General Information

We are a Club consisting of about 100 members mostly from the Summit and Portage County area with some as far away as Arizona. We range in age from about 10 to 80 years and older. We are students, business owners, retirees, housewives, teachers, tradespeople and technologists - all with a common interest in ham radio.

Our Club sponsors an annual Hamfest get-together that has a large radio, electronics, and computer flea market that provides a chance to buy, sell, or trade equipment. It's also an excellent chance to talk with other hams in person.

We participate in the annual Field Day exercise that provides practice in operating under emergency conditions and is an excellent introduction to contesting.

We own and operate a repeater station in Cuyahoga Falls that provides reliable communications over the greater Summit County area.

CFARC provides classes that will help new people to obtain amateur radio licenses and help current licensees to upgrade their licenses and gain greater operating flexibility.

We publish a monthly newsletter (The Chattering Relay) so that Club members keep in touch

In the summer months we have hidden transmitter hunts.

History

The Cuyahoga Falls Radio Club was founded in the Fall of 1955 as an offshoot of the Buckeye Shortwave Radio Association in Akron. The Club's purpose at the time was to provide communications for Civil Defense Zone C (Northern Summit County). The Federal Communications Commission granted the call letters W8VPV to the Club, for use during Club activities. Meetings were held at the city building in Cuyahoga Falls, which was also the location of Club's station. This early station consisted of a National HRO-60 receiver and a Collins 32V3 transmitter, purchased by the City of Cuyahoga Falls with federal matching funds for Civil Defense purposes.

Soon after the Club was founded, some members designed a small dual band transmitter/receiver that operated on the amateur 10 and 6 meter bands. Several of these units were built by Club members and were used on nets that were operated by the Club. About 1958, several more members built some units that were similar, but only operated on the 6 meter band.

In 1961 the Club moved its meeting location to the Civil Defense building on Water Street in Cuyahoga Falls. This location was not a good one for radio, as it was located next to a power substation. The Club moved in 1962 to the American Legion post on Front Street and remained there until 1967, when it was offered a meeting facility at the United Electronics Institute (Now NIT) on Orlen Avenue. In the early 1980's the Club moved its meeting place to the Bishop Scout Center behind the Church in Silver Lake. Here, it was able once again to establish a home station for W8VPV. In 2000 the Club moved to Hope Homes in Stow. In 2002 the Club was able to move back into Cuyahoga Falls and now meets at the Northampton Town Hall.