Effingham County, GA

K4LMR

Amateur Radio • Emergency Communications • Experimentation

Radios, antennas, field communications, infrastructure, networking, and the occasional questionable idea that works better than it probably should.

01 / About

Hey, I’m Matt.

I was first licensed in May 2018 as KN4MMA. Shortly after, I was introduced to the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) by my friend and Elmer, Jerome, KK1JE (SK), who was the District Emergency Coordinator for the Southeast District of Georgia. Jerome opened the door to a side of amateur radio that I didn't know existed, and I got the bug pretty quickly.

After spending some time working with ARES in both Chatham and Effingham counties, I was offered the position of Public Service Coordinator for the district. I served in that role for three years before becoming Assistant District Emergency Coordinator, a position I continue to hold today. I also serve as the Emergency Coordinator for Effingham and Bryan counties and represent Amateur Radio and ARES on the Georgia Hospital Coalition Region J Executive Board.

I currently work as a Radio Technician on the largest covering public safety communications network in the State of Georgia and I'm an EMAC-registered deployable All-Hazards ICS Communications Unit Leader (COM-L).

It has been a great privilege to support public safety communications during Hurricane Helene in 2024, Winter Storm Enzo in 2025, Orange Crush in 2024, and the Brantley County wildfires in 2026, along with numerous other planned events and exercises. I continue to serve in that capacity today, supporting communications wherever and whenever I'm needed.

In 2026, I traded KN4MMA for K4LMR. Besides being considerably easier to say on the air, it seemed fitting. LMR is the acronym for Land Mobile Radio, which pretty well describes where this hobby has taken me.

Amateur radio is still where I get to experiment, build, operate, and occasionally find out that the questionable idea actually worked.

02 / Station

Home Shack

My home station is built around a FlexRadio FLEX-6400 feeding a Chameleon EMCOMM II, with a Yaesu FL-2100B amplifier when a little more persuasion is appropriate. An Icom ID-5100A handles VHF/UHF and D-Star, alongside a Motorola APX4500 and APX7500 Consolette for P25.

DIGITAL MODES

FT8 • FT4 • Winlink • D-Star • DMR • P25 • Feld Hell • PSK31

03 / Mobile

Field Operating

I’m an avid Parks on the Air activator and hunter, with a particular weakness for contesting. Whether it’s working a pileup from a park, chasing a new one, or seeing how many contacts I can squeeze out of a band opening, I enjoy radio most when there’s a little bit of a challenge involved.

My mobile and portable setups support both voice and digital operation, and they’re also a good excuse to experiment with antennas, power, equipment, and setups that have to actually work outside of the shack.

04 / Design

MOBILE PLATFORM

The Excursion

A 2000 Ford Excursion 7.3L built for short-duration amateur radio field operations. It can deploy quickly with communications, power, networking, and computing, while still being a fully functional truck I can load the family into and take on vacation.

DEPLOYABLE PLATFORM

FedDx

A 2000 Freightliner MT45 stepvan being converted into a self-contained amateur radio and communications platform. It is designed for up to 12 hours of off-grid operation on battery power alone, with plans to extend that capability through solar and generator power. Shore power supports longer operating periods.

NETWORK

Mesh & Data

Radio doesn’t have to stop at voice. I’m involved with mesh networking and off-grid data communications, including serving on the Board of Directors for the Georgia Statewide Mesh Coalition. The goal is simple: experiment, build, connect, and find practical ways to move information when conventional infrastructure isn’t available. meshingwithgeorgia.net

MAKER

Build Stuff

A lot of my projects live somewhere between amateur radio, communications, and general tinkering. I’ve built deployable power kits, experimented with LiFePO4 batteries and portable solar, built field-ready radio setups, and spent entirely too much time figuring out how to make communications equipment work reliably away from commercial power.

I also collaborate with MakerNova on Meshtastic, MeshCore, and amateur radio products, helping turn some of those ideas and experiments into things other people can actually use.

Some projects solve an actual problem. Some start with “I wonder if this would work.” Usually those are the fun ones.

Say Hello.

Ham radio, field communications, projects, or just comparing questionable technical decisions.

Contact Me