12/08/2021

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.

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

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