This is a brief history of OBRA as Harry Bridges and Clarence Skinner remember.

From the late 40s through the 60s W4PCN Goodrich Williams was “emergency communications” in Dare County. There are many stories to be told about his experiences.

Goodrich had the first amateur repeater in Dare County in the early 60s and it was at his home on a 100 foot
tower, he installed a homemade autopatch in 1967. W4ACY Phil Wicker of Greensboro helped with finances to keep the repeater going.

Around 1976 a group of local Hams got together to form a club to help Goodrich with the repeater and start more amateur radio activities. The name of that club was Fessenden Amateur Radio Club.

















The 146.94 repeater was moved from Goodrich’s home to the top of then the Ramada Inn and later moved to WOBR’s tower which W4ACY owned. 

The OBRA was organized not long after that and was headed by KE4PB Mike Goodwin, Mike had a repeater on the Navy Tower on 146.835. Some time after that both clubs evolved to OBRA with the two repeaters.   


Later the guys on Hatteras Island organized and called their club Fessenden. 
                                                                                                                    Harry P. Bridges K4UOR


W4PCN  OBRA - Outer Banks Repeater association

We also know that much of Fessenden's work occurred on The Outer Banks at the same time the Wright Brothers were here and that they knew each other.


Our Editor in Chief for the OBRA Newsletter;  Ken Daidone N2KJD is a fan of Fessenden and has written a white paper.  Which is included below.


Most of you know that the true inventor of Radio was Reginald Fessenden and not  Guglielmo Marconi.  No offense to Guglielmo Marconi because he made some extraordinary discoveries and got radio going.  But Marconi used "spark" transmissions.  Fessenden was a proponent of Continuous Wave transmissions.   It is true that he proved his concept using a continuous spark transmission, but went on to develop the concept to what we now know as modern radio. 

home in Kinnakeet Shores with tower                                    Ham shack - original W4PCN
                                                                                                  repeater  and 100' tower, Manteo
OBRA members provide radio coverage for local events on the Outer Banks every year and will provide radio operators and radios for emergency use when asked by the county.  We provide radio logistics for The Lions VIP fishing event, bike races, marathons, and parades every year and bad weather brings out many adventures for our members.


OBRA tries to mantain a good repeater system in the upper outer bank area and we work very closely with the FESSENDEN AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY to our south in the Hatteras/Buxton area of the Outer Banks.


OBRA has many members that have joined our group just because they come to the Outer Banks each summer, and we welcome them and hope to have many more join so that we can keep making improvements. All hams are welcome to use the repeaters, we like to hear tourists using the repeaters when they come to visit the Outer Banks.


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