Operator • Builder • Experimenter

About Me

I’m Jake — a communications and infrastructure builder working across RF, electronics, Linux, networking, self-hosting and field technology.

From field radios to self-hosted infrastructure

My technical interests sit at the intersection of communications, electronics, infrastructure and the outdoors. Amateur radio grew naturally out of practical field communications and became a deeper technical path into RF, antennas, propagation and electronics.

Professionally, my background includes hands-on work with military radio systems and electromagnetic warfare. That experience shapes how I approach technology: systems should be understandable, maintainable, resilient and useful when conditions are less than ideal.

Trailbound Tech is where those interests converge. The homelab is an infrastructure testbed; W4EWO is the radio side; and the off-grid work connects the two through portable compute, long-haul communications and locally hosted information.

What I build

Current projects include Proxmox and ZFS infrastructure, 10GbE networking, edge gateways, private cloud, local AI, media systems, OpenTAKServer, HF/SATCOM concepts, portable services and Kiwix-based offline knowledge.

W4EWO / Amateur Radio

Portable HF, POTA/SOTA, antenna work, APRS, field communications and RF experimentation.

Infrastructure

Virtualization, ZFS, containers, routing, identity, storage, observability and GPU services.

Electronics

Formal electronics study, technical instruction and industry certifications supporting the RF and infrastructure work.

Current Direction

Bringing the radio and infrastructure worlds together through off-grid communications, portable compute, offline services and resilient access to information.

Milestones

On the Air & On the Bench

A few markers along the radio, electronics and technical path.

DEC 2021

Entered Amateur Radio

Began the licensed amateur-radio path after earlier practical radio use in field and off-road environments.

JAN 2022

General Class

Expanded into HF and long-range amateur-radio operating.

APR 2023

Amateur Extra

Earned the highest U.S. amateur-radio license class and continued into instruction and experimentation.

AUG 2026

Electronics Certifications

Earned CertTEC Basic Electricity and Electronics (BEE) and ETA International Certified Electronics Technician (CET) credentials.