Ham radio is one of the most important public services most people don’t know exists.

The FCC calls it the Amateur Radio Service... and for good reason. Amateur radio operators provide emergency communications, support severe weather operations, and maintain communication capability that communities rely on when nothing else works.

But almost nobody outside the hobby knows it’s happening.

Inside the hobby, there’s a quieter problem. A newly licensed ham gets a radio, programs a local repeater, keys up... and hears silence. They don’t know where the activity is, who’s around, or how to plug into the community.

The bands are alive... but unless you happen to be on the right frequency at the right moment, you might never know it.

That’s why I built NodusNet.

NodusNet uses small listener nodes... each one just a $30 SDR dongle and a lightweight app... to monitor local repeaters and feed activity into a shared dashboard. AI helps identify callsigns, detect net sessions, track participation, and build a real-time picture of what’s happening on the air.

For operators, it helps answer questions we’ve all had. Which repeaters are active? Who’s on the air? What nets are happening tonight? Who else lives in my local ham community?

For newly licensed hams, NodusNet can send a personalized welcome the first time they’re heard on the air and help connect them with experienced operators nearby before they ever feel alone on the bands.

NodusNet is free for the community, but the infrastructure behind it is real. Your support helps cover GPU compute for AI processing, servers and bandwidth that power the dashboards, and ongoing development as the project expands to new cities and bands.

If you believe the Amateur Radio Service deserves to be seen... by the operators who power it and the communities who rely on it... your support helps make that happen.

73

K0NWJ - Nate