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May/June 2025
In this issue...
Upcoming Community Deadlines and Notices
- Next Grant Application Deadline: The next deadline for submitting a grant application is July 1, 2025. Applications received after this date will be reviewed in September 2025, so get your applications in now.
44Net Portal Source Code is Open!
With support and feedback from community contributors, we have spent the past year preparing the Portal for open-source release. The work has included improvements identified over the course of the launch, a thorough review from a security perspective, and efforts to make the project easier to understand, maintain, and share. These efforts bring us to a milestone: the source code now lives at git.ampr.org, licensed under the AGPLv3. If you’re interested in contributing, check out the links below:
Right now, new sign-ups for the GitLab repository are limited, to help control spam and bot accounts. Please reach out to john@ardc.net for access until we can adopt a better approach. You can also fork the repository and submit patches, if you’d like.
Grantee Updates
Check out the links below to learn more about what our grantees have recently been up to!
- SIGNALS: Museum of Information Explosion hosted its Grand Opening on March 1. Check out our guest blog post from Chuck Lewis N4NM to learn more: https://www.ardc.net/signals-museum-opens-in-huntsville/.
- ARISS is looking for volunteers to help out with their YouTube channel and to start a Discord group. If you’re interested, send them a DM on one of their social media pages (Twitter / X, Facebook).
- DLARC has published a wantlist for materials for the Archive. Check out this blog post for more information and to see if you have anything to contribute: https://archive.org/details/dlarc-wantlist. Also, curator Kay Savetz K6KJN was recently a guest on Q5 Worldwide Ham Radio, where he discussed the significance of the archive, what they’re currently working on, and what’s next: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SynkIuPJOvM.
- Two ARDC Grantees were among the 2025 Hamvention Award Winners. Kristina Collins KD8OXT (HamSCI, Case Amateur Radio Club W8EDU) received the Technical Achievement Award, and Neil Rapp WB9VPG (YOTA) received the Amateur of the Year Award. You can learn more about Kristina, Neil, and other award winners here: https://hamvention.org/event-details/awards/.
- FreeDV: Mooneer Salem K6AQ recently published a blog post highlighting his trip to Hamvention, which can be found here: https://freedv.org/another-hamvention-done/.
- Rhizomatica: at Hamvention 2025, ARDC Board Member Ria Jairam N2RJ spoke with Rafael Diniz, the lead developer of their High-frequency Emergency and Rural Multimedia Exchange System (HERMES). You can find the interview by following this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tT8qBC7yQM.
- Research from 2023 ARDC ARRL Scholarship recipient Mo Satt N2YU of NYU Tandon School of Engineering was recently highlighted in Newswise: https://www.newswise.com/articles/nyu-tandon-researchers-develop-simple-low-cost-method-to-detect-gps-trackers-hidden-in-vehicles-empowering-cyberstalking-victims/?ad2f=1&aid=829852.
- The SETI Institute published their latest highlights from their ARISE Lab, which can be found here: https://www.thebrighterside.news/post/new-seti-program-helps-students-detect-signs-of-advanced-life-beyond-earth/.
If you are a grantee and would like to have ARDC highlight your work, please send updates to giving@ardc.net. We love telling the world about the great work you all are doing to advance ARDC's mission and vision!
What ARDC Has Been Up To
ARDC President Bdale Garbee KB0G on Q5 Worldwide Ham Radio
 In late April, ARDC President Bdale Garbee KB0G joined Kevin Thomas W1DED of Q5 Worldwide Ham Radio to talk about his background, the early days of the Internet, and the origins of ARDC. He also shared where the foundation is today, highlighting our vision and its significance. You can catch the interview by following this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4DyoMlf0cA.
Hamvention 2025
Click photo(s) for the full-size image.
Hamvention 2025 took place May 16 - 18 in Xenia, OH. All of ARDC’s staff and many of our board members (we missed you, Keith K7WQ!) were at the show to share our latest updates, including our vision and strategy. Our forum (starting at the ~3:58 mark) drew an audience of ~100 attendees who were interested to learn more about our programs and hear from several of our grantees about their projects. At our booth, we assigned 44Net allocations to 44, yes 44, new users. Also, Board Member Phil Karn KA9Q was honored with the Mary Hobart, K1MMH, Medal of Distinction for his many contributions to amateur radio. As always, Hamvention was a fantastic event, and we look forward to 2026! For other ARDC-related content from the event, check out the links below:
NANOG 94
 NANOG 94 occurred from June 9 - 11 in Denver, CO. 44Net Program Manager John Burwell KI5QKX attended and was met with a wonderful experience while being surrounded by a great group of smart, friendly, energetic people. There was lots of talk about how to make the best use of Internet resources globally, which aligns with our approach with 44Net. Additionally, there were some great discussions on securing against modern threats like residential proxies and botnets, whether or not IPv4 is going away any time soon (apparently not!), and efforts to help secure the global routing tables with things like resource public key infrastructure (RPKI) and Autonomous System Provider Authorizations (ASPAs). Notably, John stated that “most exciting was how many people were familiar with ARDC and were hams themselves. People at NANOG generally already had all the IPv4 space they needed (as one might imagine), but they appreciated 44Net and the grants program. I had the opportunity to help demystify network 44 and share some of the history behind it. I met some of the people 44Net users work with at some of the carriers and cloud providers. And I was invited back, so we must seem likeable enough!”
UN Open Source Week 2025
 UN Open Source Week 2025 happened from June 16 - 20 in New York, NY. Executive Director Rosy Schechter KJ7RYV attended the event, which brought together leaders and practitioners from over 40 countries to explore the role of open technologies in global development. Participants showed strong interest in topics such as digital public infrastructure (DPI), among others. The event provided valuable insights into how open source can support transparency, collaboration, and innovation across sectors. Rosy stated that she was “glad to hear so much interest in open source as part of upholding peacekeeping objectives, and to learn from leaders representing many governments who are taking active steps to implement open source as a key component of their infrastructure. Open source products might be ‘harder’ to stand up and maintain than just using a proprietary product, but they are critical to maintaining independence and ensuring protection of data.”
Come See us at HAM RADIO Friedrichshafen and [Tentative] HOPE_16
ARDC will be out and about this summer: you will be able to find our team at the following event(s):
Contact Us!
We always want to hear from you:
ARDC's Mission
The mission of Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) is to support, promote, and enhance digital communication and broader communication science and technology, to promote amateur radio, scientific research, experimentation, education, development, open access, and innovation in information and communication technology.
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