Project Meshtastic

The Buzz-Word is Meshtastic, but do you really need or want it?

Has your family or interest group (hiking, hunting etc) been out of cell coverage but would still like to communicate with each other? If yes, read on.

There are numerous options available. None are foolproof, but some shows promise. FRS radios became popular with low priced bubble pack and but quality. GMRS requires a (paid) license and is still not natural to our daily behavior like texting has become.

The Meshtastic

How about a system where you, your family, kids or friends can keep using our normal device – the smartphone.

I frequently get advertisements for GoAntenna and Beartooth mesh devices. Their price is for the professional market and not for the family or club. Yes, I am sure they are developing tools like ATAK to manage the mission. But if you need simple text communication, there are more inexpensive options available. Just keep in mind that you are now getting a digital network on a FRS budget (or like champagne on a beer budget.) Keep expectations accordingly.

The Confusion

Like with FRS, some vendors are advertising unrealistic distances and area coverages. Those of you who are old in the ham hobby, you know that we used to do 2m VHF packet radio point to point of 5 to 50 miles at 1200 baud long before email became a house-hold word or text messages a daily medium. So how is LoRA achieving these unrealistic distances on 915 Mhz? Simply by reducing the throughput of data to a unusable simple ping. It does not have the bandwidth to carry a voice conversation. DMR and other digital voice networks has a bandwidth of 9.6kbps while LoRa reduces throughput to as low as 0.293 kbps to achieve greater distance in a spread spectrum format. That’s like a straw as compared to a firehose required for voice.

The really cool part is that Meshtastic has a “mesh network” capability which greatly increases practical range making it a usable text messaging medium. Mesh is the opposite to point to point system by allowing the cool technology. More nodes, more routing options!

Human Interface

Yes, we need a way to compose a message, route the message to a user of a group, and read the reply. Most families are well versed in texting or messaging. This is simply another text messaging app. They will adapt quickly!

Mesh Devices

In the affordable price class there are a couple of options. They are designed to be powered by USB or a small battery pack. There are clumsy antenna versions and sleek credit card versions. No doubt the size of the antenna will improve distance, but so will adding mesh devices.

If you are a group on a hike it may be important to have sleek non-obtrusive device while if you are covering your ranch or farm, a well designed layout may be appropriate.

Low pricing and way too many gee-whiz videos are like candy in the candy store. A slow approach and vision for actual need versus an unplanned approach may reduce the investment.

There seems to be 3 different technologies in common use, but are any of them a true elf-healing Mesh Network or just hype? I believe the answer is NO:

1. Meshtastic
   • Easiest for plug-and-play LoRa mesh messaging
   • Strong mobile app support
   • Locked into Meshtastic ecosystem for RF compatibility
2. MeshCore
   • Targeted at tactical / SAR / ATAK environments
   • Often closed or semi-open — harder to interoperate unless you have the exact same firmware and settings
   • RF-wise, it uses LoRa, but with different packet framing than Meshtastic
3. Reticulum
   • Most flexible — supports LoRa and other transports
   • Can act as a bridge between different systems (e.g., Meshtastic ↔ Wi-Fi ↔ AX.25)
   • Less “turn-key” — requires more technical setup and no slick consumer app

MY USE-CASE

Let’s get real – these are low cost devices and open source free software. So, what’s the use beyond experimenting?

Occasionally we are in areas where cell coverage is poor to none. Daily we drive a 3 mile stretch we no cell service to and from town. Our new cellphone do have satellite backup service.

We have lost power for up to 10 days at a time. With this you will also lose cell service after some time. Meshtastic and DMR biz-radios will be our cell outage comm system.
Meshtastic is cheap enough that an easily deployed cache may be built for the 8 neighbors on our private road for emergency communication. We live along a 1.5 mile hillside road facing East and West along a ridge. The DMR radios will not reach from one end to the other unless we use our repeater.

With mesh or device hopping (7 hops) and everyone’s inherent comfort with text messaging, Meshtastic may be a viable solution for our little village. We still have one problem; Since we all ditched conventional landline phones due to unrealistic charges, we have no access to 911 and thus still need a contingency plan to get outside help.