Hello all, here is what we are doing with Meshtastic. We have started partnering with our local Amateur (HAM) Radio clubs who already have repeaters for their systems on the local mountains, with local utility companies, and ridges in the county and we received permission to start placing our Meshtastic repeaters on their tower sites. We are a small group (so far) getting a small network up enough to demonstrate to the public how they could be using the system and its benefits. We do have areas in this county without cell and internet service. Most of the areas is the State Park on the river (campsites, fishing, kayaking, hiking trails, etc…). Getting more of the public involved will get more nodes in the county and creates a larger mesh. Recently we have already started talking to neighboring counties about doing the same with many showing a great interest in the project.
Neat, where is it? From your callsign, presumably somewhere here in the US.
We are located in McMinn County / Southeast TN
Yes, I’m also trying to get something like this together, but know no other Meshtastic users nearby, so it’s slow going.
Interested to see your plans for ruggedising the devices for outdoor use.
My repeaters are RAK4361 in PVC drainpipe with endcaps, powered by a couple of 18650’s and a small solar panel.
A couple of the user T-Beams are also in short PVC pipe.
I’d like to have the display visible from outside, and a pushbutton or two. I tried a reed switch, and also a tiny mercury tilt-switch, but too fiddly.
A web gateway so that non-Meshtastic users could read the messages could be handy.
Keen to see your plans, and progress.
73
Greg
VK2GTH
QF68
On 12/8/23 I was able to mount our first repeater (device.role ROUTER) at 3,300 ft elevation at a nearby mountain maintained by one of the Amateur Radio clubs. We did some tests today and was getting good coverage on one side of the county. I used a 10w solar panel and a Cantex Junction box from Lowes that I had laying around with a Lilygo T-Beam v1.1. Admin channel is working, and I am able to get queries back from 7.37 miles. Will be looking for more time to do more testing in the next two weeks as we start get more people online.
nice stuff !
we are a small local community here in Switzerland a the lake of Constance.
Our plan sounds similar:
Build up Networks to cover larger areas with routers and repeaters.
Goal is to transmit and collect datas from the nodes: envoiremental data and data about the power grid / internet.
So we have to mix protocols and transmition technologies.
Plan is to setup speciallized nodes with access to the internet to collect those datas, and make it available to the nodes, even if there is no mire grid / Internet.
Any other intitiatives like that around ?
Just would like to add that I use this website with the link below to see what my possible repeater coverage is.
Open the website, choose NEW PANOROMA then click where you want the repeater. (#1 Optional) You can search by an address or can search by LAT & LON. (#2 Optional) You can click this to move the crosshairs to the highest location near where you have clicked . (#3 Optional) Height of a pole or small tower above ground that the repeater might be mounted on. #4 Just give it a name. One you click SUBMIT, you will have to wait a few moments then it will display your results. Everything shaded in RED will be an estimated coverage from you chosen location on the map.
I’m brand new to this as well. I have a few high spots available and wonder if its best to use repeater mode or router mode. I thought repeater as I think it offers better power savings. I’ll be using heltec v3’s a 300 ma battery and a 5v6w solar panel.
Im trying to cover a large portion of area so if its meshing and repeaters on high spots that see each other I figure we could really make a robust of grid service.
Huh. Doesn’t surprise me to see hams coming out of the woodwork to see what can be done wit hthis new thing. It is both more restrictive (in power and other limits) and less (in encryption and content) than licensed use, but it is new and experimental.
Currently we’re looking at the same sort of problem BBS’s of yore had in that you didn’t have the resources t oget the distance you wanted, but through clever software and phone use you could chain the message payloads across.
Here we have an upper limit on what a feasable mesh can be. So how do we overcome that for the sake of leapfrogging even alrger distances?