W5ECO - Houston ECHO Society

Welcome! The Houston ECHO Society is a general interest amateur (ham) radio club serving greater Houston Texas, founded in 1974 to provide autopatches and assist with emergency communications. ECHO stands for Emergency Communications by Ham Operators. Today cell phones have replaced most of the autopatches on repeaters, but emergency communications is always of importance to the community.  ECHO maintains repeaters that may be used in times of emergencies as well as providing a pool of trained radio operators to assist in that effort. Houston is hurricane prone, so hams are vital if the area is hit by storms and bad weather. Click on a link below to learn more about ECHO. The club call is W5ECO. Photos of some of our activities are at the bottom of this page and on our photos page.

• Next club meeting -- July 13 at the American Red Cross, with pre-meeting dinner at 5 p.m. at Goode Company Taqueria, Westpark at Kirby. W2UIS, Mark Halabuda, will give a Zoom presentation on the General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS). GMRS is a land-mobile FM radio service that operates on UHF frequencies near 462 and 467 MHz. It is intended for two-way voice communication and limited data applications, facilitating personal, family, and emergency communications.Zoom link will be emailed with the meeting notice.
  
• August will be on JOTA and September on the Texas QSO Party (tentative).
• ECHO newsletters for 2026
  
• ECHO is always looking for amateur radio presentations. If you have a specialty contact martingblaise at gmail dot com. Presentations can be in person or by ZOOM. Direct all "snail mail" correspondence to: Houston ECHO Society, Attn: Mike Nault, 2016 Peppermill Rd., Houston TX 77080-5541.
• For national information on ham radio visit the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL).
• Houston Area Hamfest Information
• More club info: ECHO membership application 
• Club bylaws 
• Possible topics for ham radio presentations 
  
• ECHO has a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/W5ECO/  
  
• Ham Radio Web Sites/Resources                                                                  

REPEATERS | ACTIVITIES | OFFICERS | MEETING DATE/LOCATION | PHOTOS | NET | CALENDAR | OTHER AREA CLUBS | HOME 

latest update 6/12/2026