Is there much activity in the SF Bay area? I can see a couple nodes on channel 20.
-Max
Also wondering as I’m in Cupertino, CA. A few of us here are wondering whether this can work in our urban city environments.
What city are you in @Aaronm?
I am in Fremont. My plan is in the next couple weeks I will build up a node and mount 20ft above my roofline. This should give some coverage local and pick up the higher notes.
A coworker concerned about grid down comms has a home in the Fremont hills. I think he is on board to install a node at his home. This should give good coverage into south Fremont and probably San Jose. 13mi from Cupertino, 10mi from my home. I visited his home a couple weeks ago and received signals from South SF and across the bay with the feeble antenna on the unit. I suspect his location would give coverage across the bay.
-Aaron
Excellent! I finally found a “pulse” from someone else here in our valley who’s doing this! lol I’ve been perplexed for months why Meshtastic hasn’t caught on in of all places, high tech Silicon Valley!
I have two other local ARES buddies who’re watching from the sidelines on whether this will be viable for us in the south bay, particularly on the west side of it.
So, do you think your or your friend’s house in the Fremont hills has line of sight to us here near 280/85 freeways? If you have approximate GPS coordinates to check from, I’d be happy to check using some RF propagation tools.
So glad to “meet” you here Max! And hope we can help each other in this project journey.
Tae
And current plan once we decide on the base and portable devices:
Set up 3 base nodes on our roof tops. Each of us 3 get portable devices and test them around the south bay, to see if this could really work in our urban city environments.
We 3 are all active ARES amateur radio guys in Cupertino/Saratoga. And ideally help set up/build out the south bay Meshtastic network.
Hi Tae,
I just checked and his QTH is near:
37.30.05N
121.54.43W
I told him he should get his tech but did not seem to interested. He is an EE so it would not be too hard. I need to nudge him some more to get permission but he seemed receptive this morning. His wife may be concerned about the size of the equipment but it can be placed just below the deck with good coverage.
I am also surprise it has not taken off in the bay area. I guess everyone figures their phones will work in an earthquake.
This sounds good. It will probably be a couple weeks before I get my node up on the roof. I need to build up the hardware but can do that this weekend. I have an old HF vertical on the roof that I want to drop and replace with the node. I need the weather to cooperate to do this.
Will keep you updated.
Sounds good. The forum we’re currently on seems a bit quiet for bay area topics. I just this morning found this one. Interested in joining us there? It seems a LOT more active as I’m reading the thread (not done yet) and it seems like 15-20 folks in that channel with a handful of them actively working on the very thing we’re trying to do. I THINK Discord is the official Meshtastic channel, but I didn’t find this one til just today: Discord
Tae
N6TAE
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Hi Tae,
Yes this would be great. I have been searching for a group for the last few weeks. Not too familiar with Discord. Have an account and used it a few times. Is there a Meshtastic group for the bay area on Discord?
-Aaron
WD0FAA
Just found it.
Thanks (aaronm10000)
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Great, meet you there. =)
Just joined discord too! 1 node on house in San Jose 37.32.83N
121.91.34W and setup a mobile that will test today from SJ to Mountain View
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Also a connect forum post in Discord
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Thanks for sharing this link, have been trying to find a local group.
Could you please update the link for the Bay Area Meshtastic Discord server? The link above is expired. Thanks!