Dayton Hamvention 2026: Five Vendors to Watch
By Eric Hendrickson
Dayton Hamvention remains the single best event in North America to take the pulse of amateur radio. It’s where major manufacturers introduce us to upcoming products, where builders and experimenters compare notes in person, and where operators leave with practical knowledge, and a trunk full of new gear. The theme for this year’s convention is Radio Adventure!
Whether you find yourself at Dayton Hamvention to evaluate new equipment, interface with vendor representatives, or simply to reconnect with friends for the social aspect, the event really has a way of energizing the amateur radio community. With that in mind, here are five vendors that I think are worth watching in 2026 because they all align with a clear shift in the hobby and they’re producing gear that’s wanted by newcomers and hobby veterans alike.
The “big three”—Icom, Kenwood, and Yaesu—are absent from this list. They’ll get their own later. For now, I want to focus on the movers and shakers, the emerging forces that are driving the direction of the hobby with their affordable and desirable products, features, and culture.
Vendors to Watch at Dayton Hamvention 2026
These five booths cover a lot of ground, but they have one thing in common: They point straight at what is exciting right now in amateur radio: Precision, portability, and adventure.
Each of these companies have demonstrated clear innovation in response to consumer demand:
- FlexRadio is your front-row seat to modern SDR-first HF operating with a lot of power in a small package.
- QRP Labs is at the core of build culture, where affordable kits, clever designs, and robust features.
- RigExpert is the stop guessing booth, built around measurement tools that help you solve antenna and feedline problems quickly and confidently.
- Buddipole offers a comprehensive line of portable, packable antennas for a variety of uses.
- Lido Radio designs and manufactures innovative radio vehicle mounting systems that fit a range of makes and models.
FlexRadio Leads The Way with ‘Aurora’ Series
FlexRadio’s Aurora line (Booth 2007) is a very deliberate statement about where Flex sees the future of amateur radio. Their vision is of clean modern simplicity, reminiscent of Apple’s “clean desktop” philosophy that kicked off an entire generation of clean design.
For FlexRadio, the headliner here is their “truly integrated 500-watt SDR,” designed to erase the traditional boundaries between transceiver, amplifier, tuner, and power supply—without turning your shack into a sea of cables and switches. Aurora’s core idea is integration: More power in a compact chassis, super efficient PA, less heat to get rid of, and less infrastructure needed to get it all on the air. Fewer boxes to buy does not necessarily translate to fewer dollars. Flex’s clean, efficient design comes at a cost but they do offer competitive financing terms for those willing to take on debt in order to play radio.
The most jaw-dropping part of the Aurora’s futuristic design is FlexRadio’s claim of 90+ percent PA efficiency. This is a major leap over conventional MOSFET/LDMOS designs that typically run at 40 to 60 percent efficiency so I can only assume they’re using advanced materials like Gallium-Nitride (GaN) in their finals. Exotic transistors combined with their digital polar amplification process and it’s completely plausible that they’re reaching 90 percent amplifier efficiency or better.
FlexRadio is quick to point out that their 500-watt PA fits in the physical envelope of more traditional 100-watt systems and runs cool enough to share the existing FLEX-8000 heatsink footprint—a pretty bold move, and exactly the kind of thing people will want to see demonstrated in person at Hamvention.
QRP Labs Speaks to Portable Users and Builders
QRP Labs (Booth 2603) makes the cut on my Dayton Hamvention Five Vendors to Watch list because it represents one of the enduring forces in amateur radio: People who want to build, understand, and operate their own gear. That spirit has never been more relevant. In a hobby that can drift toward “buy it and use it,” QRP Labs pulls us back to the roots of radio with their build-your-own kits.
Nothing screams “Radio Adventure” like building your own and QRP Labs reminds us that satisfaction comes in many forms and sometimes it’s the moment you make that first contact with a rig you assembled yourself.
What makes QRP Labs especially worth watching in 2026 is that their products are built around the way people operate right now—portable, efficient, and disciplined. They also sit at the intersection of two big currents in the hobby: The continued surge in field operating and the growing appetite for compact stations that run on batteries. The built-in sound modem makes FT8 and other digital modes more accessible by eliminating an external sound card and the complications that come with those devices.
With the recent addition of single sideband capability to their QMX and QMX+ line of portable gear. This expands the pocket-sized battery-operated world to a whole new universe of users. These competent little morsels put a SOTA activation within reach of a new crowd of operators and I’m excited to see more folks adopt these carry-on ready transceivers.
