In March of 1987, Luke Calianno N2GDU, Dick Haungs W2UJR, Lou Esposito N2SFZ, Matt Gorski NS2M, and Al Petry KE2AJ founded the Lancaster Amateur Radio Club. The club was formed to meet the need for an amateur radio club in the eastern suburbs of Buffalo, NY. Later in that month, during its inaugural meeting, the club had over twenty ham radio operators attend the first meeting at the Lancaster School Building on Central Avenue. About a year later, the club moved its meeting location to the Aurora Street Middle School.
The Lancaster Amateur Radio Club sponsored its first hamfest in 1988 at Joseph Manor. Over the years, the hamfest grew exponentially forcing the club to move its location to several different sites including the Elks Club, Darien Center Fire Hall, Hearthstone Manor, Leonard VFW Post, Main-Transit Fire Hall, and the Ismalia Shriner’s Center in West Seneca. The first winter hamfest was held in 1998 at the Main-Transit Fire Hall. We now hold two annual hamfests: The Batavia Hamfest, which is held on the 3rd Saturday of July, and then the Lancaster Hamfest which is held on the 2nd Saturday of September.
The club’s first two-meter repeater was originally housed at Dick W2UJR’s home QTH. It was eventually moved to its present location on Pavement Road. We currently have three operating repeaters; a 2 meter, a 70 cm, and a 220 located at our current clubhouse on Pavement Road. We also have repeaters in Batavia NY; a 2 meter and a 70 cm.
The first clubhouse was located at the Boys and Girls Club on Broadway in Lancaster, NY. The club eventually left this small, one-room location because of the small space and inability to put up any legitimate antennas. In 1994, Lucian Greco, Lancaster Town Supervisor at the time, agreed to let the club use a building at the Lancaster Town Center on Pavement Road. The club eventually moved to its present location on Pavement Road a few years later.
The Lancaster Amateur Radio Club has always been affiliated with the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), but in 2002 we became a special service club. On August 5, 2001, we hosted the Western New York ARRL Section Convention at the Main & Transit Fire Hall.
In 2007, the club added IRLP (now Echolink) functionality onto the repeater system. With this expanded capability, former club members who moved out of the area could now catch up on club events. In the fall, a New Zealand station contacted us about his granddaughter, who was a foreign exchange student nearby. As it turned out, she was a student at Williamsville South High School where club member Bill Freeman N4NJJ was a student.
During the winter of 2007-2008, the clubhouse underwent an immense renovation. Bob Delamater AA2ZW and Ed Klimaszewski AB2HW took point on this project. Dennis Paufler N2DJP and Jim Glor N8GXR contributed many new things to the club during this renovation.
In 2018, we upgraded the radio room to be a state-of-the-art station, thanks to the generosity of Joe Gearhart (WV2NY), Bob Delamater (AA2ZW) and George Kaczmarek (KD2LLM). It includes three HF rigs with digital capabilities and separate logging computers. Also, the room includes a fully functional ARES station with voice, packet, and digital communications.