12/08/2021

ÿ

A grant of $374,233 from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) to Rocky Mountain Ham Radio (RMHAM[1]) will go toward expanding a multistate 5 GHz microwave network and help to outfit communications trailers.

The microwave network enables partnering amateur radio clubs and groups to access, enable, or expand their repeater and other FCC Part 97-appropriate applications. The network provides 50 - 100+ Mbps of bandwidth and is managed and monitored by a dedicated network operations team.

"Amateur radio organizations across Colorado and New Mexico leverage this infrastructure to enable their own repeater and IP capabilities that would otherwise be difficult or prohibitively expensive to achieve," RMHAM said.

In Colorado, RMHAM will be able to grow its microwave network by 23 new microwave sites and 20 new point-to-point spans to expand IP connectivity and future repeater coverage across the western slope of Colorado and along the I-70 and I-76 corridors in eastern Colorado.

In New Mexico, RMHAM will grow its microwave network by 16 sites and 15 new point-to-point spans to expand IP connectivity and future repeater coverage south from Albuquerque to El Paso, Texas; along US Route 550 to Durango, Colorado, and across the Rio Grande Valley to Alamogordo, New Mexico. The club will also expand RMHAM digital repeater coverage (DMR or D-STAR, depending on coverage gaps) across New Mexico through the addition of seven repeaters co-located at their proposed new microwave sites.

As a result of the grant, RMHAM will also be able to upgrade its Colorado communications trailer, which offers both RF and IP connectivity, and to outfit a new trailer for service in New Mexico.

ÿ


[1] https://www.rmham.org/

---
þ Synchronet þ Whiskey Lover's Amateur Radio BBS