US Nebraska

[open tartan]

Long tap on the “connect” button when logging in, you’ll have the option to flood connect - which finds the new best path

Room server

[spiral plume]

yeah, tried reseting path and got no success

[open tartan]

Just let people know the hashtag channel name. That’s it!

[gilded tide]

both filters are "bandpass," however, the "pass band" is different between them. The LCom is an ISM "full band" (902-928MHz), while the Airframe passes mostly 902-910. That means if other "noise" is present above 910, the Airframe is attenuating it. The LCom is doing exactly what it is advertised to do - pass all of 902-928. Honestly, you might as well not even put a filter on if you're going to pass the full band.

it bothers me the video creator didn't even call out the differences. This tells me he has no clue.

[open tartan]

Also, using #channelname in MeshCore will make that hashtag channel clickable

For others

[gilded tide]

I do all I can!!

[open tartan]

I though the airframes was narrower bandpass than that 🤔

[gilded tide]

Multi antennas..... Yes, you can connect multiple antennas.... there is a method to the madness to do so.

[gilded tide]

He advertises 907+- 2Mhz. insertion loss is 2db typical.

The print he has posted shows it passing down to 902 though. And I'll believe the anaylzer out put over what he has typed up.

di/tri/quad/quint plexers vs duplexers. The former are used to combine or split multiple bands on one feedline. The latter is used to combine/split two signals in ONE band on one feedline.

Common diplexers are VHF/UHF (150/440MHz). A duplexer can support signals down to about a 300KHz spacing, though this is rather expensive. Amateur VHF runs at 600KHz spacing. Commercial is usually 3-5MHz in VHF and 5MHZ in UHF. At 900MHz, spacing spreads out to 20MHz.

Port to port isolation numbers for common diplexers are in the 60db range. What that means, is that if you put 1w (30dbm) into one port, the other port would see a -30dbm signal. By itself, this is close to dangerous. At 50w (47dbm), the other port produces -13dbm! This is more than adequate to toast the receiver connected to that port. So why doesn't it? The other receiver has "some" filtering. This reduces the signal presented to the receiver.

A typical duplexer, for voice service, gets around 30 db per cavity of isolation (this is dependent on spacing, among other things.) Additionally, when you connect multiple cavities in sequence, the inter cavity cabling is optimized and magically produces many more db of isolation, with a 2 cavity string often capable of up to 85db.

If you run higher power, or need more isolation due to a sensitive receiver, you can add another cavity in the string, easily producing in excess of 110db of isolation. Remember... a transmitter may be producing 50+dbm and the in band receiver may be capable of receive at -125db. That's a 175db delta. The 4 cavity, with each string producing up to 85db, totals 170db. That's not enough. We create desense, artifically lowering the receive capability of the system. That's why we continue to increase the isolation with additional filters, until we exceed the system gain.

There are a variety of filters, each with their pros and cons.

[narrow ledge]

@open tartan I love the new option to scan for repeaters. What are sensors? And would there be any value in providing a similar function to scan for other companions? Or is that was adverting is for (as a push, instead of a pull)?

[stoic quail]

🙋‍♂️hey Matt!

[gilded tide]

Was I just talking to you?

[stoic quail]

Yep

[gilded tide]

If someone wants to connect two 50 ohm antennas, say yagis, you can do this. The "easy" way to do this is to just use a tee and build two 1/4 wave segments of 75 ohm line, then carry on with 50 ohm line.

The tricky part to this.... is that at 910MHz, using coax with a vf of .66, the 75 ohm section is just 2.1 inches long. because that is too short to work with, we instead use an odd multiple, such as 3, so it becomes 6.3 inches long.

If you don't want to bother with transitioning to 50 ohm, just make the total line an odd multiple of 2.1 inches.

[gilded tide]

You were noisy on the repeater. Tough to make you out. I heard you better on the input 🙂

[stoic quail]

Yeah, I have to move my antenna to the south side of the house and use better coax.

[narrow ledge]

Is anyone what kinda grumpy that the Heltec V4 doesn’t quite fit into V3 cases? So close! I’ve resisted getting a 3D printer, but this might be a good use case. Ha ha. See what I did there! 🤦🏻‍♂️

[pure panther]

i will say, 3d printing can be a more expensive hobby than mesh radios lol

but it lets you do neat stuff like this

i actually just had to buy a new one because the board in my printer said no and shorted, rather than buy parts for one more than 10 years old i got a fancy new one

[narrow ledge]

All in, how much would I spend on a suitable printer and materials that can make things like cases?

[pure panther]

3-400 range for a decent one, 800-1200 for the more top of the line ones

[quasi beacon]

If you just need a couple cases printed and already have a design that you like, I'd be happy to print it for you for free

[narrow ledge]

Can’t I buy a $300 one and print a $1200 model?

[pure panther]

something of note is the more exotic the material you intend to print the more expensive the printer (usually gets) higher heat settings better drives, hot ends that wont get damaged by carbon fiber and so on.

AND no matter how much you use thing thing, never pretend you'll recoup the cost of it. It wont happen lol

but man are they cool

[hushed knot]

3d printing is my most productive and least productive hobby. It prints me awesome quick replacement parts for household stuff and toys for my kid. It also prints me silly nerf blasters and all kinds of useless stuff.

[pure panther]

i feel that

[pure panther]

Merlin popped up

[stoic quail]

N8VCL0 core node is up.🙋‍♂️

🤓 😂

[narrow ledge]

Rabbit ears. Old school.

[stoic quail]

OG, baby!
I did not study engineering.

😂

Right is Meshtastic. Left is Core. Whoop whoop.

[tawdry compass]

Thanks for all of your efforts. Would it better to have 2 antennas on one router, or would 2 routers/antennas work as well?

[gilded tide]

He popped up for me too, then disappeared

[gilded tide]

I'm digging that faux illuminated usb cable.

[gilded tide]

If you're talking about two yagis, pointing in different directions, it about what you need/want. With MT, having 2 nodes would decrement the hop count. With MC, if the 2nd node isn't needed, it isn't used. When you tee two yagis (and match them appropriately,) you do retain the directional gain of the yagi, albeit without the 3db boost of the 2nd (since it isn't pointed the same direction.)

I'd vote for 2 nodes.

[stoic quail]

Lol it's real man. Changes color and everything.

[gilded tide]

That's cool then! I thought it was just the lighting reflecting off the braid

[tawdry compass]

Thanks, the cobbling the matching segments of coax for the single node/two antennas sounded a bit fiddly. at least for lazy me. lol

[gilded tide]

Yea, imepdance transformation via 1/4w sections is.... well, it works, but it's a PITA.

You burn money in connectors, time, and overall hassle.

It does wonderous things though. I have a variety of impedances on hand for random needs, 15, 20, 25, 35, 40, 60, 70, 75, 90, and 105 ohm.

So when someone asks what impedance coax is.... there is more to life than 50 and 75 🙂

[tawdry compass]

Great info, thanks.

I have memories of trying to find tunable points on window line for my 40m EDZ, and not get RF burns. I suck at working with feed line.

[narrow ledge]

I’m happy for more investment downtown, but I think as this new tower fills in, it attenuates my signal to LH. I get more elevation from my roof, but the tower is still there.

I’m having difficulty seeing LH. It’s intermittent.

[quasi beacon]

You'll just have to befriend someone with access to the rooftop of that building! 😂

[narrow ledge]

Matt probably already has the keys.

Do you suppose the rain and fog are contributing to the loss in link reliability? I was hitting it pretty consistently last night but not this morning.

[gilded tide]

For the sake of discussion. I'll be... vague. Thanks to an unnamed amateur who was butt hurt, the highest building in Omaha is persona non grata to "non-paying tenants.'

Said person impersonated a county official.

A LOT of people spent a LOT of time lobbying and securing access, just so a "do gooder" could wreck it.

[tawdry compass]

Oh, Crap.

[gilded tide]

Believe me when I say that "good sites" are not ignored. They are sacred. You engage people to do the dance. You woo, pitch, persuade. It takes time. It takes resources. It's not "hey! look, we should go slap something up there, I'll just go ask."

50 years ago, you could do that. People still had balls, still had sense. Today, it doesn't matter how much of a community service something is. it's all about risk and litigation.

[spiral plume]

looks like another node location: 🦁

[young vortex]

Wait... I thought you said we could enter them with a 9/16 socket?

Jk of course.

[gilded tide]

That's if you're "supposed" to be there 🙂

[autumn flint]

@zk-1 Just received your crashing out message. Received on meshcore at 108th and L. No repeater up yet

[spiral plume]

thanks!

