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West Park Radiops Amateur Radio Club is one of the oldest radio clubs in the Northeast Ohio, having been founded in October, 1947. We have celebrated our 73rd anniversary as an amateur radio club. Our members come generally from the northeast Ohio, greater Cleveland, area. West Park Radiops is a long time American Radio Relay League (ARRL) affiliated radio club. As a former ARRL Special Service Club, we provided public service and technical development of radio amateurs in all areas of amateur radio communications. CQ Contest magazine has listed us in the top five contest clubs in the 8th district.
Contesting (HF SSB & CW & RTTY, VHF all modes)
HF and VHF operating
Antenna Designs
DX
Technical programs at meetings
Public Service
Satellite Operating
Weekly 2 Meter Net (Mondays, 8 p.m., 147.36+, 107.2 PL)
Ham Radio Computing
JULY PICNIC MAP
South Mastic Picnic Area Aerial View
South Mastic Picnic Area Map View
MEETING INFORMATION:
West Park Radiops ARC meets the SECOND Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. each month at the North Olmsted, Ohio, library. For more information read our newsletter pages.
See us on 147.36+ 107.2 PL on Monday evenings (except certain holidays) at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. Net control operator is a rotating list of members.
Two ARRL directors and two Section Managers have come from West Park membership ranks (see below). We were the FIRST club to have a LOGO featured in QST, in 1975. The West Park logo (above) was designed by Dwaine Modock, K8ME (SK). We have won first place in many early day Field Day contests. In current contests, you will find that our club has more per capita contest entrants than most other Ohio clubs. We were recently honored by CQ Contest magazine by being named one of the top five contest clubs in the U.S. 8th district. We conducted the first VE-coordinated amateur radio exams in Cuyahoga County, back in July, 1985. Liaison for those exams was Glenn Williams, AF8C. Jim Russell, W8BU (SK), was one of the VE's (see below). The 1951 West Park Roster lists Walt Widlar as member No. 99 with an address in Parma, Ohio. The same roster lists Bob Widlar, no call, as member 104. Walt Widlar, W8ERI, was a Cleveland ham operator and worked for WGAR on their mobile unit with an FCC license of Radio Telephone operator license First Class. He was also with Bird Electronics in Cleveland and two of his developments were the sonobouy and the Bird Model 43 trueline wattmeter. Walt's son Bob died in 1992 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Bob designed linear integrated circuits. His products included the Fairchild 709 op amp, the National Semiconductor LM101, and the LM12 which is still in production. Bob wrote a transistor course for the Air Force in about 1960. Bob was recently inducted into the Electronics Design magazine Hall-of-Fame for his work on the 709 op amp. West Park Radiops is a co-founder of the Greater Cleveland Amateur Radio Committee (GCARC) which established a special event station for the Cleveland bicentennial. Recently Jim Widlar, Walt Widlar's son, acquired Walt's call via the vanity call application process. Jim, W8ERI, has recently operated as ZF2ZL and ZK1AAA. John Papay, K8YSE, former member of the club, has recently operated as FO0PAP and KH8SI. He is an award winning national leader in working grid squares via amateur satellite.
WAS: Dwaine Modock, K8ME (SK)
VUCC: was Alan Moriarty, N8CX (SK) ; now To Be Determined
President: Glenn Williams, AF8C af8c<at>arrl.net
Vice President: Karl Beckman WA8NVW<at>arrl.net
Secretary: open
Treasurer: Ann Wadsworth, KA8ZEP
Fifth Board Member: Elaine Wilkinson, KC8FOS ewilkinson1951<at>gmail.com
Editor: AF8C (curator of the HAMFAQS page). [Opening his Web page transfers you out of our West Park Radiops page and the West Park Radiops Privacy Policy will no longer be in effect.]
License Trustee for W8VM: N8WB
Former ARRL directors Al Severson, AB8P (SK), and Dick Egbert, W8ETU, (SK) came from our membership.
SCMs/SMs from our ranks include W8AJW, Jack Siringer (SK), and past Ohio SM, N8AUH, David Kersten.
