Finally re-spun up my Meshtastic LoRa project from last year using some new equipment, and the range is astounding. I’m located in CT, and I’m hitting nodes as far out as NH.
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Yip, got a stationary (solar) and a mobile node.
T-Beam with increased battery capacity and a T-echo with increased battery in a new casing.
But it is actually more for hobby (paintball/airsoft) than for prepping.
What are you using for a setup?
Right now, a Heltec 3. Better antenna though, mounted on a pole. I have an even better antenna coming soon with a cable so I can move the unit inside and have it on one of my solar batteries, since the little 3000mah one is good, but won’t last long.
This is exactly what I’ve been looking for! Thank you!
It’s definitely a cool option for complete off-grid comms. There is the option to use MQTT as well for messaging, but that requires internet to work. I’m planning for no internet, so that’s what I ‘train’ with. You can make it so you are on the ‘open’ channel for anyone to jump into, directly contact individual nodes, and/or make ‘channels’ that only other people with the same encryption key can access for group chats. No subscriptions or anything else, plus there are a ton of different hardware types available, antennas, and other options. And overall, fairly inexpensive to get started.
The only real ‘difficult’ part is if you leave near a mountain range. Without other nodes from other people around the peaks or setting up repeater nodes yourself, getting past mountain ranges isn’t going to happen.