[autumn flint]

Not sure if my Heltec v3 or SEEED t-1000e responses were able to reach you

[tawdry compass]

This is interesting

[narrow ledge]

Oh dang! I’m not getting any traffic in from outside downtown. Interesting there are intermittent links from 28 to out west.

Hang in there, ZK-1. The test has just barely begun.

[autumn flint]

Where can I find the setting that shows the signal strength between nodes on the map?

[tawdry compass]

You can run it from the "tools" menu

tools->Trace path using map

[empty vault]

Luke warm?

[autumn flint]

thanks

[tawdry compass]

This is incredible!

I thought mead wasn't actually online? WTF?

Weird going on here

[pure panther]

I don't know if I've seen mead yet

[narrow ledge]

That’s quite the path. 4a is Timmo’s van on the street. 80 is my room server in a window. Ec and 28 are on the roof.

28 is a G2 but it doesn’t seem to hear much.

[spiral plume]

Let’s see if we can get the record for longest and most unpractical path.

It will be like the board game “ticket to ride”

[pure panther]

Idk if you guys know or not, but how much does a metal object interfere with signals? Is it one of those things where as long as it's not huge it doesn't affect it much?

[gilded tide]

So MEAD is there. HOWEVER... the antenna it is now on is "suboptimal." I'm surprised it's showing up. I have a "springish" project for that to move.

[tawdry compass]

I don't think my G2 hears much.

[gilded tide]

This is 900. Metal can significantly affect signal.

3 inches is quarter wave here. That's the critical length.

[pure panther]

Just suprised this can see to the west at all, just metal pole that way

[tawdry compass]

How did downtown hop all the way to mead?

[gilded tide]

ahem... it is "line of sight"

[tawdry compass]

28 miles?

[gilded tide]

Sounds right.

[tawdry compass]

Wow, just wow

[gilded tide]

I may or may not support a microwave shot that's "very" close to the same.

[narrow ledge]

Wow! 28 miles. Too bad the G2 cant hear a mile away.

[gilded tide]

This is what boggles me too... when NOMA and PAP were G2s, they heard each other fine, but didn't hear much else.

[narrow ledge]

I’ve got a couple more Heltec V4 coming. The 500mW or so doesn’t sounds as nice as the G2 1W, but maybe it’ll help build a stronger link. Are there any other compatible radios with relatively higher power?

[tawdry compass]

There are amps available

[junior blaze]

I was driving from 108&L to downtown sending to public occasionally.

[narrow ledge]

I’m loosely bench testing a V4 with a battery to see what I could expect deploying it as a solar node. Existing RAK mini at LH has a 3000mAh battery and 6 watt panel, and abundant sunshine. But the RAK is very efficient. Not sure 6w/3AH system can support the V4. I’ll take any notes you guys have.

[gilded tide]

the v4 is the next best thing to a G2 tx wise.

Then it falls off to 22dbm

[tawdry compass]

I could easily cobble you up a solar power rig for the V4.

[gilded tide]

Both the v4 and g2 are esp, so they munch the power.

[tawdry compass]

It wouldn't even be a challenge.

[gilded tide]

And it's airtime relevant. MC should be a lot more power conservative than MT, since it doesn't flood every single packet.

a v4 at 28dbm sucks 750ma during transmit

[tawdry compass]

Not a problem.

[gilded tide]

I think a 10w panel and 5-6kmah would be fine for busy locales

[tawdry compass]

Yup

AGM motorcycle battery.

and there's the new sodium-ion

[junior blaze]

Scott, I use a usb lipo charger out of a vape I found on the street to connect my 5watt solar directly to my used laptop battery pouches- it bypasses the rak 350mA max charge rate...

[tawdry compass]

Problem with NMC batteries outside in the cold is damage from charging below 32d. That's OK if the pack is large enough and you don't mind replacement.

[junior blaze]

But similar from Amazon is cheap!

[tawdry compass]

You can also use the circuit from a 12v lighter charger, to charge the node battery.

But a cheap pwm charge controler circut is preferred.

[spiral plume]

I am seeing some mystery repeaters out there. good to see some more nodes out there. Although, I am not getting them in my contacts list.

[tawdry compass]

Anyways, I have a small physical size 25w panel I would happy to donate to a project. Not much bigger than a 10w

[narrow ledge]

I'm not conviced LH is online. No peep to me since 7am. Is anyone else getting a whiff of it? It's 1A.

[spiral plume]

last advert I received was yesterday morning at 3:14am

[stoic quail]

Anybody hearing N8VCL0?

Haven't heard LH here since 7:18.

[narrow ledge]

I think LH might need a site visit. I doubt I could afford Matt’s rate.

[pure panther]

Where are you seeing them?

[peak badger]

You can't pay $1,200/day for a hobby?

[pure panther]

He doesn't take his hobbies seriously

[peak badger]

Not yet he doesn't

[spiral plume]

4a & 80 with Timmo’s message

[pure panther]

Yeah I don't have those either, unfortunately

[narrow ledge]

4A is Timmo's van repeater which he plans to install in West O today. 80 is the Downtown Room server.

[pure panther]

Ty Scott

As a total signal strength noob Its it fair to say negative dB is bad signal, and anything positive Is good?

[narrow ledge]

The higher the number, the better. But even negative numbers can be quite workable.

[pure panther]

Darn, I was hoping it'd be easy lmao

I feel like Noma is some kinda wizard node, thing gets stupid good signal even though it's deaf. Someone needs to rework its character sheet and give it some perception points

[gilded tide]

it's relative. There is no arbitrary.

[gilded tide]

It "gets"? or it "gives"? If you are hearing it, that's what your app reports. Unfortunately, from "its" perspective, ZERO neighbors.

[pure panther]

I recieve lmao

[pure panther]

I mean technically it does get really good signal, it just can't make sense of it because noise, correct?

[gilded tide]

In theory.

[pure panther]

It is quite unfortunate that it can't be fixed with duct-tape

[narrow ledge]

Throwing more hardware into the ring: I'm gonna put one more T1000-E repeater on the roof facing south and see if that helps bring anything into the area. Maybe in about an hour after the batteries are fully charged.

[junior blaze]

I stopped at my floks for lunch and made contact with Elmwood repeater.

[narrow ledge]

Oh, cool!

[stoic quail]

I saw F16 South.

[narrow ledge]

Wow. It's still sitting on my bench charging. Must be via other repeaters. Can you tell which?

[stoic quail]

it was 1:14 when I heard it.

Now I'm just getting timeouts.

Log says Flood Advert at 1:14, 5dB 2 hops ec, 28.

[narrow ledge]

That checks out. ec and 28 are on my roof. 28 has a strong transmitter (Station G2) but doesn't hear well.

[stoic quail]

👍

[junior blaze]

~LSR is mounted. Hopefully this helps bridge things.

[narrow ledge]

F16 South is up and running. ID is 5C.

[narrow ledge]

What's your repeater ID?

[stoic quail]

N8VCL0

[narrow ledge]

Can you paste the advert here? Or at least the first 2 characters of the public key? That's the ID as far as the mesh routing is concerned.

[stoic quail]

Aka C8?

meshcore://1100c803067e5c84f918432f905fec5d475480a611d38921889d202b886641fa95ef532a1e69e1cdd7e615d0b51a69eb510df51e281a4041f20375acf7a8f4db5d22fc983567d28936bc9917cb57b61815ffeef03859afc4e2234d7b0a67b6cdf4d04e9e3f059158617202728447fa4e3856434c30

[narrow ledge]

Thanks. That's your chat client (companion) advert. Are you running a repeater, too?

[narrow ledge]

I just tried to send 5 flood DMs to you. Each said failed, but you might still see them.

[stoic quail]

Oh. Yeah it's operating companion mode not repeater.

And no messages.

I need to read the wiki.

[narrow ledge]

You can also ask questions here. It’s a learning environment.

[junior blaze]

Same here, I have much to learn. Have a little meshtastec use, but this is new to me, too.

[junior blaze]

Am I reading this correctly? 3 hop reply from a2 hop thru ec,28,4a to get to 8c?

[spiral plume]

Is that android? I have iOS and this looks foreign to me.

[junior blaze]

Yes, android. 3dot menu/ tools/rx logs

[spiral plume]

I think those are the raw logs of everything. Are you trying to find any specific information?

if I long press a message from somebody, I have the option to view the path which is handy.

