National Institutes of Health
Radio Amateur Club (NIHRAC)

K3YGG

The NIH Radio Amateur Club has provided nearly a half century of voluntary public service, safety, and emergency-preparedness communications to the National Institutes of Health, and to the local, regional, and international communities. 

Resources Emergency Communications Center (ECC) NIHRAC operates the emergency communications center (ECC) at the Bethesda, Maryland campus of the National Institutes of Health and is responsible for supporting and maintaining communications within NIH and with other federal facilities in the event of an emergency. The ECC is located on the third floor of Building 11, the electric power cogeneration plant.

Steve Saletta (NINDS) operates one of the HF radio stations in the ECC

ECC facilities include:

· meeting/operations rooms

· electronics workbench & test equipment

· two high frequency (HF) radio stations

· very high frequency (VHF) and ultra high frequency (UHF) stations

· voice over IP to radio gateway

· computer terminals to support digital communications via radio

· a wide variety of antennas to support almost any operation

· equipment available for check out by club members

Repeaters

NIHRAC maintains two amateur radio repeaters on top of the NIH Clinical Center (building 10).  Both are open repeaters, but may be sequestered during drills, safety, and emergency operations.  Echolink (K3YGG-R) connectivity is provided on the 2M repeater to facilitate participation from members who live outside of the immediate area.

2 meter FM Repeater 144.69 input / 145.29 output

70 cm FM Repeater 442.925 input / 447.925 output

Membership

NIHRAC members enjoy use of our club’s facilities and serve as the backbone of the NIH emergency communication system during scheduled outages and in case of an emergency.

 We welcome applications from members of the NIH community (including contractors and others holding a NIH or HHS identification card) as well as individuals in the local community with an interest in amateur radio and emergency communications.

All new members will be trained on NIH-specific emergency communications procedures to include operation of the SHARES-HF network (communications network linking federal and military agencies). Upon completion of this training, members have limited operating privileges on frequencies related to these services.

New members who have not yet received their amateur license from the FCC are provided training by the club at no charge. The new FCC licensing process is relatively painless, all levels or licensure now only require the completion of a multiple choice testing. The entry-level exam can be easily passed with a modicum of study, even for individuals without a technical background.

An application form for membership or membership renewal may be downloaded here (64 KB pdf file).

Meetings and contact information

Weekly nets (on-air meetings) are held at 8:30 pm every Monday on the 2M repeater. We welcome check-ins from all stations over the air or via Echolink (K3YGG-R).

Official meetings are generally held at 1:00 pm on the first Saturday of each month on the Bethesda campus of the NIH in Room 308, the NIHRAC Emergency Communications Center, Building 11.  

For questions, contact the Emergency Communications Officer:
Andrew Mitz, Ph. D. (WA3LTJ)
arm@nih.gov
301 402-5573

Mailing address

NIHRAC c/o NIH Bldg. 13
Room G-903
Bethesda, MD 20892-5705
(301) 496-5311

Affiliations

NIHRAC is affiliated with the National Institutes of Health, the primary U.S. Federal Government organization responsible for medical and behavioral research.  NIH supports our club with facilities and equipment to promote the technical and professional development of our membership, enabling us to provide a higher level of service to our community and nation.

We are an integral part of the NIH Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) and maintain a close working relationship with The NIH Clinical Center, the hospital on the Bethesda, MD campus. Our club participates in the biannual emergency preparedness exercise by providing communications at the hospital.

NIHRAC has a long standing affiliation with the Montgomery County, Maryland RACES/ARES, as well as with the Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA).  

last updated 13 February 2007