About NEAR-Fest

NEAR-Fest, or the New England Amateur Radio Festival, is a twice-annual event held on Friday and Saturday of the first full weekend in May and October. It is located in New Boston, New Hampshire. NEAR-Fest brings together amateur radio enthusiasts. It features vendor booths, equipment demonstrations, forums, and opportunities for networking among ham radio operators. Attendees can buy, sell, and trade gear and participate in workshops and discussions about various topics in the amateur radio community. It’s a great way for hams to connect, learn, and share their passion for radio communication.

NEAR-Fest is the largest amateur radio event in the Northeast and draws participants from all New England states and some from Canada!

The program of activities and events at NEAR-Fest is extensive: a huge outdoor electronic flea market, a commercial vendor building, technical seminars and symposia, demonstrations, exhibits, licensing examinations, special-event radio stations, a “jam session,” good food, fellowship, fun, and general mishegoss.

The New England Amateur Radio Festival Inc. (NEAR-Fest) is a registered Vermont 501(c)(3) non-profit.  All of our operations and event staff are volunteers. Funds remaining after expenses are used for benevolent projects. NEAR-Fest directs some of its resources to attract newcomers to our hobby with a particular emphasis on young people. To that end, NEAR-Fest has gifted an amateur radio station capable of communicating through satellites orbiting the Earth as a gift to the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord, NH, and brokered a partnership with the Contoocook Valley Radio Club (CVRC) to operate and maintain the station on a regular schedule.