Here is a path trace from your message to me on the public channel for example

[junior blaze]

Just trying to verify what i see in the flood response.
From<a2>(16Repeater) to <8c>(?)
Path 3 hops [ec(sinkhole),28(DT16omaMesh),4a(~LSR)]

Guess I will need to set up another repeater in chalco so I can get to this new meshcore from home!😂

[spiral plume]

yes, that is what I make of it.

[spiral plume]

It never ends - lol

I just wish I could get the trace function to work.

I need to move golden gate to a better location on the bulding: I think I am getting lack-luster results right now.

[junior blaze]

I was able to get the trace using map to work when i was downtown and had ~LSR repeater in my van...

[spiral plume]

nice! mesh van! love it. Can you share your contact info hash so I can add you?

[junior blaze]

I might MC flash my ~CSR (Chalco Solar Rak) tomorrow and drive up to the lake with my extension pole to see if I can see golden gate and ~LSR.

[spiral plume]

oh, you are the chalco guy. Nice, I think we chatted on LF about the northern lights.

[junior blaze]

Quite likey. It was a great night to see it.
All my nodes start with ~

[junior blaze]

meshcore://1100a6fb38d7169047daf331088d8ad00676afa3fd2fef8c8b25bdd25a1bf150eff623871c69b6befa9fc114b598983ecd085043d3acf2e1621a622a8300ff54b7975074ddd53020e13d909e41aa0d858d5af8c0374066d03f6c2b0616d8d0346d7414e4320b8154696d6d6f

[slender cave]

GhostPlanet is me! I am definitely a novice but happy to help with anything if I can

[junior blaze]

Seen you on MT. @Ghost/roast

[peak badger]

I used to see you pop up regularly.

Meaning connect to your node from around 156/dodge

[slender cave]

I’m around 120 & Q. I have a station g2 probably not in the best spot but it seems to do okay

[peak badger]

It helps the mesh. I updated to 7.14 and switched to client_base tonight. Software says the role is unsupported, which is weird.

It's a rak4631

My solar node has been up, uninterrupted for about 4 months

[pure panther]

Ordered a set of 2 36" antennas, I'll upgrade lavista city park when they come in. No clue if they'll make that much of a difference to the ones that are on there already

Worse case is it gains 2.5 feet in height, so I mean there's that I guess lol

[peak badger]

Wait, on 'tastic or 'core?

[pure panther]

Core, my bad should have specified

[quasi beacon]

I know some folks have reported decreased battery usage with T1000e on core... I'm my experience I've only been getting half the run time (1day) even with gps disabled.

[quasi beacon]

Has lavista City Park been running steady? My trace maps shows a good connection, but I haven't been able to route anything through there (or any of the other repeaters for that matter)

[spiral plume]

now $41 dollars on Amazon with coupon!

[narrow ledge]

I’m planning to visit LH today and see what’s up. I’ll be a little grumpy if these things randomly shut down.

[pure panther]

Yeah it's working overhere, I can log in and out of it and send messages locally, it doesn't seem to connect to anything besides elmwood though, I can't trace route anything else

[pure panther]

It doesn't actually know that repeater exists though, it's not in its saved repeaters, weird

[spiral plume]

old millard repeater

meshcore://11001c249745a7a788d70dea210141270bf84959058fb496cb94bc178f88eed2bb9575261f697e2d22e2cf6864d0cc0ccffe87ff29cb0f62956aa0095b3f108ffe568ad9736979d04d4b99aee0c0369813ddad9ea3de7177e3f31024810597fd0bf2749699049264c57402068f45faf09f92a54f6c64204d696c6c617264f09f92a5

[quasi beacon]

That would explain why I can't trace it. Must be either an RX issue on that end or a TX issue on my end. I'll mess with it some more later.

[peak badger]

Damn.

[pure panther]

I'll look into it some more when I get back in range this afternoon

[peak badger]

Wismesh Tag has a better battery and (in my experience) a better antenna

[spiral plume]

good to know. It seemed like a good improvement from
the product description. End user feedback is much appreciated!

[peak badger]

I have 2 t1000 and a tag. Tag is better.

Also for mobile nodes, the t114 and R1 Neo are tits. Very good Tx and Rx in my experience.

[tame pendant]

@gilded tide @narrow ledge Whats up my peeps sorry i have not been around the mesh world lately we did the sweepstakes saturday got 2 repeaters down........Im hoping to get 82 back on the air tomorrow and work on 075 Minden saturday. So how has everyone been........TDW1

[spiral plume]

I see the NSA headquarters setup a MC repeater on 156th & Maple

[gilded tide]

TLDR; Meshcore test

To make it more difficult... and because I've heard it more than once... let's move "MC" chatter to the MC spot.

https://discord.com/channels/1343693475589263471/1439732912672211024

Since you're in Iowa Dan, you're not welcome.

We only allow window lickers here.

[tame pendant]

lol im busy this weekend so you in charge to the window lickers kids this weekend

[pure panther]

Could you get that repeater to advertise?

[stoic quail]

I switched over to "Repeater" on my home/base node

now I'm in the setup.

Sent advert.
N8VCL-0 "c8"

Now to flash my Tracker L1

[quasi beacon]

Yeah, just sent a few

[pure panther]

Got it

[pure panther]

I can trace path to it and back now

Anyone have both a rak wireless board and a tracker L1?

Are they similar enough I won't see a noticeable change in performance between the two?

[stoic quail]

I have both.

Performance-wise, I didn't notice much diff.

Interface wise... if you have the L1 Pro and use the app, same experience. If you use the L1 screen... huge difference.

[pure panther]

Ok good, was thinking about swapping my carry over to the rak as it'll fit inside the tin better

[stoic quail]

It's cool that it works standalone, but it's a lot more of a pain to navigate and type messages etc.

[pure panther]

Plus I can put a dedicated Bluetooth on it

[stoic quail]

That would work.

My RAK's are my home nodes, and the tracker is my mobile.

[stoic quail]

nice.

[pure panther]

I don't use the screen, and may or maynot have broken my joystick when I was trying to shorten it

[stoic quail]

lol

[pure panther]

But it does hurt the BT range inside a metal box

Was thinking I could install a secondary dedicated BT antenna if I used a rak board, and free up this one for other projects

[stoic quail]

Yeah, the RAK has the sticker-antenna.

[pure panther]

Its U.fl right?

[stoic quail]

Anybody seeing any N8VCLs on Core?

What's U.fl? lol

[stoic quail]

Oh. yeah, but no SMA, just straight to the antenna.

[pure panther]

Alright, ty

[pure panther]

What's a N8VCL?

[stoic quail]

N8VCL-0 AND -1 are my repeater and Tracker, respectively.

[pure panther]

Ah, no I haven't seen them yet

What area were you?

[stoic quail]

Bay Hills GC, south of the Platte at about 42nd-ish.

[pure panther]

Seen it on tastic about 5 days back, that's all I got

My handheld is on MC tho, so I don't have anything recent for MT

[stoic quail]

Yeah, I moved the L1 to Core and added a RAK as a Core repeater.

[pure panther]

I haven't heard anything from it as of now, I never could get messages out that far and only once ever saw that node on MT, I might look onto what areas bridge that distance the best and put a repeater near one of them

[stoic quail]

So...kinda of a bummer that I have to pay to is BT on my Tracker...
How long between ordering and getting a code?

I have LH, MEAD, Golden Gate, AMC, and Downtown 16 repeaters direct at N8VCL-0 repeater. That's cool.

[pure panther]

Do you have your repeater set to regularly send flood advertise notifications every 3 hours?

[stoic quail]

60 minutes.

Also just sent an advert from the Tracker a Lil bit ago.

[pure panther]

Should be two rows of advertise on the repeater when you manage it

The very shortest you can flood advertise is 3 hour intervals.

Though we might take the convo to https://discord.com/channels/1343693475589263471/1439732912672211024 to prevent any one new to MT from getting more mixed up than needed lol

[stoic quail]

Where's that screen?

I can only do anything via pc.

[junior blaze]

I can't follow the link to mc... # unknown

[pure panther]

try matts link up a little bit

actually idk if that'd work either i was on that server before i used the link

[stoic quail]

I used the CLI on the core site

[junior blaze]

Matt, how do I get access to this #unknown ? Ssys I don't have access.

[stoic quail]

It let me set advert to 60 minutes.

[pure panther]

So your personal node is your pc, the other two are remote right?

[stoic quail]

My meshcore repeater is connected to PC. I can't connect or manage it via BT.

[pure panther]

you have a carry and app besides that one?

[stoic quail]

My Tracker also cannot be managed with BT until I get an unlock key from Meshcore.

[pure panther]

give me a sec, gotta read

so you have a repeater connected to a PC, and your tracker is what you have linked to a phone?

