Ham Radio Outlet
| Ham Radio Outlet | |
|---|---|
| Type | Private, family-owned company |
| Also called | HRO |
| Founded | 1971, when Bob Ferrero took over a radio store in Burlingame, California |
| Founder | Robert G. "Bob" Ferrero, W6RJ (then K6AHV) |
| Amateur radio | |
| Business | Retail stores, online and phone sales |
| Known for | New amateur radio equipment from many manufacturers, sold through a chain of stores |
| Stores | 12 in the United States (2026) |
| Status | Active |
| Website | hamradio.com |
Ham Radio Outlet, usually called HRO, is an American chain of amateur radio stores. It sells new radios, antennas and accessories from many manufacturers through its stores and by phone and online. The business dates from 1971, when Bob Ferrero, a ham then licensed as K6AHV and later known as W6RJ, took over a small radio store in Burlingame, California, south of San Francisco. It remains family owned, and in 2026 its website listed 12 stores across the United States, from the West Coast to New England and Florida.
History
Ferrero was a U.S. Navy veteran and a California Highway Patrol officer. In 1971 he acquired the store in Burlingame, which he later described as a "little radio emporium on a wooden train platform." Over the following decades he built it into a chain of stores in several states.
Ferrero was also an active DXer. He took part in several DXpeditions, including the first to Kingman Reef in 1974, and operated from a number of countries in the 1980s and early 1990s. He was inducted into the CQ DX Hall of Fame in 1997 and the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame in 2005, and he was an early supporter of the Northern California DX Foundation. He died on December 4, 2015, at the age of 78. At that time his son, Robert Ferrero, W6KR, was a co-owner of the business, and HRO had 14 stores.
HRO opened a store in Plano, Texas, in early 2015. In 2016 Amateur Electronic Supply (AES), another long-established chain of ham radio stores, went out of business after 59 years. HRO hired some former AES staff and took over the AES headquarters building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which it remodeled and reopened as an HRO store on August 27, 2016. The Milwaukee store, with a row of demonstration stations where shoppers can try radios, became HRO's largest location. The same year HRO moved its Portland, Oregon, store to a larger building.
Products and services
HRO is a dealer rather than a manufacturer. Its stores and website carry:
- Transceivers from the major makers, including Icom, Yaesu and Kenwood, from handhelds and mobile radios to HF transceivers.
- Antennas and station equipment, including amplifiers, antenna tuners, power supplies, cable and connectors.
- Books, including study guides for hams getting licensed or upgrading.
- Distribution for some manufacturers based outside the United States. HRO has served as the US distributor for Apache Labs and for Lab599, whose TX-500 portable transceiver it began listing in 2020.
Besides selling through its stores, HRO exhibits at some large hamfests and conventions.