NIHRAC
National Institutes of Health Radio Amateur Club
-- CELLEBRATING 60 years of ham radio FUN and public service ! --
We are an amateur radio club and public service volunteer group at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Membership is free and open to any individuals with an interest on ham radio, radio telecommunications, hands-on electronics experimentation, or volunteer emergency communications services.
NEWS AND UPDATES
The membership voted to move our monthly meetings to the first Monday of every month at 7:30PM.
In March 2024, NIHRAC celebrated 61 years promoting the hobby and serving our community.
A historical picture gallery was added, courtesy of Chuck Sherman: Field day 2002 on the NIH main campus. This event was documented on the NIH Record of August 6, 2002, Vo, LIV, No. 16.
We recently launched this new website. Please send your comments and suggestions to info@nihrac.org.
We have resumed our in-person monthly meetings at our radio station in the NIH Main Campus. However, we will continue to offer the ability for Club members and friends to join our meetings online via Zoom. For further details , see the CLUB MEETINGS section below.
CLUB MEMBERSHIP
Membership is free and available to anyone interested in amateur radio, telecommunications, emergency communications, or hobby electronics. A NIH badge is NOT required for membership. For more information, visit our Membership page.
CLUB RESOURCES
NIHRAC makes a number of resources freely available for use to its members. Our recently renovated facility has state-of-the-art radio stations and antenna systems for voice, cw and digital radio communications. There is space for meetings, an electronics workbench and equipment for radio experimentation and DIY electronics projects. Our storage has portable equipment for emergency deployment and a variety of loaner radios, power supplies and other equipment. Visit our Club Resources page to see more details.
REPEATER
We maintain a repeater in the 2-meter band that is openly available to anyone with an amateur radio license. We also make regular use of a local 70-centimeter repeater. Our 2-meter repeater frequencies are 144.69 MHz input / 145.29 MHz output. PL5A (156.7 Hz) encoding is required for access. For more details, please visit our Repeaters page.
CLUB MEETINGS
We meet the first MONDAY of every month at 7:30pm. Meetings are online or in person. We welcome everyone, with or without a ham license. We encourage NIH employees and contractors to join us, but every adult from the community is welcome. See our About Us page for directions and additional information. Online participation is via Zoom. The link to join meetings is shared via our email list (NIHRAC-L@list.nih.gov) prior to each event. We also hold a weekly "net", or on-the-air meeting, every Monday at 9:00 p.m. on our 2 meter repeater at 145.950 MHz. Hams can access the repeater by radio, or via the Internet using the EchoLink App (server "K3YGG-R").
HAM RADIO VIDEO OF THE MONTH
We find interesting videos, both new and old, about ham radio for your entertainment and education. The videos are selected from various Internet sources (Please ignore any advertisement; we do not endorse any products or business!) Look for a new video selection every month.
Do you have a favorite ham radio topic, like classic radios or satellite communications? If you find a video you think others might like, send it to us! Email the link and a brief description to: info@nihrac.org.