Any First Responders?

Builds / Use Cases
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Last weekend my drone club got a presentation from Colorado Center of Excellence for Advanced Technology Aerial Firefighting (https://www.cofiretech.org) discussing how drones are being used in wildfire and search & rescue. The presenter also mentioned the Center also evaluates communications tech including TAK, FirstNet and mesh systems like GoTenna. Wondering if there’s any first responders actually using Meshtastic today?

After messing around with it for a while it seems like a far superior solution over commercial products like GoTenna, if for no other reason than per-seat cost and the fact that it doesn’t require constant infusion of cash. But it also seems like the hardware is fairly brittle and very DIY. Certainly none of the client devices are hardened against moisture or rough handling. But the potential for really good coverage and MQTT backhaul seems like this should be a no-brainer.

I don’t have a dog in the fight, I’m just a ham radio operator who enjoys messing around on VHF/UHF/SHF and data. But I’m also interested in helping out firefighters and if there’s something I can do to contribute I’d love to make the Center aware of the tech too.

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I think you are going to run into the issues you mentioned plus the buggy nature of the firmware at the moment.

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You may also find that government and similar entities will require a support contract on their technology solutions.

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It would certainly be possible for a company to manufacture and market a hardened solution using meshtastic, along with a juicy support contract.

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Thanks for all the responses, that’s about what I thought. Is getting to a point where the tech might be deployable be a long term goal of the developers? Again, I’m not a firefighter nor will I likely ever be doing anything WRT first responders or EMCOM but also could see where having a flexible & budget solution would be useful. And given most firefighters are using a Linux derivative to run ATAK it isn’t like open source software can’t ever be good enough.

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I set up a testbed in Longmont for folks and I’ve mixed results and learned some lessons along the way.