Tour 1 – Welcome

Many of you may have never heard of Col­orado Con­nec­tion Re­peat­ers, Inc. The cor­pora­tion is a non-profit or­ganiza­tion sup­port­ing The Col­orado Con­nec­tion, a uni­que statewide two meter li­nked FM radio sys­tem with ad­dition­al co­verage into ad­ja­cent states. Cur­rent­ly the re­peat­er sys­tem pro­vides co­verage to about 80-90% of the state’s popula­tion and about 50-60% of the area. Volun­te­ers have set the goal of pro­vid­ing co­verage to vir­tual­ly all of our state’s popula­tion and 90-100% of Col­orado’s area. The Col­orado Con­nec­tion is not a club with dues and mem­bership. It’s an in­valu­able tool of the amateur radio com­mun­ity, pro­vided sol­e­ly through the fin­an­ci­al sup­port of the sys­tem users. The volun­te­ers of the Con­nec­tion would like to in­vite you to take a tour of the Con­nec­tion to learn about its many uni­que fea­tures.

The Con­nec­tion doesn’t offer a phone patch. In­stead, we have bord­er to bord­er VHF co­verage via two meter radio. What makes the Con­nec­tion uni­que is the ease of op­era­tion. There are no com­plex con­trol codes needed to op­erate dis­tant re­peat­ers – simp­ly trans­mit on your local re­peat­er frequen­cy and you’re con­nec­ted with the en­tire sys­tem. With many solar powered sites, the Con­nec­tion is the hig­hest all amateur li­nked radio sys­tem in the world. It is sup­por­ted sol­e­ly by volun­te­er time, talent, money, and equip­ment! The Con­nec­tion ser­ves many com­munit­ies as an em­er­gen­cy com­munica­tions bac­kup. All li­cen­sed amateur radio op­erators with two meter privileges are wel­come to use the sys­tem and our volun­te­ers sup­port the Con­nec­tion for the love of amateur radio.

With­out your sup­port the Con­nec­tion can­not sur­vive. Col­orado Con­nec­tion volun­te­ers ask that each of you con­sid­er what value the Con­nec­tion is to you and the amateur radio com­mun­ity. We hope to ex­pand co­verage, which re­quires a great deal more than the $300-$400 per month we need to sus­tain op­era­tion and hope that you’ll help us in rea­ch­ing these goals. Please con­sid­er a dona­tion to help us bring added co­verage to rural Col­orado.

Send your dona­tions and ideas to our address. For more in­for­ma­tion about the Con­nec­tion, con­tinue on your tour!