BARN-R1 San Francisco Bay Area

[Davelegs]

I have been trying to access this repeatet for awhile now and I get no responses. I think this repeater is off-line because I even tried to access it with 2 of my radios and I wasn't able to open the squelch? I live in the area and should have no issues. I even tried to contact the owner and got no response? It's really sad if it is off-line because it is supposed to have excellent coveragr of the Bay Area.

[axorlov]

Where are you in Bay Area? I did not use this repeater for some time (years?), but it indeed used to have a good coverage. It used to identify itself with voice every 30 minutes, do you hear anything?

I can't open it from where I live in Livermore, and my current commute car does not have mobile installed, so I can't check it right now. But we can try to schedule a contact in coming days. We can do it over simplex or over BARN R1, I work near the Dumbarton bridge, on Fremont side.

[wayoverthere]

From their page on Facebook, it looks like they had to shut it down in July due to site costs.

https://m.facebook.com/barnsys/

[SteveShannon]

2 hours ago, wayoverthere said:

From their page on Facebook, it looks like they had to shut it down in July due to site costs.

https://m.facebook.com/barnsys/

Here’s the sad tale copied and pasted to save a person a trip to Facebook:

Hello Everyone...

This is not a good-news post. Since we have not received the promised financial support (or further contact) from those that have pledged to us in the prior months, our trustees met last month and we had to make a very tough decision.

BARN-R1 will be turning off for the last time in July.

This was a heart-wrenching decision that was not made lightly. We just cannot afford the site costs, lack of support from our current users, and lack of effort by those who made promises to help us financially.

The site is a key location as it's only one of three towers that covers both the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Areas without loss of signal from Point Reyes down to King City. We were grandfathered into the site from K-Comm (Howard Krawitz) to the now-current owners, K2 Towers, LLC.

Howard and I met through a common friend back in 2008, and placed us up on Crystal Peak for a mere $85/month! He allowed us to put the antenna anywhere on the south tower, so as long as we weren't on someone elses side arm. So we chose the 120' level, hauled up a steel side arm, and placed our signal-winning 7.1 dB antenna on it. Our 1/2" 100' heliax hardline was donated to us then, along with its connectors and a few other cables needed to get into the compound building.

Howard sadly passed in 2017, and his wife took over. Struggling to meet the demands of the wireless clients, she sold K-Comm to a company based on the east coast, and K2 Towers, LLC took over. They immediately assessed the current clients, raised rents, and now charged us $125/month. The new company also had strict requirements and expectations for their newly-aquired clients, and made it difficult to work with non-profit systems like us.

Then Covid-19 hit, which caused us to spiral down financially. Our normal supporters couldn't float both the site as well as their own family during this time, so we had to let the bills pile up. This resulted in over $4,100 in backpay to date, and was the boulder that broke our back.

We tried desperately to obtain financial help from the community, but it seems people would rather freeload than support (sadly). We've also offered to transfer the site to other existing groups that wanted to expand (including keeping the grandfathered rate in place vs the $450/mo current rate), but no one wanted it. We even went so far as to sell the entire system to anyone who would want it, but there just weren't any takers.

So, by the end of July, 2022, we will be closing our R1 system down. We've been on-air since 2003 without any limitations, and are the longest-running open-use GMRS system to date. Our goal was to provide full coverage for both portable, mobile, and base station licensees without signal loss, and we did. We also exceeded the goal of providing our system for use by emergency organizations including The American Red Cross (ARC), Bay Area Emergency Radio (BAER), Blackberry REACT Chapter, San Jose CERT, and CalFire (CDF) during the Loma Fire.

We've achieved so much, but now are fighting against a generation that lacks interest in this service with other users buiilding their own unregulated low-level system and cluttering the bandwaves in the bay areas with no coordination.

It's time to step down and move onto other projects that don't cost us an arm/leg to operate.

For those that have recently donated, your funds will still go directly to offset the rent backpay, and we thank you sincerely for your support during this time.