[stoic quail]

No.

[pure panther]

Sorry lol

[stoic quail]

The Tracker is standalone. The firmware for the tracker has BT disabled

And position reporting.

If you want that stuff you have to buy the license for 8 Euros.

I placed the order earlier today, but apparently it's not automated.

So...still waiting for my license key/unlock code.

Crazy, right?

[pure panther]

it must be different for that tracker or something? My wio tracker L1 has bluetooth by default, the only thing the on the app i saw that cost was to remove the wait on remoting into a repeater.

[junior blaze]

I used 2 raks. 1 companion to remote config the repeater. Can you connect to companion via serial to remote the repeater?

[stoic quail]

Companion firmware is not available for the Tracker.

[pure panther]

a sec

[quasi beacon]

Nice! You must have some decent elevation. Are you 2 way on AMC? Something seems off with it. Or maybe I just need to readjust my range expectations to the faster Lora settings.

[pure panther]

select community firmware

[stoic quail]

Oh heeeyyyy...lol

[pure panther]

man you fried my brain there xD

i was like but... im using it?

[stoic quail]

Lol sorry.

Yeah, I just saw what came to the top. Lol.

[pure panther]

nah its my bad, i should have questioned better

but yeah that'd be the issue, 100%

[pure panther]

also upper right of the site, contact, discord.

[stoic quail]

👍

[peak badger]

Soooo

How's the test going?

[stoic quail]

Better now. Lol

[junior blaze]

I got a MC repeater up on a 4 story buildingroof @ 144 & Dodge yesterday. Now I need to flash another MC repeater node for my roof so I can connect to this new stuff.😅

[pure panther]

look forward to hearing your advertisement, i collect those, like a weird game of Pokémon

[stoic quail]

Lol

[pure panther]

if you can hit all these with your repeater reliably, you should be able to bridge west and east O, i cant see Golden gate or mead reliably with anything over here.

[stoic quail]

Well...Hopefully i set everything up right.

[pure panther]

ill letcha know if i see any new repeaters pop up in the mesh

[junior blaze]

If you go to the meshcore internet map and click ona node, you can add to your contacts

[pure panther]

that i didn't know, Ty

[junior blaze]

Also go to your contacts, choose your repeater, 3dot menu, share ,upload to internet. (I think it has to have gps location set)

[quasi beacon]

Nice! I still haven't picked up n8vcl-0. Have you done any adverts lately?

[junior blaze]

Scott, add ~CSR after Old Millard. I got them talking tonight.

[pure panther]

i also havent seen and advert yet

[junior blaze]

Sorry, that sucked!

[quasi beacon]

Haha, worked for me!

[pure panther]

you should also just be able to copy the code itself using "copy link to clipboard" in the app under the share thing, don't need a camera to use it that way

[junior blaze]

meshcore://1100bc2429c0bd77ff607cf6fc7f5a2b1a2fbbd37cdaaadebe456d0b56338606d583b4db1f69545f6ea96d4d785dc7a33564b21e470948f55fb03065c9f93676cc42a5f96b3aa1f60d5cc55a808f106c523e3f7ccdf521515429e1ad3437ff5be9761e87c70292ff307402a10945fa7e435352205265706561746572

[pure panther]

sweet

[quasi beacon]

If it's on the same device, you can also screenshot it. Then "scan" and click the image icon when the camera pops up

[junior blaze]

Or share it to the internet map. Anyone can click on it and add.

[stoic quail]

Just sent advert.

[pure panther]

which type?

[stoic quail]

And shared to internet map

[quasi beacon]

Flood advert? I didn't see it. I'll check if my repeater saw it.

[stoic quail]

Yeah

Path to csr set through old Millard

[junior blaze]

Just brought ~CSR online tonight. Usually have 0 hops to ~LSR from here on MT

[pure panther]

anyone know how high up Mead is?

i seem to pick it up in weird spots

[peak badger]

So is N8VCL going to be repeating on both meshes?

I still pick it up consistently from boystown

On MT

[stoic quail]

Yeah I have to RAK nodes up here.

One on core, one on MT.

And a mobile Tracker L1 on Core.

[peak badger]

Noice.

[stoic quail]

Two* derp

[peak badger]

I figured that out.

[stoic quail]

Lol

[peak badger]

I have a RAK solar and mobile both as client base sending all traffic

[junior blaze]

Red, I heard you on public. 5 hops to chalco. Nice!

[peak badger]

What is the antenna setup?

[narrow ledge]

Nice! Can you share the path?

[stoic quail]

@peak badger

[peak badger]

There's no way

[junior blaze]

Loess hills to 144th Dodge is a nice hit!

[pure panther]

can it do it twice though?

[narrow ledge]

I tried to send you DM via flood. I’ll try to manually create this path.

[peak badger]

There's no way you're connecting that far with indoor antennas.

[stoic quail]

Lol.

When the sun comes up I can send a Pic of the view.

[junior blaze]

~LSR is on a roof with a 3dBi. I will post a pic.

[stoic quail]

I've always wanted to get it outside and above the roof...but that's a long fall and a sudden stop!

[pure panther]

sling shot

[peak badger]

I have this on the tippy top of my chimney top

[narrow ledge]

I have a pretty solid path from LH to LSR and back at the moment. 10.5 mikes each way.

[stoic quail]

If I could get on my roof, I'd hit crown point with5dB. Lol

[peak badger]

Put a mattress on the ground.

[junior blaze]

What antenna is LH rockin?

[peak badger]

Factory.

[quasi beacon]

Really steep pitch or something?

[peak badger]

(I made that up)

[stoic quail]

Im just old and unsteady.

[junior blaze]

It's Miller time!

[junior blaze]

Just try to land face down so it's easier to get the money out of your wallet...

[peak badger]

I see N8VCL consistently

[peak badger]

Land head first so it's over faster

[quasi beacon]

Fair enough. If you ever want help I'd be up for a climb. Seems like you're in a pretty good spot. What's your elevation?

[junior blaze]

Now that's just mean! 😆

[peak badger]

Dark humor is like food

Not everybody gets it.

[narrow ledge]

https://amzn.to/4pr6yab

[peak badger]

Your HOA is going to hate my idea

[stoic quail]

Antennas are behind the X.
About 1100 ft, 100 feet abo e the Platte with a clear view north.

Don't have an hoa. 😁

[narrow ledge]

This is what’s on Loess Hills, Sinkhole, and Downtown 16.

[junior blaze]

@narrow ledge same as I just put on my house. Maybe I should upgrade ~LSR...

[peak badger]

How does THIS perform?

[narrow ledge]

I have one of these on loan to a friend but he is not using it at the moment. Maybe I should ask for it back. I might help LH a bit. Twice the length.

https://amzn.to/47QVMEa

[peak badger]

I've never heard of onmi

Or an antenna that could sepatate

[junior blaze]

That one on my house is ~CSR and it looks like this now.
The little ism antenna is on a heltec on MT here.

[peak badger]

How is the Tx & Rx?

[junior blaze]

Been on my roof for 2-3 hours, so idk, but it connects to Old Millard.

[peak badger]

3 hops to reach you 5 miles away

43 hrs ago. Nm

SHOCK. Failed trace route just now.

[quasi beacon]

So just an initial observation after driving around some more with a mobile node and trying to link back to my repeater and others... as great as the speed is, it seems like the standard MC lora settings are a pretty substantial reduction in range vs. MT longfast. Probably fine for those that are close to a good infrastructure node, but problematic for anyone on the fringes of the mesh or mobile with a handheld node. I'm wondering if one step slower (maybe to SF8 while keeping 62 BW) would be more usable overall. This would still be roughly half the air time of MT longfast settings, plus you're still getting the traffic reduction via MC's different routing strategies. Or, just running medium slow on MT would provide basically the same result and cut down on a lot of the clutter on the public channel.

[twin plover]

I think that is what I'm experiencing with MC. I'm not able to hear people that I used to and no one can hear me. I have t1000s so that makes sense.

[junior blaze]

My onlt successfull traceroutes ar between ~CSR and Old Millard, can't bounce further...

[quasi beacon]

Yeah, it makes a big difference. We're running about a third the airtime vs. standard MT settings, but it's also about a third the effective signal strength.

[narrow ledge]

I’d be game to twiddle knobs. I still feel like this is kind of like a pilot project. If we settle on something other than default then we’ll just have to get the word out.

[junior blaze]

I love playing with tech, so I'm in for learning and testing, but I have a small budget, so no launching satellites...

[quasi beacon]

Probably too early to make a change quite yet. It will be interesting to see how things look once a couple of the "good" spots get sorted out.

