KD9GEK
Campbell Reed · Muncie, Indiana · licensed since 2016.
Most of my time in the hobby goes to the digital side of things — DMR and P25, APRS, packet radio, and lately Meshtastic — plus the programming and tooling that keeps that gear usable. If I'm not on the air, I'm usually building something adjacent to it.
The Station
| Location | Muncie, Indiana |
|---|---|
| Radios | A TYT MD-380 for DMR, a Motorola XTS3000 for P25, several Baofeng handhelds, and a Kenwood TS-140S for HF. |
| Antennas | A Moonraker GPA-80 vertical for HF — a six-meter whip covering 80 through 6 meters with no radials — plus a directional 2 m / 70 cm Yagi. |
| Digital modes | DMR on the MD-380 and P25 on the XTS3000, plus APRS, packet, and Winlink. |
| Software | Mostly my own tooling. Most recently, fitting the Broadband-Hamnet VPN tunnel onto a 4 MB WRT54G — hardware the official docs say is too small for it — and proving it still talks to stock nodes. See Projects. |
What I'm into
The hobby is wide enough that everyone ends up in their own corner of it. Here's mine.
DMR and P25
Digital voice is where I spend most of my operating time. Both modes reward the kind of tinkering I like — codeplugs, talkgroups, and getting a radio to behave the way you meant it to.
Meshtastic and LoRa
LoRa mesh networking sits right at the intersection of radio and software, which is the part of both hobbies I like best. I run nodes and write tooling around them.
APRS
Position and telemetry over the air, with a long-lived network behind it. It's a good reminder that amateur radio was doing packet data decades before anyone called it IoT.
Packet radio and BBSs
Packet and the BBS systems that run over it make up one of the older corners of the hobby and still one of the more interesting ones. Store-and-forward messaging that needs no infrastructure beyond the radios has aged well.
Transmitter hunts
Foxhunting is the part of the hobby that gets you outdoors with a directional antenna and a bad attitude toward multipath. It's also the best practical training there is in direction finding.
MAARC
I'm president of the Muncie Area Amateur Radio Club, which holds the callsign WB9HXG. The club accounts for a good share of my radio life — the meetings, the nets, and getting people on the air.
MAARC has been ARRL-affiliated since 1981 and supports amateur radio across Delaware County and the surrounding counties of East-Central Indiana. We meet monthly — normally the fourth Monday at 18:30, at the American Legion on North Walnut Street in Muncie. Anyone is welcome; you don't need to be a member, or even licensed, to come to a meeting. The club calendar has the current dates.
The club runs three repeaters:
| 2 m | 146.730 (−) · PL 127.3 |
|---|---|
| 1.25 m | 223.920 (−) |
| 70 cm | 444.375 (+) |
The MAARC net runs Sunday at 21:00 on the 2 m repeater, and the Muncie Area Wet Net is on most mornings — 06:00–08:00 on weekdays, a little later on weekends. The club site, WB9HXG.net, keeps a full list of nets across the area.
Licensing
I've held an FCC amateur license since 2016, under the callsign KD9GEK, and hold an Amateur Extra class license. I also hold an FCC Marine Radio Operator Permit.
Elsewhere
I built and maintain indianahamradio.com, a resource for amateur radio across Indiana.
Contact
By email: campbell.reed@reedsoftwaresolutions.com