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Meshtastic EmComm Grant Submitted to ARDC
All,
I am excited to update everyone on a project I have been working on for the past several weeks.
After researching and posting about Meshtastic here in the forums, I explored possible funding options for a club EmComm mesh network. I first checked with club leadership — they gave full approval to move forward. With help from Grok AI on analysis and drafting, I prepared and submitted a grant request to Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC).
What is ARDC and Why Might They Fund This?
ARDC is a California-based nonprofit foundation dedicated to supporting amateur radio and digital communications technology. In the late 2010s they sold a portion of their large IPv4 address block (originally obtained in 1981 by Hank Magnuski, KA6M) to Amazon for roughly $108–109 million. They retained the majority for amateur radio use and now fund grants from the endowment.
- 2026 grantmaking target: ~$3.8 million
- Total assets: ~$128 million (end of 2024)
ARDC prioritizes projects that advance learning, experimentation, mesh networking, and community resilience — exactly what our Meshtastic proposal targets. They review applications quarterly, and many clubs and groups have received funding for similar repeater, mesh, and education initiatives.
Our Submission
I patterned our request after several previously funded, nearly identical Meshtastic projects. We submitted before the July 2nd deadline for this review cycle.
The package includes:
- 20 × ELECROW ThinkNode M6 solar nodes ≈ $2,400
- 30 × LILYGO T-Deck Plus portable nodes ≈ $2,700
- Antennas, mounts, cases & accessories ≈ $900
Total requested: ~$6,000
We recently added a strong endorsement letter from Lamar County Emergency Management Coordinator Quincy Blount. Club board member Haskell Maroney (K5HRM) coordinated the request, and the letter (now part of our packet) is very supportive. Thank you, Haskell!
Next Steps
ARDC typically takes up to three months to announce decisions. While we wait, I strongly encourage everyone to read through our existing Meshtastic forum thread. Get familiar with the hardware, theory, range mapping, and potential EmComm applications.
If the grant is approved, this will add a powerful new layer of resilient communications capability for our area. I am looking forward to the possibility of hands-on deployment, testing, and training together.
The full submission package and endorsement letter are linked here:
Submission Package
Endorsement Letter from Quincy Blount73
Phillip Beall (W5EBC)
Vice President & Web Admin, RRVARCPhillip
awesome job on submitting the fund request
i have begun building my own Mesh network
including the ‘repeater’
steve
ARDC Meshtastic Grant Update – Update posted here (click link)
All,
I have a significant update on our Meshtastic Emergency Communications grant application to Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC).
As I previously reported, RRVARC originally submitted a request for approximately $6,000 to develop a Meshtastic-based EmComm network for Lamar County and the surrounding area. Following ARDC’s initial review, I had a Zoom conference on August 21 with Adam Zimmel (W0ZML), ARDC’s Grants & Administrative Associate, to discuss the reviewers’ questions and what they wanted clarified in a revised application.
That conversation was extremely helpful.
The principal issues ARDC wanted us to address were the relationship between Part 15 Meshtastic operation and Amateur Radio Part 97 operation, the status of our proposed elevated backbone locations, documented support from organizations we may serve and additional detail about implementation, outreach and education.
We went back to work.
The revised application submitted September 13 is considerably stronger than our original proposal. Among the highlights:
• Part 15 and Part 97 are explicitly separate networks. There will be no bridging, gating, routing or automatic forwarding of traffic between the two services. Where both capabilities exist at a location, they will use separate radios and remain independent.
• We documented actual elevated infrastructure. The revised application identifies four member-controlled tower locations exceeding 50 feet AGL along with additional distributed sites around Paris and Lamar County.
• We added a committed downtown Paris location. The application includes a committed site in downtown Paris, giving the proposed network an important centrally located installation.
• We strengthened the public-service case. The application documents RRVARC’s existing relationship with Lamar County Emergency Management, our long history of communications support for community events and emergencies and the endorsement of Lamar County Emergency Management Coordinator Quincy Blount.
• Education became a major part of the project. RRVARC committed to conducting training and demonstration sessions and to developing and publishing an open-source Meshtastic curriculum covering basic operation, configuration, installation, practical field use and the important distinctions between Part 15 and Part 97 operation.
• The project remains a $6,000 request. The goal is not simply to purchase radios. It is to build, deploy, test, document and teach a working system that can provide another communications option when conventional infrastructure is unavailable or overloaded.
Then, on September 17, I received this from Adam:
“I see your full revised and submitted application. I’ll get it on the Grant review panel for next week.”
That is an important milestone. It does not mean the grant has been approved, but it does mean that ARDC has received the complete revised application and Adam is putting it before the grant review panel.
There is one administrative detail I do not yet know. Our original application was submitted for the third-quarter grant cycle, while this revised submission came after the normal fourth-quarter submission deadline. I do not know whether ARDC is treating the revised application as a continuation of our Q3 review, placing it into the Q4 review process or carrying it forward into the first-quarter 2027 cycle. Adam’s message simply says that he will get it before the grant review panel next week, so for now I am not going to speculate beyond that.
The important point is that the revised application is complete, it has been accepted for further review and it is moving forward.
Regardless of the eventual decision, the process has already forced us to examine the project in considerably greater detail — regulatory issues, site selection, network design, emergency-management relationships, training and how we would actually deploy this across the area.
Now we wait to see what the review panel thinks.
I will post another update as soon as we hear anything further from ARDC.
73
Phillip Beall (W5EBC)
Vice President & Web Admin, RRVARCRRVARC ARDC Revised Application 2138
RRVARC ARDC Project Budget
Quincy Blount Letter
Mark Johnson LetterAll,
As part of this project, we are continuing to monitor FCC and spectrum developments that could affect Meshtastic operation in the 902–928 MHz band.
Chris McDowra (KI5HSQ) recently called my attention to the pending NextNav proceeding, which involves a proposed reconfiguration of portions of 902–928 MHz for a terrestrial 5G-based Positioning, Navigation and Timing system.
I posted a more detailed update, including links to the NextNav petition, ARRL’s response and supporting technical material, in our primary Meshtastic discussion here:
Meshtastic Spectrum Update – NextNav and 902–928 MHz
Nothing we have found changes the structure of our pending ARDC proposal, but developments like this are a good reminder of why our project includes education on the regulatory environment surrounding both Part 15 and Part 97 operation.
We will continue watching this area as the grant application moves through review.
73
Phillip Beall (W5EBC)
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