[junior blaze]

Yeah, feels like we are just getting started. My work days get worse results.

And I haven't even tapped out all my contacts who may let me on their buildings...

[twin plover]

I agree. I tend to follow the rule of thumb that it is generally best to stick to the defaults unless you have a really good reason not to. It just keeps things simpler.

[narrow ledge]

Agreed. Improved or new repeaters or sites out there could make a big difference.

[peak badger]

Oh, you're not even on MT right now.

NFW

[junior blaze]

Yeah, sorry, I moved 3 of my 6 nodes for testing MC. Still.on MT, but less of me. And usually on private channels. I should go LF primary...

[quasi beacon]

What's your impression so far regarding the close-in stuff downtown? Enough of a reliability improvement to offset the loss in range?

[narrow ledge]

I need to replace the rooftop G2 with a V4 and let that settle in a bit. But right off the bat I’m often surprised at how sometimes I don’t get 0 hop pings in places where you’d think I would, and where I did in MT.

[junior blaze]

I am generally satisfied with the performance on my cobbled together $50 nodes..

[peak badger]

I do mostly private channels also

[junior blaze]

I just tried a message on LF, not sure how far it got...

[peak badger]

Rx nothing.

[junior blaze]

I got csr test test

[peak badger]

X2?

[junior blaze]

X1. My reply isn't getting out

[peak badger]

Good thing I sent twice. Thanks mesh

[junior blaze]

I have 0 hops to Papillion

[peak badger]

EVERYONE has 0 hops to pap

Soon, no one will have any hops to pap

[junior blaze]

No doubt! And a few near chalco, but...

My brother and I have been trying to get MT to Aksarben, but Midtown is weak.

Yeah, i got you 5 hops, but still cant traceroute.

[peak badger]

I'm surprised there are that many between boys town and chalco

[junior blaze]

Scott, I get you msgs from x2, I just can't get back. I think some repeaters send better than they receive.

Even Flood doesn't seem to get a path back.

[junior blaze]

I live in chalco, and have a rooftop node near boystown, and I think that has been a good bridge since June.

[peak badger]

N8VCL got both tests to CSR.

Saw your response @stoic quail

[gilded tide]

130'

Keep in mind Mead is on MC right now.

[junior blaze]

Matt, is there another thread for MC? I tried #unknown link, but can't find anything.

[hushed knot]

https://meshcore.co.uk/contact.html

Join the discord listed there and find it in the regional channels. It’s just showing unknown since you’re not in that discord yet.

[junior blaze]

Thank you.

[gilded tide]

And if you didn't find it after joining .... https://discord.com/channels/1343693475589263471/1439732912672211024

[spiral plume]

yeah, we are sacrificing range at the expense of a data rate 2x that of MT longfast. Longfast, as I am sure you know has 250 KHz Bandwidth and Spread Factor of 11. Maybe I am wrong, but Long Fast may deal with a noisy band much better than the default MC settings. I am up for some experimentation.

[pure panther]

Weirdly I don't see any range change from one to the other in my playing around it, but it does seem to have more consistently delivery notifications on MC than MT from what I've seen thus far

Something I have noticed is that MT handles moving around better, i don't have to make sure my messages aren't trying to route weirdly. As far as plug and play MT does that better. I think that Apple vs android is very similar, Apple is just easier to set and forget, just works. Less options, but if you don't want the complexity of that, it's easier to grasp and use.

But that's just my opinion on it so far, I'm not an expert at any of this lol

[hushed knot]

In my ultra small pool of testing I’d agree. MC I’ve been able to set up suboptimal positioned repeaters and have effectively great house to house messaging. MT from the same house to house I could never get consistent send/receive. MT though, just worked much better when I’d enter a random town and be walking around. Granted it’d see it successfully send in MT but rarely get a response lol.

I’m setting up a MC room server to test this weekend. Very excited for that as I think that’s going to be a great selling point to local friends/familes/neighbors.

[spiral plume]

yeah, I’ve noticed if I move to a different spot I need to reset the path or change my path for repeater admin.

[narrow ledge]

I think it’s supposed to revert back to flood if a path fails. But you can do it manually just in case or to be sure.

[peak badger]

What I noticed when a message fails in MC I just reflash to MT and forget that MC exists.

2.7.14+ firmware made canned messages way easier for 2 button devices.

me to meshcore.

I'm proud of all of you guys for giving it the whole burrito though.

[pure panther]

Man I didn't know you could get a custom amateur radio license plate, saw one today

[tawdry compass]

I have had one. Problem is that it dox's you.

[glad canopy]

Also gives everyone your address too

I hate how they do that

There's no reason everyone needs that info

[pure panther]

valid point

[tawdry compass]

Well, that is the FCC

[bronze torrent]

Anyone in the Lincoln area?

[peak badger]

Uhhh... That's doxxing, right?

[peak badger]

You can get a custom anything plate

They won't let you put GFY though. I tried.

[open tartan]

The opposite is true. The narrow bandwidth of the MeshCore standard preset handles RFI of a noisy area much better.

[open tartan]

I suspect what might be happening is that MeshCore is showing you with more detail when DM paths fail, and when a new route discovery is needed via flood - and when all that happens automagically

[pure panther]

I figured as much, when it works it sure works though, I've never had a full conversion cross town and have every come in order on MT, but I have on core

[spiral plume]

So let me ask this. I saw the band and there are competing signals everywhere. Would increasing the BW, fully knowing we are making ourselves more susceptible to noise as you pointed out, and less sensitive, as Matt pointed out, gain us an advantage is a robust data transfer in the case a the signal is interfered with by a fellow LoRa device. Just a hypothetical question.

[open tartan]

I’m far from an expert with this - the narrower bandwidth means less of the signal has of getting stepped on. Increasing the bandwidth makes that more likely. Also, the narrower preset with a shorter spread factor makes MeshCore feel much more snappy when sending messages and receiving acks

250/11 had to higher link budget, but felt slow, pokey, and just generally not performant

Increasing the spread factor in areas that aren’t built yet, is an easy mitigation to buy a few dBs of signal in cases where it can make or break a usable mesh, until additional infrastructure repeaters to be added

Otherwise, the guidance is to strongly suggest using the suggested regional presets so that as the mash builds out, it will eventually mesh with other neighborhoods, cities, regions using interoperable radio settings

Sorry if I’m doing a poor job of explaining, speech to text and driving at the moment

[pure panther]

What I'm getting is, it's likely better to leave it as it so it can more easily link up with both newer users and other cities in the future as the mesh fills out more?

But that it might net a few dBs if we did change it, but that also might make it feel more sluggish

[open tartan]

You got it

Those are pretty much the pros and cons

[gilded tide]

not to make it more complicated.... but given the immaturity of the current mesh, reliability outweighs interop (imho)

if we had 90% of MT users flip to MC, then likely sf7 would be viable.

As it is, I have issues troubleshooting MC. I have console access to repeaters, but they show 0 neighbors, yet users show the repeaters.

[quasi beacon]

Yeah, I've got Pap direct at +1db, but it doesn't hear me even with 1 watt TX. It's the same sad story of a node at height that can't hear worth a shit.

[gilded tide]

and PAP is a rak4631

noise floor there was -95, so it should be quite usable

[quasi beacon]

Yeah that's nuts, it should be the other way around with my particular setup.

[gilded tide]

if you didn't catch it... many of us have changed to sf8

[quasi beacon]

Oh! That might explain it. Lol...

Busy day at work, I was ignoring all the chatter

[gilded tide]

I don't think Scott has changed any of his, but NOMA, PAP, Merlin, timmo, and... have changed

[glad canopy]

Yeah. But doxxing to me is like just one or two things normally. Name is usually the big one. But name, address just seems insane. And with doxxing unless someone does something stupid it usually involves some work.

But with a call sign and a public gov website it's all available

[gilded tide]

20 years ago I had a call plate. And I got a random call from someone asking me what it meant. they had found my info online. I got a new plate teh next day.

[glad canopy]

Yeah that's why I wouldn't do one with my call sign as well

5 or 6 characters is all anyone needs

Plus you have to continually state it

[bronze torrent]

So im not going to lie to yall, I watched Shaun Ryan's interview with Ryan Montgomery and he mentioned meshtastic and it peaked my interest. What would yall recommend to get started and do yall recommend any materials or videos to watch to better educate myself?

[open tartan]

We’re doing a test here around Albany tomorrow and switching to sf8 or sf9 to see how much more meshy it will get

Some links are marginal at the moment

[gilded tide]

Who and who?

