US - Philadelphia PA/Delaware Valley

[silk sinew]

Did some antenna testing with an SWR. Recorded the SWR values at both 910 and 915 MHz, and for the antennas that could bend I recorded the value for when it was straight (S) and bent (B). Lower value is better. Found some interesting stuff.

Unfortunately I can’t tell you exactly where I bought most of these, a lot I got from Iffy (Steve said he bought them from china and he suspected they probably weren’t that good, they’re better than expected)

The two I specifically bought from Altavox got mixed in with the rest of them, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and say D and E are probably the ones from Altavox (their tuning looked identical on the graph, even though their SWR values were different). The link to the Altavox antennas are here: https://atlavox.com/products/meshtastic-915mhz-antenna

I believe F is https://store.rokland.com/products/2-5-dbi-sma-male-915-mhz-soft-flexible-whip-antenna-for-t-beam-t-echo-other-lora. I don’t recommend it

H is the stubby antennas that come with the rak wireless devices. Wow they’re so bad.

I wish I knew where I bought G, that one’s pretty great and I love the whip form factor.

I also have a giant antenna but it requires an adapter that I don’t have at the moment. I’ll update that when I have the data

[obsidian wraith]

Conor, I don't think blew up at all. This is actually really good convo. LoRa is all about line of sight. Ultimately, if you want proper communications, you'd want a node on your roof in client mode, and then ALL devices in the house on client mute. That's actually how a lot of us run. And eventually, the idea is to have enough high nodes that you don't need to run in client mode on the ground. if you check out meshsense.affirmatech.com, you can see I'm building out Wilmington with nodes on high buildings and such, so that EVERYONE can use them. The BelAir / MD guys are building out, and Lancaster / Harrisburg have a SUPERB mesh already. At this point, I have an area in New Castle County that I can ack from nearly anywhere. I still have a LOT of nodes to deploy, but we're getting there. And then ultimately, those "clusters" will connect.

[quasi dragon]

Really glad to hear

[obsidian wraith]

And honestly, the more people we have in this the better.

[quasi dragon]

I'm amazed the snr changed so drastically when some antennas were bent (C) and not others

[grand apex]

G might the Gizont whip? I got that from aliexpress and it tested good for me.

[obsidian wraith]

Wanna know a another issue other than SWR? Most of the antennas we're using don't remotely have the gain that they purport. Chris from Lancaster and I were chatting last night about this. The "super" ALFA 5db? Not 5. more like 1dbi. https://antennatestlab.com/helium-network-antenna-reviews

I've reached out today to McGill Microwave to see if their antennas have been 3d plotted. We may get a group together to fund some real testing on a few antennas probably a 3-5, 6-8 and then an 8+

[silk sinew]

Oh shit, the Alfa 5dbi is the big one I didn’t get to test yet. I’ve been using it as the biggest node in my house to hopefully reach center city, although I don’t often see messages and when I do I often only see only one side of the conversation (I think it’s because I don’t have a reliable connection to CC and not because the other messages are too many hops away)

[obsidian wraith]

The SWR will be fine (Most of mine are down like 1.1 ish), so they're safe and WAY better than the crap that come with the units, but it certainly isn't 5dbi.

[median tapir]

Anybody know f3df?

[grand apex]

just realized you can't search/filter your node list by mac address, at least in iOS

[hollow jackal]

Looks like the same in Android too. I just realized when i went searching for f3df

[cunning crystal]

Actually picking up someone directly up here today, a solar rak node from the looks of it but I'm not sure where they are, short name FS

[median tapir]

Boo,up in Morgantown/elverson and there is no mesh here.

[lone karma]

check your antenna with a nanovna

Always check your antennas!

I got one off aliexpress... I had to trim a whole inch off to get it closer to 915mhz

[cunning crystal]

Yeah, I did I’ve got an ALFA on it now that came in at 1.084, i’m just too far away from anyone I guess

[obsidian wraith]

The ALFA blade? It's not 5dbi, not even close. Good SWR, but way overstated gains.

