Rocky Mountain Ham Radio has been building the microwave backbone since 2007. Our goal was to create a cooperative microwave network to carry IP traffic to repeater site locations while remaining technology agnostic. “We’re really creating a highway to carry all sorts of radio traffic,” said Doug Sharp, K2AD, Chief Technology Officer of Rocky Mountain Ham Radio. In late 2019, Rocky Mountain Ham Radio completed its western microwave through to Grand Junction. The Colorado Connection is currently riding this for their western slope repeaters: Leadville, Vail, Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction. This portion of the network was financed by the membership and the generosity of many donors during our 2019 fundraising efforts.
In September 2021 Rocky Mountain Ham Radio in both Colorado and New Mexico completed a process that led to a grant from ARDC, Amateur Radio Digital Communications. ARDC makes grants to organizations for projects that are experimenting with new ways to advance both amateur radio and digital communication science. RMHAM asked for and received a grant totaling $374,233, of that amount $322,063 was dedicated to expanding the microwave backbone in both Colorado and News Mexico. This grant enabled Colorado to upgrade microwave sites along the front range of Colorado and expand on the I-70 corridor to Burlington on the Kansas border. The southern push increased our capability and capacity and has currently extended the network along the US50 corridor through Pueblo, LaJunta, Lamar to Syracuse Kansas. New Mexico upgraded their links north of Sandia Crest outside of Albuquerque and expanded south to El Paso Texas and the Mexican border.
The remaining funds, $52,170, allowed for the the creation of a mobile communications platform in New Mexico and refurbishing and upgrading of the existing Colorado communications trailer and the mobile vans.
Home The RMHAM ARDC Grant