[quasi beacon]

Sf8 seems to have made a big improvement for me. Still faster than MT LF.

[open tartan]

Good to know, thanks!

Have you been able to quantify how much better the link budget is in real life in your region?

[gilded tide]

So I did the goog and found the interview. Wow, is he overselling.

[open tartan]

Like traces before and after are x dB stronger

Link?

[quasi beacon]

The trace from my repeater shows +2-3db . Everything else is anecdotal but some connections are open now that weren't possible previously. I need to go mobile to compare some spots that worked on MT LF and didn't work MC sf7.

[open tartan]

Good to know, thanks!

How much slower does it feel in practical use?

If any

[gilded tide]

prior to changinf to sf8, sf7 was SNAPPY. I'm "off network" at my location, even with sf8

[quasi beacon]

No problem! I'd start with sf8. sf9 will pretty much match MT LF. It is quite a bit slower, but a good tradeoff in my situation.

[gilded tide]

I have a 12.8 mile path, line of sight. Using deprecated (250/sf11) 8.5, using rec (62/sf7) 8.5, sf8 bounced as high as 10, as low as 8. So..... almost no discernible difference on this path (v4 transmitter, rak 4631 receiver)

[bronze torrent]

https://youtu.be/X51d06g4tuk?si=45mRgxaQiB_yqMq3

At 1:0520 Ryan Montgomery talks about meshtastic to Shawn Ryan

[gilded tide]

Per my previous response... he way oversells it. If you are "buying" based on his commentary, you need to do a lot of "non-influencer" research.

Right now a lot of the group is testing an alternative software (Meshcore) because it is far more reliable (in theory.)

Meshtastic is "fire and forget." You don't know if the other end received it.

You may have heard some recent comments that people have choppy messaging, out of order messages, or just lost messages.

[bronze torrent]

All I said it perked my interest. I was hoping to educate myself better. I was thinking of a way to comuncate with family locally without getting into the amateur radio realm

[gilded tide]

Because it is decentralized, you don't know where coverage exists and where it doesn't.

[bronze torrent]

The encrypted aspect instead of everyone hearing what I put over the net interests me also

[gilded tide]

If you go to Walmart, would you trust telling a random stranger to repeat a word, have them repeat it to another stranger, etc? And limit it to no more than 7 relays?

[hushed knot]

FWIW I’m in a rural area and MeshCore is much more interesting to me because MeshCore has room servers which allow people to leave messages and people out of range at the time to see that message later when they’re in range.

[gilded tide]

I tested store and forward with Meshtastic. It did "work".... usually.

[peak badger]

I was wondering about the use case for store & forward.

[peak badger]

Can you DM me?

[gilded tide]

encryption is relative. While the messages "in the air" are relatively safe, if the user device is obtained, you have access to the messages.

[gilded tide]

Someone is out of range, or has their endpoint off. When they come on network, their flood packet causes a notification from the holding node.

[peak badger]

Another purpose to have a "base" and mobile node

So store and forward is a node setting, not a message setting?

Does it work with telemetry?

[gilded tide]

No, not base/mobile. Normally, you'd run a base as a client. Recently, client_base became available, which probably would serve your needs better.

Store and forward is not only a node setting ,but requires specific hardware as well. Not every node can do it.

And no, no telemetry. Non-public channels only.

[tawdry compass]

That's exactly why I didn't renew mine

[peak badger]

I already run client base on a couple.

4630 boards?

[young vortex]

I am

[gilded tide]

no, only a t beam or a t3s3

[peak badger]

Interesting

[bronze torrent]

May I Dm you?

[stoic quail]

SF8 on Core? Or MT?

[quasi beacon]

Core

[peak badger]

So are you guys seeing any better reliability on core for getting data over distance? Or is terrain still the (one of several?) big issue?

[spiral plume]

I am seeing an improvement. not monumental, but an improvement.

[quasi beacon]

If you're talking point to point, MT default settings still have the edge for range. But overall reliability does seem better on MC.

[pure panther]

Lavista city park is back online on MC

[peak badger]

Has anyone here used Reticulum?

[pure panther]

I've not used it, but from what I've read it's interesting. I don't know anyone personally who has either

[tacit schooner]

Hey everyone! Haven't been active in a while but really glad to see how big its gotten!

[junior blaze]

Welcome back

[peak badger]

That's what she said.

I see your DD node consistently

[tacit schooner]

Sweet! i have that, a station g2, and t-beam

[peak badger]

I usually see 2 or 3 but didn't want to doxx you.

[tacit schooner]

all good, not like they arent public

[peak badger]

Are you able to see nodes southeast of you?

Seems like a dead area headed out toward gretna

[tacit schooner]

being near zorinsky, i cant see much towards gretna

[peak badger]

I bet a node on the church near 168/Q would be good for infrastructure

[junior blaze]

Or on the apartments on 168/Giles

[quasi beacon]

Welcome back! Not sure if you went through the back-scroll, but a bunch of us are testing meshcore on SF8. If you're interested, check out the discord. https://discord.com/invite/bSuST8xvet to accept the invite, then... https://discord.com/channels/1343693475589263471/1439732912672211024

[peak badger]

I don't know which would be easier

[glad canopy]

Wouldn't it make more sense to stick with one standard then to switch back and forth? Like I could see if we were Denver and had a solid infrastructure to start testing with but we barely have meshtastic covering 2/3 of the metro

I mean if Meshcore is better let's go all in. But which mesh is the most used on both a national and international scale? That's what we should pivot towards in my opinion

[peak badger]

The issue I have seen with data delivery on a decentralized network is more to do with terrain (hills) than protocol (MT vs MC).

But I'm just one person testing multiple nodes across the metro so what the hell do I know anyway.

[glad canopy]

Yeah that's been a problem for sure. We need a few higher points and more nodes. But if we're split amongst meshcore and meshtastic then we're shooting ourselves in the foot

[peak badger]

100%

I find MT easier to use.

Which is a big deal to me if you want to get new users involved, especially wives, kids, family members who aren't radio nerds and hate gadgets

[glad canopy]

Good point

I haven't played with Meshcore and while I'm not opposed to it I just hope we settle on a standard that's the most widely used. Whatever it may be. Seeing the nodes that Colorado Springs has as well as Denver then seeing Omaha just starting to get built out makes me think it's probably not the time to split up

[peak badger]

I switched a node to MC. it was meh. I like the interface and maps and ancillary uses of MT so much better that it's not worth it to switch for me

so I'm not switching. MC is JUST text, and that's not enough for me.

[glad canopy]

I'll stick with Meshtastic too then I guess. I don't have the free time with having kids and all that to go too nuts with experimenting

[peak badger]

MT has the neighbor info module, which can be used for monitoring infrastructure, but not used by the firmware for routing right now. The devs could probably incorporate that info at some point in the future.

The good thing is that this is all just firmware/protocol and no hardware has to be changed out.

I use MT publicly a lot less than I use it privately.

It's good for more than just finding strangers

[tawdry compass]

MC actually has Neighbor info, as well.

[glad canopy]

Thank goodness for that. Otherwise it would be like the HAM community all over. Everyone on different bands with different setups

Just totally fragmented

[peak badger]

And yelling at each other about call signs and licenses and what it was like before the railroad was built.

[glad canopy]

Lol, I still have my license but after participating in a few nets I quickly realized it was retirees complaining about their body pains while talking about their new Yaesu radio that was so much better than last years

"it's just 2 grand for a radio and I can reach French Guyana"

Oh okay

(me on my shitty Baofeng)

[peak badger]

Yeah, well, with this $25 radio off amazon and NO license I can talk to the same people and the FCC isn't going to do anything

Also, in an emergency, I'm not going to call anyone in French Guyana

[peak badger]

Yes. I understand. MC actually uses that info for routing. My point was to compare to MC, saying that MT could use neighbor info for routing purposes in the future.

or as MC would call it "neighbour" info

[hushed knot]

My 2 cents on MC vs MT, recognizing both teams are volunteering their time and efforts and I appreciate the hell out of both.

• Competition is good, especially in software. It drives innovation more then anything else in my experience working in that arena professionally
• MC exists particularly because MT was uninterested in other contributors which is their prerogative. Again ultimately the competition is good.
• I don’t think picking the bigger or more popular standard matters right now. MT can’t handle a single major metro like Austin. What other areas use is at best a data point but if we’re hoping MT can bridge major cities that seems unrealistic in the current MT implementation.
• It’s been discussed here before but MC and MT have different strengths and IMHO each lend themselves to different types of deployments.

[peak badger]

Agreed.

