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 -- Monday, April 12 at the American Red Cross, with pre-meeting dinner at 5 p.m. at Goode Company Taqueria, Westpark at Kirby. Our meeting will feature a zoom presentation by KJPP, J.P. Pritchard, who was a well known Houston broadcast anchor. He'll talk about how local radio stations dealt with communications during emergencies such as hurricanes. Zoom link will be sent out with the meeting reminder.
• Upcoming presentations - May will have a zoom presentation on QRP Operating and June will have an in-person/zoom presentation on scanner radios and how P25 changed emergency communications for goverment and private businesses.
  
• 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.
• Please 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                                                                  

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 Last updated on 1/27/2025 by Marty Blaise, AG5T