RigExpert Suits Hams and Mesh Users Alike
MeshCore is lighting up the ISM bands these days. As interest in mesh networking has blossomed, so has the demand for the gear needed to test and maintain MeshCore repeater infrastructure. More and more CERT and ARES/RACES groups are investigating mesh networking’s usefulness for critical emergency communications and these teams want numbers in the form of repeatable test results without complicated calibration hardware and procedures.
That’s what puts the Stick XPro by RigExpert (Booth 1301) on my list. It’s a practical grab-and-go tool that lets anyone stop guessing and start measuring, especially in the neighborhood that matters to the MeshCore community: The 915MHz ISM Band. Instead of swapping antennas and coax until it works better, you can actually see what’s going on and make deliberate changes on the spot.
What makes the Stick XPro such a strong value is that it delivers on how many of us operate: Out of a back pack just as frequently as on the builder’s bench. Best of all, RigExpert has made the Stick XPro so simple to use, that even a casual MeshCore repeater builder can use it to ensure their antenna installation is performing as expected every single time.
Whether you’re deploying a repeater or heading out for a SOTA/POTA activation, having a good read on SWR is vital. This is one of those cry one; buy once things. Besides keeping your MeshCore antennas honest, the easy-to-use Stick XPro also covers HF, VHF, and UHF, right up to 1GHz. Testing those new antennas you picked up at Hamvention will be easier than ever.
You don’t need to be an RF engineer to benefit from this tight little goes-anywhere instrument. On the contrary, this is one of those rare intuitive tools that actually make it easier to be a safe and effective operator. RigExpert is on my list for their approachable design and easy operation.
Buddipole Answers the Call with Portable Antennas
Buddipole (Booth 3003) makes the cut on my list because “Radio Adventure” is not only the slogan for this year’s Dayton Hamvention, it’s a reminder that the fastest way to recharge your interest in this hobby is to operate from a remote location and Buddipole is absolutely built for the occasion.
Portable operating has become mainstream for a reason: It gets us on the air more often, promotes compact, efficient design, and gets us outdoors. Their gear is designed to pack small, deploy quickly, and get you on the air and bagging contacts without turning the entire day into an engineering project.
Where Buddipole really shines for SOTA/POTA is in the way their accessories help solve the biggest portable headaches:
- Getting the antenna high enough to be efficient.
- Keeping it stable enough for safe all-day operation.
- Making it tough enough to withstand repeated setups and tear downs.
Their mast-and-mount options make it easy to build a self-contained station that does not depend on trees, railings or perfect terrain. You can run a compact dipole, a vertical, or other variations that fit in tight spaces. Buddipole’s portability first design philosophy is worth checking out.
Lido Radio Locks It Down With Mounting ‘Ecosystem’
Lido Radio (Booth 2506) is the place to be for anyone who wants their mobile station to survive the real world: Gravel roads, washboard, potholes, and the kind of vibration that can turn a mediocre installation into a loose, wobbly mess. Before you take your rig off-road, you need mounting that stays put and stays safe. Lido’s strength is clean, solid installs—often with “no holes” options that use existing mounting points, so you can build a serious setup without permanently altering your vehicle’s interior.
What really makes them worth watching is their practical and affordable modular ecosystem. Their seat bolt mounts are designed to work with common 1-inch (25 mm) ball systems, which is a very sturdy system that makes it easy to position a control head exactly where you want it and keep it there.
Lido also lines up nicely with how modern radios are built. A lot of current rigs use remote heads and standard patterns like the 4-hole AMPS layout, which Lido supports with several units. That means you can mount the parts you actually use: Control head, microphone, and other accessories in a way that looks good and stays put.
Lido Radio makes the list because I’m a big fan of articulated, modular mounting systems and I think they do it very well. They make it easier and safer for us to enjoy radio in our vehicles and that means a lot to me.
Radio Adventure is Yours at Dayton Hamvention 2026
Well, that’s it for now. I’ll have more on the topic very soon. Dayton Hamvention 2026 runs May 15-17 in Xenia, Ohio, and this year’s theme is “Radio Adventure.” Show up with a plan and some comfortable shoes. Give yourself time take it all in. Have your list of must-see vendors with you so you don’t forget anyone. It’s a huge venue and it is easy to get distracted.
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