[open tartan]

Amen - definitely not an either/or. It's always been both, based on use case and specific need.

[peak badger]

And hardware is so cheap it's easy to run parallel sites for stationary nodes.

Unless you're Matt and your nodes are built to be launched into orbit

Vs me:

[gilded tide]

But it IS the same. MT=fldigi, MC=VarAC

[gilded tide]

MT is send and forget.... MC is "acknowledged delivery"

[slender cave]

Sorry if I missed this from earlier, but what MC devices are recommended? I have a station g2 for MT. I was hoping for something similar to just plug in as a base station sort of but my brief searches looked like there were mostly smaller mobile devices.

[peak badger]

Depends on use case. Base station, infrastructure (and scale of infrastructure), mobile, team text comms, telemetry collection (location/tracking), finding strangers to complain to

[slender cave]

Base station to complain to strangers and also help others complain?

[peak badger]

For base station I use a pre-made solar node I bought off etsy. RAK 4631 device, alfa antenna. Mounted high on roof.

Honestly, your G2 is probably better. I hear they have better broadcast power. Same for new V4

[gilded tide]

Same hardware.

[peak badger]

I 100% missed that you were asking about MC. Yeah, exact same devices. Difference is protocol, not hardware.

[slender cave]

Thank you for the replies! I’m debating getting another G2, seeing if I can get MC to work with this Heltec V3 that’s been laying around, or flashing the G2. I think just getting another G2 is easiest 😬

[hushed knot]

Flashing a heltec is a few minutes with a PC and a usb cable fwiw

Not to discourage more node purchases 😂

[peak badger]

Flashed a Twatch S3 Plus with 2.7.15 MT (for Twatch S3).

Text works! Hopefully GPS will work once I get it outdoors

[quasi beacon]

Love the form factor. But being esp32, the battery life probably sucks right?

[bronze torrent]

Heltec V4 or T114 or RAK for solar node?

[hushed knot]

V4 is promising but anything like the t114 or RAK using nrf chip is going to be more power efficient.

[peak badger]

It's not ideal. haha

[peak badger]

With enough battery and panel, does it matter?

I have a RAK with about 6"x6" of panels (combined) and 2x 21700 batteries. Hasn't dropped below 97% battery life in 4+ months of life.

I wish I had the better broadcast performance. Try to V4 and see what happens.

[peak badger]

We need LH02 back on MT. 🙁

[bronze torrent]

Is there any stores in our area that sells components?

[hushed knot]

Not that I am aware of

[quasi beacon]

If radio shack was still around, they'd probably sell some stuff. Too bad they've been closed for a decade (or longer?) I miss that place!

Niche brick and mortar places like that just can't compete with Amazon.

[bronze torrent]

I know it sucks in a way. It would be nice to have a store to look at different components and talk with people face to face about stuff. I think those days are over unfortunately.

[glad canopy]

My Kingdom for a Microcenter

(I don't have a kingdom but like $20)

[hushed knot]

Sorry for replying to an old message but if I was to wrap one of these antenna (while unbent), am I good to wrap all the way just past where the bend would happen to cover that gap from the elements without having a negative impact on the performance?

[quasi beacon]

Yeah, it's just coax running through the bend. Even if you got into an active section of the antenna, I don't think it's going to make a noticeable difference in performance.

[hushed knot]

Wonderful, thanks!

[peak badger]

Did the cold kill a bunch of nodes? I only see 13 "online" out of 180+

[glad canopy]

Dumb question but I just always defaulted to long fast. Is that what most of the Omaha area is on?

Nevermind it seems like it's indifferent between the two of them(long fast vs long slow). They'll communicate with each other

Also got most of the components to my outdoor node as well

[glad canopy]

Wonder if it's that or the lack of sun lately

[pure panther]

I've not had any issues with my outdoor nodes yet, we'll see with the snow and stuff though

[peak badger]

My node is still at 4.2v covered with snow. No sun in 24 hours.

[peak badger]

Same

[quasi beacon]

Long fast and long slow wont communicate with each other. You'll pick up some range with long slow, but it takes a LOT of air time. Not workable for a busy mesh.

[peak badger]

Settings have to be identical to communicate.

[peak badger]

You've got this, private. Make sure you get a good antenna and put it in a good location.

[glad canopy]

Damn. So everyone out here is running long fast then I assume?

[glad canopy]

I'm excited. Last stuff gets here Wednesday. Hopefully deploy it next weekend

[quasi beacon]

Yep, default setting

[glad canopy]

Okay. Was hoping maybe there was something I missed with my current node. Oh well. Get the new one built then finally be able to reach out

[peak badger]

Make sure you're on frequency slot 20. You don't have to have the LongFast channel (public) as your primary channel, but you need to have it as a secondary to see other nodes

Give it a few days for others to show up on your node list

Antenna placement is the biggest thing IMO

[glad canopy]

I'll check my channels and keep that in mind. Thank you! Still learning more everyday

[peak badger]

Same

[twin fern]

Darn, I was scrolling down (Haven't read chat in a while) and hopeful to see Vash (5d41), my node in Ashland, show up some. Sucks to see it's not

[gilded tide]

MEAD was switched to Meshcore.

[twin fern]

Is most of Nebraska still on Meshtastic, or has there been a bigger push to Meshcore?

[gilded tide]

A decent amount of "Omaha" has changed to MC. Far greater reliability.

[peak badger]

Some people have switched. Many have not.

It depends on use case, user experience, etc.

[twin fern]

I was personally rooting for Reticulum, so I'm like 1% bummed to see either win

[pure panther]

I know very little about that

[peak badger]

What can reticulum do over just LoRa? @twin fern

[tawdry compass]

That's a fact!

[narrow ledge]

I'm still running Meshtastic downtown, but I've noticed a disconnect since some of the well positioned infrastructure nodes have switched to MeshCore. I like them both, but I absolutely LOVE the better performing messaging that MeshCore delivers.

Here's an email I sent to folks who found us via the OmaMesh web site.

Hi there!

Thanks again for reaching out through OmaMesh.net. Here’s a quick update on what’s been happening on the airwaves.

🌐 Meshtastic & MC
Meshtastic is still alive and doing what it does well. At the same time, many local users — including some with access to tower sites and pro gear — have been trying MC for its more reliable messaging, ACKs, and long multi-hop paths.

If you’d like to give MC a try, you can post in Public Chat, message any Room Server, or simply DM another user. Most folks don’t mind and you’ll often see an ACK.

🤖 MeshBot
I’ve been running a small MeshBot on the mesh. It can respond to pings, act as a Magic 8 Ball, and list nearby stations it has heard. It’s just for fun — interact with it anytime.

📡 Recommended Settings (OmaMesh Defaults)
Local testing shows SF9 works better than the SF7 default around the Omaha area.

To match common settings:

• Preset: USA/Canada (Recommended)
• Spreading Factor: 9
• If running a repeater: Coding Rate: 8
• Save and reboot

These settings have noticeably improved reliability across the metro.

📶 Recent Performance
The mesh has been performing extremely well:

• Nearly 60 miles of reliable message paths
• A confirmed 33-mile hop (Council Bluffs → Mead)
• Regular conversations between downtown Omaha ↔ Elkhorn with positive ACKs
• Even a #tictactoe hashtag channel for game play over RF

💬 Join the Community
Meshtastic Omaha:

MC Omaha:

Both are friendly and active if you want to connect with others.

🌐 Website
OmaMesh.net will gradually get more content. For now, feel free to check in occasionally.

If you have questions or want help setting up or placing a node, just reply — we’re always happy to welcome new operators.

Hope to see you on the air!

— Scott
OmaMesh.net (often on MC as Red X2)

If you want to try, note the change to the modem: SF9. Without that, you won't be in the same mesh network.

[twin fern]

I think you might be misunderstanding things. LoRa is just the physical radio and modulation scheme. A way to send bits over the air. Reticulum, Meshtastic, MeshCore, etc. are agreed upon standards for what those bits mean and what you should do when you get them. Reticulum is nice because it basically exposes an ip-like system that can send arbitary data, not just chat packets.

[narrow ledge]

Note also that Reticulum is a full network stack that can run on top of any kind of medium: tcpip, Bluetooth, Lora, serial, carrier pigeon, etc. it can be used for anything. There’s a big focus on privacy.

[peak badger]

Not misunderstanding. Asking what data reticulum protocol can send over Lora devices. Right now I use meshtastic for ad hoc text and tracking.

I'm going to have to starting meshing with reticulum

[glad canopy]

Finally got everything. Hopefully be on a pole mount by Sunday

[peak badger]

That's ...what she said.