[cunning crystal]

I meant SWR tested at 1.084

[obsidian wraith]

Yeah just know it's not 5dBi.

[cunning crystal]

oh I know

I'm occasionally picking up someone's solar node but I have no idea where it is geographically, otherwise it is pretty quiet here in the burbs

[obsidian wraith]

Where are you again?

[cunning crystal]

Lansdale area

[rapid jasper]

How's the coverage in norristown?

Also does anyone have the link to the solar article?

[cunning crystal]

There's nothing on Meshmap, not that it means anything

[rapid jasper]

I'm thinking i might start building some this month

[cunning crystal]

I have to drive out to the courthouse later this week, i'll bring a node with me

[grand apex]

I was out that way a few weeks ago and didn't see anything

[cunning crystal]

I picked up some folks over in Montgomeryville the other day but I can't seem to reach any of them from here

[shadow forge]

A lot of the nodes out by me arent using MQTT....I know I stopped a while back....so using meshmap just shows a big blank space

[cunning crystal]

yeh

[rapid jasper]

Question about MQTT! Would my node use my phone's internet connection or would the node itself actually have to have internet connectivity?

[cunning crystal]

I believe it is either, for it to use MQTT you'd have to be connected to it via BT, but if it has WiFi, it can MQTT standalone (which is what I do with my G2)

same kinda goes for GPS too, if your device does not have GPS it can get the location from the app

[obsidian wraith]

Hey peeps, driving to/from New Castle, DE to Millville, NJ. Acking most of the way.

[silk sinew]

Curious to know what acking means in this context. Are you sending out acknowledgements on the way? And how is this done?

[obsidian wraith]

Just sending messages on LongFast. That's all. Sorry, it's a term that somehow got adopted cause it's short. 🙂

[cunning crystal]

https://tenor.com/view/aliens-mars-attacks-martian-gif-18822024

[obsidian wraith]

Saw TONS of nodes, but Bel Air MD got them, so I suspect a plane was overhead.

HBLU sent a DM to my 4038 node.

[obsidian wraith]

Yup. Just looked on meshsense, and it was a plane.

[obsidian wraith]

But I have verified that I was able to reach the Amazon warehouse on 40 LoS, 0 hops.

[tepid heron]

I’m in DC this weekend for ShmooCon. We have a number of nodes deployed with various services running on direct messages. Kind of fun.

[silk sinew]

Nice! I'll be there too. I've got a stationary node for my hotel room at the hilton and then one or two I'll be carryign on my person

We should meet up after the meshtastic talk at the end of the day on day 2

[tepid heron]

Folks have about 20 nodes up already, including nodes stationed in hotel rooms spread across the hotel. There are also a couple ones and repeaters in the environment nearby.

[silk sinew]

If you get the chance to chat with anyone, ask if anyone knows about a community in Northern Virginia. I've brought my nodes up to Arlington several times and gotten one or two hits, but never been able to chat with anyone. Seems like there isn't a mesh

[naive gust]

I'm in Bridgeport, and will probably soon have access to a building in Norristown for a node. Need to get help building an enclosure though

.
.
TO EVERYONE:

I will probably soon have access to a TON of rooftops in several places mostly around WEST CHESTER / EXTON / MALVERN / DOWNINGTOWN / KENNET SQUARE (1 roof only) / KING OF PRUSSIA / NORRISTOWN

I need some help / advice on some USB Powered (Non-Solar) Rooftop enclosures (I can power them from the roof, just need weather protection)

[wicked coyote]

So i don't have any outdoor nodes but I've used boxes like these for some other outdoor stuff, https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B09XSJ493N/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_8?smid=A3BXN7IC79JS3F&psc=1&th=1

There's a lot of outdoor rated junction or cable/phone demarc boxes in different sizes. You can get all sorts of different IP ratings.

