later on, the Milwaukee Repeater Club decided not to use the location.
In 1993, we worked with three other clubs (FM-38 443.800, ARES 146.670, and SEWFARS 146.820) to share one antenna on a vacant commercial tower in Elm Grove. That relationship lasted until 1999, when the owner removed the tower.
In 1994, Chuck N9EGR and Bob KA9CEK decided to sell the repeater to the club. President Jim KE9WC set forth a transition plan for the club to follow. Jim and his group developed the financial plan and searched for a new trustee. Newly-elected President Greg WL7LI and Chuck N9EGR presented their choice for a new trustee to the board, Pat N9LKH. Pat’s nomination was approved at the January 1996 membership meeting.
In early 1998, MAARS became involved with the Sullivan Committee, a group dedicated to and sanctioned by the NWS to report severe weather to the National Weather Service in Sullivan. MAARS was asked to participate in the program for its remote base linking abilities. We connected to the MARA 147.150MHz Madison repeater to create a large net for our wide area coverage in Southeastern and Southcentral Wisconsin.
MAARS was also activated for the Y2K event on New Year’s Eve. ARES requested support for the evening, asking us to cover the Milwaukee area and be ready to link with other locations if such communications were necessary. MAARS transmitted signals on both 2 meters and 70 cm, so that stations that had to crossband into an installation or work off of a duplexer sharing an antenna could stay in the communications loop.
In August 2002, Dave KA9WXN and Christian KC0ARF installed IRLP connectivity to the repeater. Using a Linux box at the repeater’s transmitter location, the club could connect with other IRLP stations worldwide. We also started re-transmitting Amateur Radio Newsline and participating in the AMSAT Net on Wednesday evenings during August.
In October 2002, the Midtown receive site returned to service, adding HT coverage to central Milwaukee County.
In February 2003, MAARS stopped participating on the AMSAT net due to remote quality control issues with the Net Control. Amateur Radio Newsline sessions continued operational.
In March 2003, the MAARS Technical Committee began planning a massive upgrade to the repeater’s radio system. The committee moved away from older Motorola VHF receivers and 220 Mhz link radios to GE Delta VHF receivers and UHF link transmitters. These new hardware standards greatly simplified maintenance of the receive sites, as the older radios often required tweaks and adjustments to maintain performance. Over the Easter 2003 weekend, the repeater was reduced to a single receive site, and the major components were replaced at the main site. Other remote sites soon came online: Jackson, Vernon (SW), and the main site were the first sites converted to the newer technology.
On November 7, 2003, MAARS suffered a lightning strike at our Jackson receive site. While our equipment was protected, the spike took out an iso coupler vital to the operation of that particular receive site. MAARS member Greg Wolfe, K9ZZZ, offered his home as a temporary receive site while exploring options to replace the iso-coupler at our NW receive site.
The week before Thanksgiving in 2003, MAARS members started having a simplex net on SSB. Using 2m USB on 144.23, members began trying out their new multi-mode radios, such as the Icom 706 and Yaesu FT100D. The net became a success, with an average of 15 – 20 people checking into the net and talking on SSB weekly.
In January 2004, the Technical Committee tried to restore service to Newburg and found that the owners raised the tower rent outside of our budget. The Board will discuss options on how to enhance service NE of Milwaukee.
In February 2004, the Technical Committee moved the Jackson site hardware from Greg’s house to the new Community receive site. The Jackson site remains unhooked, as a new iso-coupler is unavailable.
In April 2004, the club will enjoy our first complete year using the new receiver hardware. The efforts of the Technical Committee paid off… thank you, guys!
In mid-2004, MAARS experimented with a swapnet that involved IRLP, linking up most Wisconsin and several IRLP stations out of state. The Swapnet averages 15/20 check-ins per week.
Also in 2005, during field day, Dave KA9WXN set up an 802.11(b) wireless computer connection from the top of Sandburg Hall to be used at the LEFROG field day site with Steve W9MCU. Christian KC0ARF from Green Bay remote-programmed the IRLP computer to pass network traffic between the two networks. We set up a successful 25+ mile Wireless network from our repeater site to the field day site, and computers at field day could check radar images and packet clusters and utilize other internet functionality with this link.
In 2011, with the help of Bob N9GMT, Allstar was added to the repeater as an additional internet link. All swapnet communications were moved over to Allstar.
In June of 2011, MAARS and MRAC started doing a joint Field Day effort. Field Day was held at Konkel Park in Greenfield in the first few years. 2016 Field Day was moved to the MATC Oak Creek Police and Fire Training Center. COVID stopped the Field Day operations for 2020 and 2021, with members operating from home. 2022 was the last year MRAC and MAARS operated a joint Field Day.
Over the summer of 2012, UWM did a fiber network upgrade that took away our internet connection. With the help of Dave KA9FUR, MATC RC, MRAC, and MADOG, we were able to set up a wireless internet connection to the community site.
In the fall of 2012, MAARS replaced the main site antenna with a new Telewave 4-bay dipole antenna after the original antenna failed.
In the fall of 2016, Dave KA9FUR, Dave KA9WXN, and Corey KB9BNA installed new wireless links to replace the internet connection at the community site. Our internet now comes from a tower site in Menomonee Falls. This was the creation of the Milwaukee Hamnet.
In January 2021, a Rasberry Pi 3B running HAMVoIP replaced the original Allstar PC. Ken KC9QV has taken over as Allstar manager.
In June of 2023, MAARS rejoined LEFROG for Field Day and plans to continue.
In 2024, Dave KA9WXN started the project of building a Rasberry Pi running Allstar as a replacement repeater controller.
Ongoing projects at present include our association with the Sullivan Committee,
a commitment that we are honored to participate in.