[peak badger]

This place is bugged.

[glad canopy]

Ah. Will remove

[glad canopy]

Here's hoping

[quasi beacon]

You got a check mark, so it's at least reaching someone! (Unless that's another one of your nodes.) I'll see if I hear you when I get back to the house in an hour or so

[glad canopy]

The only other node I have is client mute so I'm hoping it doesn't count that

[glad canopy]

I can't seem to reach anyone 🤬

[quasi beacon]

I'm getting good traceroutes to you. Are you sending any messages over the public channel?

[glad canopy]

I did that one earlier and couldn't see any responses

Over on Long fast. I sent a message to your home node too but no response

Okay trace route worked via Grimlock so it is seeing nodes

[quasi beacon]

I got your second test message. Is BTHM with you inside? Interesting that it received one of my traces direct.

[glad canopy]

No Tracker 3 is someone else. My inside node is Radagast

Because I'm a big ass nerd

(all Lord of the Rings references)

I just updated my heltec (inside node) and it's definitely got some changes on the LCD

[quasi beacon]

They must be pretty close, that's a strong signal!

[glad canopy]

Yeah I messaged them and unfortunately no response

Yay!

What's weird is my inside node (that can trace route to my outside one) can't see it though

If I'm not connected (for example during a reboot) and someone sends a message there does it just not show up?

Sorry I'm dumb

[quasi beacon]

Yeah the node has to be online. But if you're just disconnected from the app, you can get the message next time you connect to the node.

[glad canopy]

Oh okay. That makes sense. I see the RAK has store and forward so I was kinda hoping it would do that for other nodes but I guess not

[quasi beacon]

I didn't get the radagast message by the way. I think our connection must be on the ragged edge.

[glad canopy]

I'll try again with the new firmware

[quasi beacon]

Store and forward can be configured, but doesn't function that way by default

[glad canopy]

Ah okay. I think there's an issue with Client Base. I have the inside node favorited but I can't seem to reach out beyond the outside node

Switching to client seems to be helping. Finally able to trace route out to others

Sweet

I said it on the mesh but I'll say it here too since I keep messing with stuff: Thank you for the help. I can't tell if I'm finding a bug, doing something wrong or being impatient

I switched back to client base and it seems I can trace route out now so not sure what that issue was. But I'll say it's working so I don't keep bugging you

[quasi beacon]

Haha! No worries! Glad your setup is working.

[glad canopy]

So am I. Now to go ask if client base will forward messages from other nodes or not. Can't seem to find a clear answer online

[glad canopy]

Setting the GPS on this is kinda weird. You wouldn't think that your position on the map is reliant on the default public channel

[quasi beacon]

I haven't followed this closely lately, but I believe the public channel defaults to not send GPS, and then if you turn it on, it sends a low accuracy position. What are you looking to do with it?

[quasi beacon]

I believe it will rebroadcast all other packets as normal. So if it hears a router go first, it will skip.

[glad canopy]

Yep that's how it works. I don't think we have and routers near us though. Need to sweet talk a HAM club

[glad canopy]

I got it working. Channel settings does have location on but it's not precise. There's a fuzzing you can set so people won't see the exact location but it's something like 3.6 mi so it's a huge bubble

[quasi beacon]

Yeah, if you're only hearing 1 node zero hop, it will rebroadcast everything. Beyond that, it just depends.

[glad canopy]

I'm glad it does that. I didn't want to do all that only for it to not help anyone else near me

Dang just got a node in South Carolina. Wonder where the plane was

[quasi beacon]

I bet the node had a static gps position set and was either driving through or flying over

[glad canopy]

Oh that makes sense. Meshtastic isn't that powerful 😅

I mean even in a plane that is

[quasi beacon]

I did a lot of testing on planes awhile back. 100-200 miles is common. 250 is about as far as you'll get in most cases. So I would say 500 miles is the practical limit for a single hop message via plane. (*looked back at some of my notes and updated the numbers.)

[glad canopy]

Oh. I thought it would have been closer to 1000. Though I guess flying around in a faraday cage makes that impressive though. Did you have a pretty beefy antenna?

[quasi beacon]

Mostly just with a T1000e in the window, a bit with a blade antenna. The real limiting factor is that even at 35,000', the horizon is only 200-250 miles due to the curvature of the earth.

[glad canopy]

Oh true. Can't do much about that with 1 watt

[glad canopy]

Friend of mine is pushing me to Meshcore 😅. How has that gone for people testing it?

@tawdry compass is famous apparently

[quasi beacon]

A lot of us are testing it successfully. Would be an interesting comparison for you where your connection with MT is marginal.

[glad canopy]

Yeah it looks promising actually. I'm gonna try it out. Doing my little heltec first then the pole mount if this works even remotely. Who knows how it may go

I'm going to a friend's house later who lives on a hill and can see quite a bit of the Omaha metro. If that works then I'll know it's doable

[quasi beacon]

Most of us are running SF9.

[glad canopy]

Nice. I just switched to Spread Factor of 9. I don't see a wifi option though. Still digging around. Makes it nice to connect to my node when I'm at home

[quasi beacon]

Yeah, right now it's j just Bluetooth, and only to a companion node.

Check out https://omamesh.net/ for recommended settings and a link to the other discord

[glad canopy]

Sweet they have a map. I'm at 370 an 25 so I don't know what luck I'll have

Actually 25th and Fairview may be more accurate

[twin plover]

I'm at Cornhusker and 25th. Maybe you'll see my repeater, Sunrise and AMCs repeater

[glad canopy]

I can hope. I'm gonna try and give it til next weekend to see what happens

[twin plover]

Woohoo! Looks like some success. You can join us on the MC Discord to discuss as well.

[peak badger]

Store and forward is in the software settings, not all hardware is capable. T-beam supreme and like 1 other. @gilded tide Knows better

[glad canopy]

Yeah I was able to research it more. Unfortunately my hardware isn't capable. Oh well

[icy bear]

Put GI on the map.
New to mesh but currently set up a Solar rak node on QTH. Also carry two rak pocket V2's and have an Atlavox Solar node showing up monday to install high at work.
Made a trip to Lincoln for work Christmas party and stayed on the 16th floor of the Graduate hotel. Pocket mesh in window picked up a few nodes around town. Called out on Long Fast and had acknowledgement but nobody texted back.
Also discovered two nodes I80 near Henderson that I could hit while driving by.

[young kernel]

There were a few ACKs on your messages yesterday, but maybe they didn't make it all the way back to you.

[icy bear]

I believe I did see one that read "R"

[young vortex]

I was one of those that replied. (Far West South Street) not many people reply or are active on the public channels.

That's my roof node. "R"

[bronze torrent]

Anyone receiving my messages in public?

[quasi beacon]

Not seeing anything in Bellevue

[bronze torrent]

https://discord.gg/WUcC78sNf7

[peak badger]

RIP

[tawdry compass]

RIP Craptastic.

[obsidian hazel]

Nice to see nodes in GI popping up! I'm in Lincoln, but was in GI last weekend and could traceroute your node from Faidley and North

[limber shard]

late reply, but those Henderson nodes were mine. Glad someone was able to see them.

[distant kettle]

Hey folks. Sorry I disappeared for a while, have had a lot going on. You may have seen my mobile node around town a bit. Hope to set up my home node in SE Bellevue again soon

[quasi beacon]

Welcome back! Not a lot of folks are running meshtastic in the area anymore. Most have switched to meshcore and the coverage is pretty impressive.

[distant kettle]

Really? I checked out Meshcore a few weeks ago and didn't see any other stations

Are we not using default settings on MC?

[quasi beacon]

We're not running default settings. SF9... CR8 (although the CR change is not required)

SF7 was very snappy but the range sucked

[distant kettle]

aha! well, shucks, guess I'm reflashing again. need to figure out where the rest of my t1000es got to. lol

well, if both MT and MC are in use, i guess I'll just have to set up home nodes for both :p

I have RAK boards sitting here doing nothing

[cyan pendant]

https://omamesh.net/map/

[distant kettle]

aha! would you believe I almost registered that very same domain name like a couple years ago the last time I was really into meshtastic lol

[quasi beacon]

Yeah I still have a roof node on MT. I need to reflash it, just haven't felt getting on the roof yet this spring. 😂

I'll probably still keep that one on MT and just fish to current firmware.

There's a lot of activity over on the new discord. It's linked at omamesh

[distant kettle]

btw, anyone on here ever on the bellevue 600 GMRS net?

[distant kettle]

oh snap. i'll check it out

[quasi beacon]

(includes both MT and MC sections)