Meshtastic

[MrWeetabix]

Evening all. Hope all is well out there in Radioland.

One of niche areas of this hobby which really seems to be exploding right now (Mainly thanks to Andy Kirby and Ringway Manchester) is Meshtastic.

Are there any TM1 users out there dabbling with it?

If so then why not share your experiences and even better, post some pics of your setups

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[deadite66]

Have a picow+waveshare connected to a paradar 8dbi antenna.

bit of a desert here in Norfolk though, can pick up one local (500m) user and one other now and again if they go mobile.

[MrWeetabix]

I just have a Heltec v3 with the stock wire antenna that came with it. Bets distance so far is 26 miles but on average its 10-14 miles on-the-regular.

I had a new antenna arrive today and I have a wisblock arriving soon too, so hoping to cobble that together with a battery and some solar charging.

Thought we'd have a few more on here dabbling with Meshtastic to be honest, seems like the current FAD in radioworld! Like FT8 was for HAMs a few years back

[Allan666]

I have watched the popularity and the spread of Meshtastic over the last few months and I just don't get what the excitement is over using it.

[MrWeetabix]

I think its very much a willy-waving thing. See how far you can 'get out' on your little setup. Some of the distances achieved are amazing for the small power and high frequencies mind.

Those who think it would be of any use at all in a SHTF scenario are deluded though IMHO.

Personally I am dabbling, just bought an upgraded antenna to play with too and will likely mess about over the summer, but will probably have lost interest soon enough. I am already starting to see the neds creeping into the groups and forums. Only takes a handful of wasters to spoil something for others.

[Piggly]

I have to own up to having a couple of these units...one Heltec V3 which is a fine little unit and one T-Echo with the BME820 which is a cracking piece of kit. The latter has an internal battery which will run it for a couple of days so just adding a 5W USB solar panel should produce a unit which can run indefinitely, sort of.

As for the reason for having these, it's just for fun so there's no real use to it for me although LoRa in general is very useful.

[dc260]

I do wonder if the range yielded is comparable to the deprecated 934 MHz CB band ? LORA 868mhz so it must have similar propagation characteristics, perhaps even better due to it being a error corrected data mode and not voice.

[Piggly]

The "raw" working range would be the same, with the frequencies being close, but the modulation is very different and that is where much of the surprising range with LoRa/Meshtastic comes from.

[Henrys Cat]

Just set up a Lilygo T-Beam with a Paradar antenna, seeing loads of other nodes up to 30 miles away but yet to get a reply to a message lol

[scanhermit]

Reading the Meshtastic blurb, it is touted as a way of privately and securely communicating without having to rely on a mobile phone network, even in remote places.

It strikes me then as a kind of CB or PMR with better range and without everyone being able to neb into your conversation.