Black River Radio Ops is an amateur radio club in Northern Ohio. It is named after the Black River, a tributary of Lake Erie that runs from Lake Erie through Lorain, Medina, and Ashland counties.

Black River Radio Ops was founded by a group of operators who share common interests in contesting, DXing, and digital modes but wanted to spend more time “playing radio” and less time “playing club politics.”  We’re focused on getting on the air, getting on HF, and having a good time while doing it without taking ourselves very seriously.   Call it, “the anti-Club.” We don’t like meetings, we don’t call for votes, and if anyone shows up with a copy of Robert’s Rules of Order, well, that might be grounds for duct taping them to an antenna mast.

CQ WPX RTTY 2019
Field Day 2019

Upcoming events and news about our operations can be found on this website and on our Facebook page.  Our club’s callsign, NW8S, supports LoTW, eQSL, or even direct QSL after any event or contest.  

The club also operates an XLX reflector (xlx688.ab8m.com) with DMR operations on Port A and D-Star operations on Port B, and a YSF reflector (US BRRO / 688) that is linked to XLX688 Port A, a UHF MMDVM repeater, as well as a Kiwi SDR receiver.

We hope that our efforts to further amateur radio will inspire potential new operators to become licensed or for other amateurs to become more active within the hobby.  This is a large hobby with numerous opportunities and sub-interests: Disaster Preparedness / Relief, Emergency Communications, Contesting, Morse Code, Weak Signal Work, Digital Communications, DXing (chasing distant countries) and of course, plain old “ragchewing” or talking on the air to other amateurs.  There’s something for anyone with an interest.  

M/2 Contest Operations

We look forward to seeing you on the air, in the logbook, or at an event!

73 de KB8O, AB8M, KM8V, NQ8O, KC8NZJ, NA8Q