A group of ham radio operators is creating a “Special Event” to make the annual US 127 Yard Sale an even more special event than it already is.
Members of the Williams County Amateur Radio Association will be stationed at the New Hope Community Church north of Bryan, Ohio on US Hwy 127 during what’s billed as the “World’s Longest Yard Sale” on August 1-3, 2024.
They will be calling attention to the church’s efforts to bring hope and help to abandoned children, people with special needs, prisoners, and others in Uganda through their personal mission efforts of sending teams there and support for when they are back here at home.
The church will have their large parking lot on US Hwy 127 filled with people who have rented spaces to sell their yard sale items as well as offering food for sale, whose proceeds are all going to their Uganda Mission work which the church has been doing for about ten years.
For their part, the ham operators are having what is termed a Special Event. “For ham radio operators, a Special Event is a publicly significant event where a club like ours sets up a number of radios and are given a special call-sign that attracts other ham operators to contact us,” said Stan DeGroff, president of the Williams County group.
“We will be set up at the church and operating throughout the yard sale. We will be reminding other ham radio operators about the significance of the mission work being done for Uganda by the New Hope church, as well as providing a demonstration of how amateur radio operators provide valuable free services to their communities,” he continued.
DeGroff said the operators who contact them during the Special Event will be sent a commemorative contact card about the event and when they made their contact. The cards are often kept and displayed in their radio rooms as prized souvenirs.
The event is held in the parking lot of the South Campus of New Hope Community Church, located directly at 15627 US Hwy 127, on the north side of Bryan.
Anyone from the area is encouraged to stop by and watch the ham radio operators making contacts during the Special Event.