You might also want to look into UV resistant power cables or wire loom for normal cables

The wire loom is probably cost effective but you have to check the material or it will wear through after a year

[naive gust]

Thanks, looking to probably run a 6ft USB cable from the power source.

[wicked coyote]

For loom, I love this UV rated nylon. Specifically this brand is great, https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07N483W7K?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Stay away from polyethylene

[thick bear]

I’m in malvern! Have a node on the roof but we’re by the East Goshen park along riddly creek so lowest possible elevation 😂

[naive gust]

Sweet, there are 2 roofs in Malvern that I’ll eventually have access to with power. I’ll send a test when I place a node

I’m just working on a good weather proof setup for a cost effective node

[median tapir]

I've looked into this a good bit. Your best bet would be to get a USB extension cable, route it through the shell, and seal it up with caulk. Then plug in the final cable headed to the weatherproof outlet and use self amalgamating tape over the joint between the extension and the wire to the wall. Alternately, could drill the hole and just run a long 6ft cable out of the box directly.

[thick bear]

🙌🙌🙌

Antenna is currently laying on the roof… but… soon we’ll be fully online!

[obsidian wraith]

You may want to really think about using a Pi in that box. You have direct serial access, you can do updates, reboot, etc. Having power (even PoE) makes things so much easier.

[thick bear]

I was thinking this for our node.. I haven’t had luck with ble flashing in DFU mode, but a pi could do it. Increases the per node cost a lot tho

[grand apex]

What area is this one in?

[thick bear]

Double woot!

[silk sinew]

Wow you’re getting connections from Kensington to south Jersey? That’s incredible

[grand apex]

That's from https://meshmap.net/

I have seen that Bellmawr node from South Philly though

[placid turret]

that bellmawr node is probably me 👍

I'm surprised you're able to see me if that is me. I've never been able to get a message out or any response so I figured I have something misconfigured (which I probably still do...)

[grand apex]

It's only been a few times, but I did get the node info in the past. Do you have two? It's not the one I see on meshmap now that I saw.

[placid turret]

I actually have 5 but only one has a larger, non-stock antenna. That one was powered off since I needed to charge it but it's back on now. Weirdly when I look at meshmap the only one I see is the one with what I assume is the worst antenna, the Seeed T-1000E lol.

[grand apex]

I think the last I saw it was around new years day but I must have cleared my node list since. It was something like 2cc8 maybe...

anyway, that one was at least working enough to get a signal across the river

[placid turret]

Very cool. Thanks! I have one with the larger antenna that I need to put into the attic at some point. It's currently leaning against the wall in my office but the extra ~15 feet would likely help.

[grand apex]

Nice. It would be cool to have that link.

[obsidian wraith]

Just FYI. I've done some real deep dives with MFR's about antennas. (Mostly to be able to maximize the Station G2's) I got confirmation from McGill:

MM-ANT-NM-915-3DBI is Monopole.
MM-ANT-NM-915-6DBI
MM-ANT-NM-915-7.5DBI
MM-ANT-NM-915-9DBI
are Dipole Collinear Arrays.

So no ground plane issues with the larger ones.

Not cheap, but not the junk that we're getting on Amazon.

[grand apex]

Are you going to try one?

[obsidian wraith]

Yup. Got a few others on the way from different MFRs.

[rapid jasper]

Sort of a weird question

has anyone had any luck with outreach to local high points?

there is a building near me that's quite tall and I was thinking of writing a letter to request roof access

because it would be a much stronger node than my lower mount options

[obsidian wraith]

Sure. We've gotten quite a few "Yes"es.

[naive gust]

I tried to send a Test on the Public channel when I was on 202 earlier, but couldn't get an acknowledge

[thick bear]

It’s so hilly here I don’t get much distance sadly

[cunning crystal]

Someone put up some stuff near me in Lansdale so i have someone to talk to

There’s only one node I pick up directly here some guy’s solar node but it’s really sporadic

[median tapir]

I lsot my consistent connection. Need to get some stuff up high around here.

