N9LYA
JEROME M. KUTCHE — MITCHELL, INDIANA

A digital playground for amateur radio, packet networks, homelab tinkering, electronics, lasers, carnivorous plants, and good cookouts.

GENERAL CLASS FIRST LICENSED 1991 GENERAL SINCE 2003 INDIANA 44NET COORDINATOR LINBPQ N9LYA-8 DRAWN TO RADIO SINCE 1970s
▶ AUDIO SYSTEMS — N9LYA STATION
PRIMARY SYSTEMS

AMATEUR RADIO

General Class operator — first licensed in 1991 (no-code), upgraded to General on Feb 1, 2003. Drawn to radio as a kid in the early '70s by mentor Frank Kime. HF, VHF/UHF, and a lifelong fascination with what RF can do.

PACKET RADIO

LinBPQ node N9LYA-8 (LYANOD). AMPRNet / 44Net coordination for Indiana, the SWOH network, and AX.25 routing across the region.

HOMELAB

Proxmox on an HP DL380 Gen9, dual Tesla P4 GPUs, MikroTik RB5009, Home Assistant, and a 50-panel SolarEdge array under watch.

ELECTRONICS & LASERS

30+ years in industrial electrical and RF test gear. Still building, measuring, and pointing coherent light at things.

CARNIVOROUS PLANTS

Venus flytraps, pitcher plants, and the slow patient business of growing things that bite back.

COOKING OUT

Fire, smoke, and the only kind of network latency that doesn't matter — low and slow.

MY STATIONS & NETWORK

DEEP THOUGHT

The ship's computer, working through first principles, mentorship, and what comes after the final mission.

ENGAGE ▸

BUILT WITH CLAUDE

This whole sector — the homelab rebuilds, the VPN migrations, the LCARS interfaces, the 3AM troubleshooting sessions — got built through months of back-and-forth with Anthropic's Claude. N9LYA drove every decision; Claude was the second set of hands that made the pace possible. Proud of what this partnership has produced.

VIEW LOG ▸
TOOLS & SYSTEMS
SOLAR-TERRESTRIAL CONDITIONS — LIVE FROM HAMQSL
Solar-Terrestrial and VHF conditions