Anyone in the Northern Colorado area?

Looking to connected with anyone in northern Colorado (US). Which could include Longmont, Loveland, Fort Collins, Greeley, Timnath, Windsor, Wellington, Laporte, Johnstown, Lyons, etc.

Iā€™m too far in pueblo, however last weekend I went to the balanced rock; we used Meshtastic / TAK comms.

Sweet, howā€™d it work for ya?!

wellā€¦ I was expecting to see more users in the LongFast default channel, maybe Iā€™m not configuring everything right, but we had no answer.
Secondary channel name ā€œLongFastā€
PSK ā€œAQ==ā€
LoRa Channel US ā€œ20ā€.
Now I have a second device so we will try at least team communications.

here are some videos:

second video:

Nice rig, what you running? Love the crunch of fresh powder!

After getting my (4) radios setup I was a bit surprised as well to not detect any other nodes on the LongFast channel, with default PSK while driving around NoCo in various cities. I guess itā€™s still early in the project, and weā€™ll hopefully see more folks as time goes on.

Would you mind explaining how youā€™re using TAK, vs just a client node? Iā€™m not really understanding the main difference between the two.

So in this first test, we take only one TAK cellphone and one Meshtastic transceiver, to test if we can catch any LoRa repeater in Springs and send the position and messages to Pueblo in the public o private channel. So our wives can see where we are XDā€¦ well didnā€™t work.

With two or more nodes, we can transmit real time position in our own off grid Meshtastic network and see it in TAK.

Here are the tutorial:

Thanks for the link, I was just reading up on TAK (and ITAK for me). Iā€™m interested in using this off-grid for hiking/backpacking/off-roading, though I feel like Iā€™m missing something here.

Canā€™t the Meshtastic app do that as well? Whatā€™s the benefit of using a TAK system vs just the Meshtastic app?

Should mention Iā€™m an avid hiker here in the Rockies, use InReach, Gaia & CalTopo, do route and trip planning, and actually thought a class on off-grid nav a few years back. So, familiar with most of this stuff, just not seeing the benefits of TAK yet.

(And maybe this is a conversation for another thread, who knows).

Iā€™m in northern Colorado.

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Longmont here. My nodes all have NV0N in them. Lost my repeater during the storm last night so itā€™s offline until my replacement parts arrive.

https://longmont.localmesh.org/

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Iā€™m up in Fort Collins. Just getting started, but Iā€™m jumping in full force. I havenā€™t seen any nodes up here, but I am not sure I totally understand how I would know if there were any. :smile:

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Welcome, Iā€™m also in FoCo! Once you get a node up, leave it on the default channel and you should see other nodes when in range (you might have to drive around a bit, depending on where youā€™re at). Thereā€™s a handful of us, and growing!

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Windsor here. Iā€™m a noob and only have one in my truck for now but I want to build a network here in Windsor. If I can find some time (I farm so spring/summer is my busy time) I have a good barn to throw one up on that should give me some reach. Hope to talk to you guys soon.

Welcome! Thereā€™s a handful of us scattered about! Definitely interested in hearing more about the barn node. Also happy to help with any technical issues, or 3d printing stuff. A couple of us have talked about getting a decent mesh around FoCo, for city wide coverage, and hopefully beyond!

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Hello Folks, just started in SE Fort Collins.

Heltec V3 still with stock antenna ( ordered a better one )

Do not see anyone.around

Are you using MQTT? What is the topic?

Welcome! Iā€™m also in the SE of town. Talked to handful of folks already, and were scattered about a bit. Ideally would be great if we can get a mesh built around town with stationary nodes, and potentially tie them back into MQTT.

Iā€™ve got a stationary router up already, not the best range, but itā€™s a start.

Still trying to find a way to get everyone organized, may have a discord server we could use. Iā€™ll post any updates here.

Iā€™m driving around town today, if anyone sees a node title ā€˜Strex ā€¦ā€™ thatā€™s me. Iā€™m on long-fast, donā€™t hesitate to say hello!

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Iā€™m thinking we may need to plan meetup or something in FoCo for people in the area. Feeling like youā€™re all alone getting started with something like this sure sucks. It would be nice to get a better idea of who is out there, what resources we have, and coordinate our efforts to try and get better coverage in the area. Breweries are always a favorite destination in Fort Collins, but we could definitely meet somewhere else too. Overall, I think we need a good plan for increasing connection & coordination in FoCo/Loveland (& surrounding) as well as to create community and help others who may be just getting started. Anyone up for something like that?

Absolutely! Iā€™d really enjoy getting together and trying to get things organized. Iā€™m not a drinker but that doesnā€™t matter, a brewery would be fine. Iā€™ve thought about starting up a mailing list, or even a website, but havenā€™t done either. I did talk to the guy whoā€™s running the FoCo discord, but heā€™s reluctant to give us a channel. Iā€™m open to other ideas as well, but yes getting together and discussing how to get organized sounds great! Itā€™s a small city, no reason we canā€™t all meet up in person.

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@jnev Id love to sit down and share some ideas, pool our resources, and figure out a good way for newcomers to contribute, and play, but also provide resources for anyone whoā€™s interested. When might be a good time for us todo this. Iā€™m off for 3 more days with the holiday. Please let me know!