[bleak tangle]

Sharing here for entertainment. I went to an event in DC this past weekend with a lot of meshtastic users. Here is a map of the DC area during the event

[silk sinew]

Was this from the closing ceremony? I didn’t stick around for that, did they say anything interesting about stuff that happened over meshtastic?

[bleak tangle]

Was mainly just showing the map. There was a fun bit Sunday afternoon though that for around 2 hours you could see every meshtastic user slowly moving on the highway

Also convinced some nyc friends to get a few nodes. Some are in central Manhattan so hoping they could get a good vantage point for one

[tepid heron]

I'm actually staff at ShmooCon; I made that slide 🙂

NYC-based individual brought ~120 of those "hacker pager" units that he sold to folks for $50 (Heltec V3 w/o GPS). PA/Philly-based individual brought a few nodes (left ones) that we placed around hotel rooms on the first night to seed things out. I think when I got there, I saw maybe 10-15 nodes. By the end of the weekend, my app reported seeing ~220 nodes.

[cunning crystal]

That’s rad

[obsidian wraith]

One of the Delaware and one of the Bel-Air folks were both there.

[bleak tangle]

Looks like the new Hive76 node is getting a really good signal. Should hopefully connect the fishtown area to the centre city mesh

[tepid heron]

Article published about ShmooCon… But “Lesson #4” is all Meshtastic: https://nbtv.substack.com/p/lessons-from-shmoocon — “Mesh networks are really cool.”

[cunning crystal]

mesh networks are really cool when you have friends 😭

[rapid jasper]

wait i thought all of you are my friends since i discovered your nodes

right?

RIGHT?!!

[silk sinew]

Instead of asking me if I found any new nodes my wife always asks “did you find any new friends”? 😂

[cunning crystal]

I’m out in Austin atm and there’s a ton of nodes downtown

[silk sinew]

I love to see a mesh

[cunning crystal]

Just what I picked up walking around

[silk sinew]

Oh hell yeah

[grand apex]

They seem to have a really active or at least online group https://www.austinmesh.org/

[cunning crystal]

Yeah I’ve seen a bunch of nodes tagged with AustinMesh

[bleak tangle]

Need to confirm on the other end but got a delivered note from Washington Ave and 22nd when I sent a message to the hive76 node in East kensington

[grand apex]

Nice - that would be a pretty good connection. I haven't seen that Hive node info in South Philly yet.

[median tapir]

Nice, met somebody war driving today.

[silk sinew]

Met, like in person? How'd you catch them? Or were you wardriving

[median tapir]

I was war driving and dude works near my house.

So we chatted over mesh for a bit.

[silk sinew]

oh cool! love it when someone is watching their device

[median tapir]

Yeah

My car antenna is making war driving helpful both for scouting locations and connecting.

[naive gust]

https://youtu.be/JkftY4nJHAQ?si=iRz-wTirxMQ9-ynd

Demo of a Meshtastic related project that utilizes MT serial module for Arduino UART interface

.
.
Really cool how Meshtastic makes such an easy Bidirectional UART bridge…almost like a very long serial cable, but also Broadcasts to all nodes, so like many cables 😄

[bleak tangle]

Philly maker faire applications are now open for 2025! https://philly.makerfaire.com/call-for-makers/

[median tapir]

Well, I got a node to live in the car full time. It's a WisBlock, apparently my 12v port stays on when the car is off. Hopefully doesn't kill my battery.

[merry bone]

I saw a ping from your node the other day. actually got the node name this time.

[median tapir]

Dude, it was also only like a half mile from where my car and pickup my house. If we could get an outdoor antenna or a few more nodes we could bridge the gap

I also made really solid connection to a pair of nodes near the high school by you.

Where is your antenna?

[obsidian wraith]

HA! The WisBlock uses 350ma. Your car battery would run it for a year.

