Sunday, September 8, 2019 saw the completion of the Cole Road tower replacement project. The last of the antennas and feedlines from the original west tower were moved to the new tower and the old tower was taken down, completing a very long project that started back in January of 2017 when the top section of the original tower broke and folded over in unprecedented 70+ MPH winds.  Thanks to the efforts of our site coordinator, Jan Jarecki, WB2FXY, and his helpers a new tower was sourced – with huge thanks for its donation from Bob Schober, K2CRR – and erected. Donations from interested members and friends of BARRA helped to finance new antennas and hardware, the concrete base for the tower and physical plant improvements to the A-frame building at the site to make the systems located there more reliable than ever.

We have found vastly improved coverage on the 146.910 repeater with it being raised back to 90′. The W2BRW DMR repeater was upgraded with 7/8″ hard line and an 8 dB commercial antenna which has proven to almost give handheld coverage in Southern and Central Erie County. The N2ZDU 220 repeater suffered a transmitter problem but was repaired under warranty and will be back on the air soon. Once that is online we will get some coverage reports from its users.