Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club site agreement ends, and an urgent search for a new location is underway

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – It's not exactly cutting the cord, but the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club will now have to leave its location on the Santa Barbara Mesa this summer.

The club has been dialed in for decades to transmit communications within their members but in several other ways to be a vital link in the community.

One of their primary sites since the 1970s has been on the Mesa at the Vic Trace Water reservoir, a city property, and the site is used with a city agreement.

It's been a solid location and it has served the club and the public far and wide.

Levi Maaia is a Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club director. He said the building is, "a modular structure, it's built on a concrete slab, bolted to the ground for earthquakes and inside it is climate controlled. It allows us to have all the equipment and allows us to have the impact that we have on the community."

This reservoir is old and needs to be replaced. The upcoming project will create two five-million gallon water reservoirs there and the city will use the entire property during the construction including where the radio club building is located.

Maaia said, "as part of that redevelopment we're getting the boot."

It was not without an adequate notice from the city on January 22. The non profit radio club received a letter that details the timeline to remove the equipment and building by the end of July. It was always in the initial agreement for the club to move out if the city needed the space back for its uses at the water site. That agreement was submitted to the club with the notice to remove their gear and leave the site.

Others have also been notified in an area where several towers were located. Maaia said, "the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio club along with some other tenants including cellular providers and county resources all have to vacate this site."

In addition to the radio communications that the club has been doing for years it is also tracking marine vessels in the channel and sharing that information with researchers.

"So for Scripps (Institute) are laying their whale track migrations over the top of that data. They can see where ships and whales intersect," said Maaia.

The club can transmit and gather data to first responders and others on land, in the air and in the nearby ocean waters. It also has a tower on the Channel Islands.

Maaia said, "so we are gathering data from ships at sea from aircraft in the air we are communication with the  Sheriff's Aero Squadron and the Civil Air Patrol. "

During local disasters, members activated and relayed vital messages to emergency decision makers especially from areas cut off when cell towers were down. Their equipment is powered by a backup generator. "We have Starlink connection that will keep us on the internet so we are prepared. We have done a lot of thinking about what emergency scenarios look like and we have tried to envision what the solutions might be."

The search is on for a new site urgently to keep the lines of communications open. "If we can identify a location we are hopeful we will be able to go out like we have in the past, get the project  executed, and have it be covered  by donations and grants."

For more information go to: Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club