[merry bone]

I'm pretty near the high school

[median tapir]

Ah,yeah,I was receiving Scrappybase and ScrappyDeck really well right at the intersection into the highschool

[obsidian wraith]

VEry interesting. Routing table mesh. This may get legs in a hurry if it works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNWf0Mh2fJw

[thick bear]

I’ve read it uses much less, at least I had issues with the POE module which has a cutoff of 200ma. Amazing how power efficient they are!

Still a 50Ah car battery drained to 50%, say 25Ah available before the car doesn’t want to start is more like days at 350mA to a half year at 10ma. I think I did that right, if so on my assumptions, you’re fine 🙂

Anyone else picking up 🐝 hive76.org 🧙‍♀️

I still need to properly mount our antenna 😬 it’s laying on the roof lol

[median tapir]

Goddamn, when a new ndoe shows up in the perfect spot. Hope they're not jsut driving through.

4 clicks is nuts with all the hills around here.

Though somehow harmony hill still doesnt get me to West Chester mesh.

[orchid meteor]

Hey all! I'm incredibly new to the idea of Meshtastic, doing my research and deciding what to build out, when I came across the Philly Mesh website!

I'm a long-time tinkerer, first-time LoRa enthusiast. Excited to dive in!

fwiw I'm in the Fishtown area with a pretty tall roof.

[median tapir]

Welcome!

[orchid meteor]

Is the meetup at Iffy Books still ongoing? never been and would love some hands on learning.

[naive gust]

What tool are you using to see where the meshes are at?

I’m hoping to add nodes to West Chester / Exton / Malvern over to KOP / Norristown area

[grand apex]

Looks like there is one 1/31 at 3

[orchid meteor]

Sweet! Mostly wasn't sure if it was maintained or not, but excited to check it out.

[grand apex]

they have heltec v3s there too if you want to pick something up right away and play around with it

[orchid meteor]

That's perfect! The Heltec seems to be the default starter but it'll be nice to hold one before buying (also just seems like a great place to check out!)

[cunning crystal]

t-1000e and t-echo decent starting point as well

[thick bear]

You’ll hopefully pick up our hive76 node in Kensington!

[fluid plaza]

Get that 35cd node down here in Newark sporadically as well, not quite as good a signal tho..

[median tapir]

Haven't gotten any response yet.

[obsidian wraith]

Which node are you in Newark?

[fluid plaza]

6050/713Bark.. assuming DW?

[obsidian wraith]

yayaya, figured, just checking! Making sure we didn't have someone new down that way.

[west goblet]

Rsol and RFR reporting in! located in the Roslyn neighborhood of Abington

[oak shard]

@west goblet I'm in Hatboro so I'll keep an eye out for yours

[lone karma]

I'll be fixing SPAN in 2 weeks and then NOT updating it often

[orchid meteor]

Fingers crossed! Also been meaning to check out Hive76 for years, hoping to catch one of the open houses soon

[cunning crystal]

I wish we had a makerspace out here in the burbs, might save me from constantly buying all these tools 😉

[west goblet]

what's Hive76? i'm often over near Norris square and Nextfab

[cunning crystal]

https://hive76.org/

[silk sinew]

Hive76 is awesome. So cheap for the cheapest membership- only $15! And a great community

[cunning crystal]

Yeah if I was nearby i'd be a member for sure

[tepid heron]

Some of the Delaware Public Libraries in New Castle also have 3D printers and whatnot.

[thick bear]

I drive in from Malvern, it’s a good group of humans 🙂

[round pumice]

If you're interested the Gloucester County Amateur Radio Club has a bunch of nodes on 433.25 running LONG SLOW. Most are in the Gloucester County area but we have one node on the 10th floor of a condo near the Art Museum that can reach down to the node on our tower in Mullica Hill. Both of those nodes are running about 1.5 watt amps - the advantage of licensed operation. Send me a note if you want more info.

