Author: Steven Ruman

2026 OSPOTA

WARA participated in Ohio State Parks on the Air (OSPOTA) once again in 2026.

September 12, 2026 10 am – 6 pm local time

We setup at Mosquito lake State Park near the marina (MST in OSPOTA and US-1978 for POTA). We were active on 80-10m SSB and CW.

Anyone interested in amateur radio were encouraged to stop out and visit.

Details of the event can be found at http://ospota.org/

Finshing up the set up of Steve’s (N8HRZ) Tower Trailer with Jim’s (K8CPG) V-Dipoles hanging from it. A big thank you to everyone who helped with the setup of all of the antennas! It took us close to 3 hours to get everything set up for the event. We were able to tear down in just over an hour. Rain was threatening which helped us move a lot faster.

Tom (K8CX) on CW and Jim (AE8TA) on SSB.

Dave (KF8EVL) on SSB with Ron (KE8TNW) spotting.

The Tower all set up attracted the attention of several people passing by. We met some local hams we had not met before.

We had to set up tents because it rained a bit that day. We were lucky, many other areas of Ohio had thunder and lightning storms. We heard that there was at least one other club that quit early due to the storms.

Jim (K8CPG) at his laptop and Gary (KB8GAB) working the radio in Jim’s trailer.

Jim’s (K8CPG) radio and laptop set up.

2026 Hamfest

Thanks to everyone that helped make the 2026 hamfest such a success.

Our Check-in team hard at work

Yesterday our prep team got all of the tables set up and ready to go. It is 5:20am and time to finish up the preparations.

8:00am time to begin the hamfest. Not a bad turnout of vendors considering the threat of storms today. Fortunately the storms went around us this year

Some of the many outside vendors getting set up. More showed up shortly after this photo was taken.

Just after opening. Early birds get the good stuff! Some of our 250+ visitors.

A few of our club members busy working raffle and Chinese auction sales.

Food sales went really well. Gotta love those sausage & cheese english muffins, hot dogs and nacho chips. Then muffins and cookies for desert!

At the hangout tables waiting for the raffles and Chinese Auction.

Hamvention

flea market spots 9313 & 9314 circled in red below will be the WARA W8VTD headquarters at Hamvention 2026

We plan to have a canopy to get out of the sun and cold water for members.

Raffle tickets for our 2026 hamfest will be available

Brandon KE8ARB will join us at tonight’s meeting to discuss MeshCore. MeshCore is a multi platform system for enabling secure text based communications. It can be used for Off-Grid Communication, Emergency Response & Disaster Recovery, Outdoor Activities, Tactical Security including law enforcement and private security and also IoT sensor networks.

Also the April 21st meeting has been replaced with skywarn class on the same night check our meetings page for the details