Jim Russell, W8BU, was 8BU in the 1921 Second Transatlantic Tests, as one of only 9 operators using spark to send a signal across the Atlantic to Paul Godley, 2XE, in the fall of that year. See page 73 of the ARRL publication "200 meters and Down" for more information on that event. Jim was also one of our original Volunteer Examiners. Jim regrettably became a Silent Key on August 17, 1997, at the age of 98. His XYL, also a ham, was Eila Russell, WA8EBS, who passed away just a few years before Jim.
Jerry Murphy, K8YUW, former member, founded the now famous Hurricane Net, after personally supporting the cleanup after Hurricane Camille in Gulfport and Biloxi, MS, in 1969.
West Park Radiops was the first club to use the APRS software in a Public Service Event in the Cleveland area, assisting the Lake Erie Wheelers Bicycle Club in their Four County Metric ride in July of 1994. Dave Freeman, K8YQL, coordinated that event. We have supported them many summers since then with 2 meter mobile communications. For many years we have supported ALL SCOUTS WEEKEND by setting up and operating stations in the North Olmsted, Ohio, City Park on the first or second weekend of every June. Many scouts have become new hams after seeing our station in operation there. Recently, West Park Radiops has provided people to support delivering food baskets to the poor in western Cleveland suburbs. West Park members have, over the years before cell phones, supported such public service activities as the old Cleveland REVCO (now CVS) Marathon in early May and other similar activities. Three decades ago we had members supporting radio communications in the cleanup activities after the famous Johnstown (PA) flood.
As a former ARRL Special Service Club, we have often provided WAS and VUCC card checking at the Cleveland Hamfest as described above.
SPECIAL SERVICE
We have members regularly volunteering three times a year to support food delivery to the needy in Lakewood, Ohio. We will be supporting this event after the pandemic as well as other activities. We supported the Bay Village Scouts during annual October Firelands Campground activities in 2000-2007. Our 2016 ALL SCOUTS activity occurred on June 4 in North Olmsted City Park, by Lorain Road.
Activities described on our web pages at this site include:
Our 2003 ALL SCOUTS WEEKEND activity occurred on June 7 in North Olmsted City Park, by Lorain Road.
The 2008 ALL SCOUTS WEEKEND operation occurred on Saturday June 7.
Our 2017 FIELD DAY WEEKEND activity occurred on June 24-25 in Cleveland, Ohio.
NEW! 1962 FIELD DAY WEEKEND activity.
Our 1964 FIELD DAY WEEKEND activity in North Olmsted, Ohio.
Our 2001 FIELD DAY WEEKEND activity occurred on June 23-24 in Columbia Station, Ohio.
Our 2003 FIELD DAY WEEKEND activity occurred on June 21-22 in Columbia Station, Ohio.
Our 2006 FIELD DAY WEEKEND activity occurred on June 24-25 in Olmsted Falls, Ohio.
Our 2008 FIELD DAY WEEKEND activity occurred on June 28-29.
Our 2009 FIELD DAY WEEKEND activity occurred on June 27-28 in Columbia Station, Ohio.
Our 2014 FIELD DAY WEEKEND activity occurred on June 28-29 in Columbia Station, Ohio.
Our 2015 FIELD DAY WEEKEND activity occurred on June 27-28 in Columbia Station, Ohio.
Our Contesting - Under development
Hal,W8PN (SK) put together a scrapbook of QSL cards from club members going all the way back to beginning of the club. Since we have had around 500 members over the years, we know there are still a lot of folks out there who do not have one of their cards in his book. If you would like to have one of your cards (the older the better) in his book, email to w8vm<at>ARRLnet .
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For hardcopy information on membership, meeting times, or for samples of our newsletter, the West Park Radiops "LOG", contact:
West Park Radiops Amateur Radio Club c/o Glenn L. Williams, AF8C 4134 Stoney Ridge Rd. Avon OH 44011
Curator: Glenn L. Williams,
af8c<at>arrl.net
Last Update: 02 June 2023
