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About The MEPN

The Maine Packet Network (MEPN) is a consortium of individual amateur radio packet nodes and their licensed system operators or sysops, which are affiliated with county-level Emergency Management Agencies throughout the State of Maine.

Our primary objective is to interconnect these agencies to facilitate the expedient flow of accurate and concise public health and safety information between the county emergency management agencies, MEMA, hospitals and recognized groups operating in an emergency capacity such as the American Red Cross. Secondarily, we provide a backbone to localized community networks who interlink on a community-coordinated frequency and wish to uplink with the Maine Packet Network to reach State resources and other communities.

Because we work with a limited range of frequencies available for digital communications, and the necessity to connect nodes on shared frequencies, coordination and cooperation is paramount among our sysops and the rest of our amateur radio community. The information we pass may be vital to the safety of people and property.

We wish to foster education and experimentation without interference, and encourage all licensed operators to connect with our nodes and learn how to move around within the network and send messages. Packet radio is a wonderful tool for the transference of information where spelling and accuracy counts, when verbal communication may be difficult or even impossible. We do ask that operators who may be interested in running their own node reach out to us before going online so that we can help you integrate and ensure the experience is positive and painless for everyone.

Interested in joining us?