Has anyone already done any tests? To use Meshtastic as an emergency alarm system in the fire department (or other emergency organizations)? The normal alarm is sent via a central alarm point, via telephone/SMS/email. Meshtastic would then come into play as a fallback level in the event of a blackout/communication failure. I’m starting a 3-month test with our fire department next week. 15 nodes in a closed group (own preliminary channel). We use a mix of Heltec, T-Echo and RAK boards and see what comes out. I am very confident. Do you have any similar projects? Kind regards Simon from Switzerland
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This is interesting! How’s it going?
So far it’s going very well, the system is stable and the test participants exchange messages regularly. The primary channel also works and has not caused any problems yet.
A single message took 11 minutes to reach the other nodes 
8:55 sent, 9:06 received by all. Since Meshtastic doesn’t have any “memory”, I’m wondering where the message was floating around locally for so long.
The iOS app poses a big problem because only the standard notification tones can be used here and therefore around 1/3 Apple users cannot choose a loud notification tone that they would also hear while sleeping.
I hope there will be an update to the app at some point 
This would be a good application for the external notification module paired with a loud beeper which can notify the user a message has come in even if the phone is not connected. The firmware could be modified so only trigger the buzzer if a certain even has happened. There is already ability to only alert if a “bell” character was sent.
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We are doing something similar, in our town. but just for the Emergency response “CERT” teams to communicate with. So far we have the city just about 100% coverage. Itis a small town.
Hello Nate CERT=Computer Emergency Response Team?
Sounds interesting. What do you use meshtastic for exactly?
What were your difficulties during the tests or when the system was introduced?
Our big problem is the iOS users. We need the messages especially at night when everyone is sleeping, Apple users don’t hear the messages because the iOS app doesn’t support individual notification sounds.
Update on the test with the DKK fire department (https://www.fwdkk.ch/) after 4 months:
The system works. The private long-fast channel is tight and we had no problems with external influences.
The 18 nodes had no failures and ran without any problems. During the long-term test, various tasks were completed with the participants to test the mesh.
The test was completed last week and all participants gave their feedback.
2 Android and 1 iOS users had problems with the node not connecting automatically or messages only appearing when the app was opened.
The Bluetooth of the Heltec V3 was criticized, but that was clear from the start.
I would have liked to use RAK wisblock, but it is not as plug and play as expected with the RAK 13002 i/o board. It will be a Heltec V3.1, since the gpio are available without much programming.
Bluetooth is no longer so important in this configuration. I will still replace the wire coil with a 30mm long wire as an antenna.
Hold you up to date
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Super project. It is quite demanding to make a kit that is maybe to function reliably in its emergency role for real maybe only once every few years. I think the use case is absolutely perfect for meshtastic because the algorithm is best for broadcasting from one to many, rather than lots of chatting to and fro. Good luck.