 Founded in March 7, 1963, at the NIH campus in Bethesda, the NIH Radio Amateur Club has provided over a half century of voluntary public service, safety, and emergency-preparedness communications to the National Institutes of Health, and to local, regional, national and international communities.
Membership in our Radio Amateur Club is open to anyone interested in the hobby. An Amateur Radio license is NOT required. We conduct monthly in-person meetings in the Bethesda Campus of the National Institutes of Health (see below) the FIRST SATURDAY of every month at 1:30PM. We also hold on-the-air meetings, or radio nets, every Monday night at 9:00PM US Easter Time. Additionally, we participate in radio contests and conduct a number of hobby and volunteer amateur radio activities. Meeting dates sometimes is changed in response to USA holidays or other special events. See our Home page for updated information. NIHRAC is affiliated with the National Institutes of Health, the primary U.S. Federal Government organization responsible for medical and behavioral research. NIH provides our club facility but our funding is fully provided by voluntary donations from our membership.
We play a voluntary role in 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. Because of this role, our Club facility is also called the NIHRAC Volunteer Emergency Communications Facility (VECF). Our club members sometimes volunteer in emergency preparedness exercises with the local hospital and other emergency preparedness events (for example, see this NIH Record article). We also collaborate with the National Library of Medicine on the Bethesda Hospital Emergency Preparedness Partnership (BHEPP), providing radio operating and engineering expertise for an emergency communications research and development project. See our NIH EmComm Support page for additional details.
NIHRAC has a long standing affiliation with the Montgomery County, Maryland RACES/ARES, and the Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA). The Club is also AMSAT Life Member Society #20 (since about 1970), and Club Sponsor of The Mid-Atlantic Repeater Council (T-MARC). We are also responsible for NIH's affiliation with Army-MARS. We also maintain a close relationship with the Montgomery County Auxiliary Communications Service (MCACS), the Montgomery Amateur Radio Club (MARC) and the Randallstown Amateur Radio Club (RARC).
Our meetings are held at the NIHRAC facility located at the Central Utility Plant in the NIH Bethesda campus, Building 11, Room 305. GPS coordinates: 38°59'54.6"N, 77°06'11.1"W.
To attend our meetings:
 The campus can be easily reached by metro and other public transportation. For more details about accessing the NIH campus in Bethesda, visit the NIH Visitor Information page. There is also a useful Google map in our Contact Us page.
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