There is a question that we've been getting asked constantly, and that is "if someone steps up and pays off the entire backpay, can R1 stay on the air?" Yes, absolutely! We would still pay the monthly rent, but K2 Towers, LLC is threatening to kick us out regardless if we don't pay the backpay in full. Despite the numerous emails and phone calls we've made to them to help them understand the economy struggle California still faces (as they live on the east coast), they seem to not care. So we are forced to shut down permanently.

We want to thank each and every person and their families for your support, usage, and interest in BARN. We wouldn't be here without you. And while it will be a dead site without a full-coverage system for future users, you won't be forgotten.

Thanks again for the 22+ years serving the Bay Areas! It was fun while it lasted!

D. Ryan Seregow, WPUI299, N6BRN
Founder/Owner

John Bridgeman, WPYN438
Financial Trustee

Laura Bridgeman, WPYN438 (WQMG760)
Membership Trustee

 

[gortex2]

Well regardless of reasons when you sign a contract to be on a tower things need followed. We ran into this when I was at the radio shop. Our owner let a small ham club on the tower and the install was horrible. He gave them 3 months to resolve the issues. They did nothing so he kicked them out. Regardless of service its not your property. In todays world I can't imagine the tower owner didn't kick the stuff out already. When rent isn't paid normally it was 3 months and I went and powered off the equipment until we got paid. Sounds harsh but its the reality. Lessons learned by that club. 

This also enforces the issue to all the new folks on this board buying $25.00 radios the real cost of repeater ownership and time commitments it takes to do a proper site. 

[axorlov]

That's too bad, I did not know. RIP BARN R1.

[JeepCrawler98]

That's a sad post to read; but I also think it's great that they posted the story directly and cleanly for the community to digest; it's disappointing that they weren't able to get the support they needed. Many don't realize the hard work and costs (be it direct or merit based) it takes to put up a good repeater on a good site; it's not just the hardware costs, it's the maintenance of the gear, it's the work to earn your keep there or pay the bill or both, it's the fuel to drive to these places which can be hours away, it all adds up both financially and in terms of time. These machines are ubiquitous, such a tremendous part of people's every day use yet in the background so that it's not realized that someone has to put them up and keep them up, someone has to pay for them in one way or another, someone has the balance their work/family time to look after them, and yet they're often made freely available to the community because it provides a public service for the greater good. They were assessed $125/month to be on a tower covering the bay area and then some; in reality this in itself is an amazing rental rate for a site covering small city let alone the bay area!

Support your local GMRS groups! It's hard, time consuming, and expensive work to provide these machines. If you can't do this financially; help pull some weight in other ways - step up as net control operator, help out newcomers, buy someone a beer, and if for whatever reason you can't do that, at least be courteous and don't complain that you can't receive it S9+60dB on a Boafeng in your mom's reinforced concrete basement 80 miles away.

Edited August 11, 2022 by JeepCrawler98

[Davelegs]

UPDATE! I now hear a very weak, static, transmission from someone stating, I think, something about BARN R1 REPEATER? Thats about the only semi-clear message that I can understand in the city of Santa Clara, CA. Are they stating that they are back online, or that they are shutting down?

It's sad if they are shutting down, but, if they are staying online with the current static transmissions, that too is very sad?

[WRUE915]

Just saw this thread... Barn-R1 is up and running. It has been working for me the past couple months.

 

And according to their web page and notes on mygmrs.com they are still in the red and asking for donations.

For those in the coverage area, please support if you can. This is the best repeater in the area with the best coverage. 

Cheers!

 

Jake

[wayoverthere]

17 minutes ago, WRUE915 said:

Just saw this thread... Barn-R1 is up and running. It has been working for me the past couple months.

 

And according to their web page and notes on mygmrs.com they are still in the red and asking for donations.

For those in the coverage area, please support if you can. This is the best repeater in the area with the best coverage. 

Cheers!

 

Jake

Good to hear they're still hanging on.

[MichaelLAX]

42 minutes ago, WRUE915 said:

For those in the coverage area, please support if you can.

I was just about to donate, but being outside of the coverage area... 

All kidding aside, I just sent them a small donation*.

They are probably too far south of the recent EQ coverage zone, but keeping them up and running is still a good idea

Make a donation to BARN-R1

*I took the funds from my Donate to NOTARUBICON Fund