Testing node range on LongFast in an unusual panoramic location in Gloucestershire over many days I received such abuse from node !75e9aa24 that I stopped. The take-home of the test was that detecting nodes over a distance of 50 miles was very easy, even with cool traceroutes. Many contacts over a blog here were really helpful to work out what the possibilities of the mesh are and what factors prevent long-distance messaging. Receiving messages from afar was nigh-well impossible - or at least I got only three: one of which was abuse and the other was strangely obscene and not to be repeated here. The kind help on this site indicated that the fact the node info is sent well only means that messages would have to be re-sent manually over and over again to message over 50 miles or more, which is not practical and provokes abusive responses. The horrible responses on LongFast show that one should use one’s own channel with people who indicate that they are interested in testing, and not use LongFast due to the presence of offensive messages. It might have been best to share a QR code for a testing channel here, and use then that one channel with people who are interested. Sorry if I was annoying anyone with my messages asking for web feedback on any receipt, but there was no other way to test and I really appreciated the cool data gathered that way. I tried to make the blog detailed otherwise there is no practical value to the results.
Summary: Nodes appearing in the node list has nothing to do with messages being able to be received back when sent to LongFast. I am very confused why node info is so reliably sent but messages not.
I’m sorry you had had to experience this
That’s why I stick to my private channel i only reply to longfast if someone is calling out
The babestation guy is taking the Micky over how everyone jumped on the bandwagon and started calling their nodes bla bla basestation why he posts what he does I don’t know I think he hates those two named guys because of the videos they did
As for the abuse from the other station that is exactly why I no longer bother with radio I was called a lot of names by people who didn’t like the fact that young blood was interested in radio (and they wonder why the radio hobby is slowly dieing)
I now stick to online or low power if I have to use radio
As for seeing nodes verses actually getting messages across I believe it is how it been coded
I believe node information is a much smaller packet then a actual message and as a result is less likely to get parts lost so the receiving node can decode it better
also something I found changing the channel hop limit from the default 3 to 5 or even 7 can help get a message across my node is currently set to 5 hops and it’s allowing me to get to Worcester which with the default 3 is not possible
One thing I will say is the mesh around here hasn’t been this alive since march so thank you
If you ever repeat this test again I would use a Yagi or a moxon probably one from prodrone.pl as they are quite well built have low loss coax and can be tuned for meshtastic and you don’t have to play the guessing game unlike ones from china or Amazon which are relabeled GSM antennas
Unfortunately no matter what you do there is always one idiot that spoils it
And remember there is a ignore button which is meshtastic version of a block button which unfortunately I’ve had to use a couple of times
I’m down in Wiltshire, and have also moved to a private channel as the volume of nodes became impractical. AFAIK my base node will still repeat everyone else’s channel. So hopefully those hopping around locally.