What is ARMNet?
ARMNet is a mesh network built specifically for licensed amateur radio operators. Every architectural decision reflects that audience — from the use of amateur-allocated spectrum and IP space, to the requirement that every node is tied to a verified callsign, to a protocol designed around amateur operating principles rather than retrofitted to them. Here's what that means in practice.
Open protocol, not open source.
The ARMNet protocol is fully documented and open. Any operator can understand it, contribute to it, or implement against it. The firmware and server code are not. That's a deliberate choice and it's not negotiable.
If the verification layer were freely modifiable, anyone could strip out the amateur radio constraints and turn ARMNet into a pirate protocol — unlicensed transmissions on amateur spectrum, operating outside the licence conditions every legitimate operator agreed to honour when they took their exam. We require callsign registration for the same reason EchoLink and DMR-ID do: to ensure the network remains what it claims to be.
We took the exams. We accepted the licence conditions. ARMNet is built so we can continue to honour them — and so can every operator who joins.
Licensed spectrum.
ARMNet operates on the 70cm amateur band, where licensed operators have proper power budgets, formal identification requirements, and protected allocations. Amateur licensing permits real radiated power — single watts to tens of watts at typical mesh node settings — which translates directly into real range. A modestly-powered ARMNet node with a properly-engineered antenna can cover tens of kilometres line-of-sight, legally and accountably.
This is what amateur radio licensing is for: skilled, identified operators using protected spectrum for serious communication. ARMNet is built on that foundation rather than working around it.
Multi-transport by design.
LoRa on 70cm handles local mesh well — low power, long range, line-of-sight to several kilometres. HF transport using Codec 2 gives genuinely different propagation: continental rather than local, ionospheric paths that LoRa cannot reach. 44Net provides the IP backbone between RF islands, sitting on amateur-allocated address space.
The protocol is transport-agnostic by design. The network can take advantage of whatever propagation conditions or hardware an operator has available — a node in a valley with no LoRa neighbours but a working HF rig is still on the network. And the design survives the obsolescence of any single radio technology.
Callsign-identified.
Every node on ARMNet is tied to a licensed callsign, verified at registration. Amateur transmissions must be identified — that's a licensing requirement, not an architectural choice we made — and ARMNet treats it as a first-class concern rather than an afterthought.
If you've operated on the air, you know what this does to network culture. A callsign is a commitment. It's traceable to a real licensed operator with real obligations, and that single fact does more for civility and trust than any moderation system could.
Local-by-default federation.
ARMNet is local-by-default. A LoRa mesh handles your region; regional servers federate with each other only when traffic genuinely needs to cross — so British traffic stays in Britain, American traffic stays in America, but a British operator visiting America stays connected to both.
This is closer to how amateur radio actually works — local nets, regional links, international gateways — than to a single homogeneous global mesh. It scales, it respects spectrum and regulatory boundaries, and it means a quiet region stays quiet for the operators who live there.
Clean-sheet protocol.
ARMNet's protocol was designed from scratch for the operator audience. Packet types like ServiceReq and ServiceResp, ChannelNotify, RoutingAnn — these are the protocol's primitives, designed for what an amateur radio mesh actually needs to do.
This gives ARMNet its long-term flexibility. New services, new transports, new operator workflows can be added on the protocol's own terms.
Is ARMNet for you?
ARMNet is for you if you're a licensed amateur radio operator who values identified operation on protected spectrum, takes spectrum responsibility seriously, and wants a mesh network built on amateur radio principles rather than retrofitted to them.
If you're looking for off-grid encrypted messaging without engaging with amateur radio licensing, there are excellent projects that fit that need. ARMNet isn't one of them, and isn't trying to be.