[timid dagger]

I'll check the map, I'm in Montgomery county.

[round pumice]

Probably too far. Might make it with a directional antenna. What's the LoRa setting for these nodes - I just got one of the unlicensed ones after running a bunch of ham licensed nodes that we run as LONG_SLOW. Is that what you're running on the 900 mhz nodes?

[timid dagger]

I am still shopping for gear.

[obsidian wraith]

433 hunh? I'm over on the river in New Castle, DE, but running standard LongFast 906-928

[round pumice]

One of our guys reaches our network from near New Castle, I think. We use Long Slow to get the outreach that we need - our network is a lot sparser than the unlicensed network on 900 mHz so we need a bit more robust protocol (or more power or better antennas) to make the connections. Here's a smapshot:

[obsidian wraith]

Yeah we're getting a little more dense. You're getting a better link budget on LongSlow, but we're finding that the -153dB link budget is pretty darn good, and it's default, so all other users can use our repeaters.

We're trying to link up to the BelAir / Lancaster / Philly people as well. All running LongFast

I'm F178 (100ft up or so. 300ft from river.) and the DeMesh ones https://meshsense.affirmatech.com/

[round pumice]

Yeah - if you have a lot of close nodes you can run a lot faster. We have some advantages in antenna height and power but not in the user count. I had tried connecting two sets of nodes - one set running ShortFast and another running LongSlow - and using the latter as a long-haul link between two pockets of users but never finished it. I assume that the 900 mHz guys are running LongFast, right? I just got one of those nodes running and need to set it up right.

[obsidian wraith]

Yup, nearly everyone running 900 is LongFast. At least for the good of the "public" I am. We have some on tall buildings around NCC. the UK did a test to move to MediumFast, but it wasn't really much better.

[naive gust]

anyone have any nodes between Norristown and West Chester?

I haven't been able to pick up any driving along 202

[obsidian wraith]

Looks like 1 on meshmap. Prize Cart? https://meshmap.net/#3663522204

[grand apex]

@obsidian wraith did you ever get those antennas you wanted to try out?

[obsidian wraith]

Yup, Haven't put them up yet. The McGill ones.

[lone karma]

This is what I've picked up, but I have not been in that area recently

[naive gust]

not sure about those nodes in Norristown. thats around where I'm at and I haven't been able to pick up anything for a couple months

[lone karma]

I got SPAN (Sellersville Meshtastic Node) back online and it immediately picked up that direct connection to 3DBD (K3B3D)

Have you tested your antenna? I had to cut off like 2 inches of my last antenna that I got from AliExpress because it was tuned wrong

[lone karma]

Also, is your primary channel long-fast?

[naive gust]

I have a secondary channel named LongFast

its default and public key

[lone karma]

Well, that's your problem. Change the slot back to 20 on all your devices

It's the frequency slot in LoRA config

[naive gust]

am I able to keep private primary channel and public LongFast as long as I change the freq slot to 20?

I would like to have the private channel give me the accurate GPS info

[cunning crystal]

oh hi i’m in this

[naive gust]

Got this a couple months ago when a plane flew over

[lone karma]

Yes, but every device has to be using frequency slot 20

[naive gust]

thanks, just changed it and picked up 1 node so far

[lone karma]

By default everything uses that slot, but if you change the primary channel, it automatically changes

I don't like the feature, but that's just how it works

[naive gust]

at least its fixed with manual settings. I am using the primary private channel for a serial tunnel and need accurate GPS, but don't want to spam notifications over the public mesh

[thick bear]

Yes I use a private primary and LongFast as a secondary. There’s an offset I think I had to set to shift LongFast back into the right slot. I get GPS and sensor data only on my encrypted private primary channel

[naive gust]

I fixed it by just manually setting frequency slot to 20. Didn't realize it was based on the Primary channel name. I thought the freq slot was channel name specific "per channel"

[thick bear]

Yup that’s it!

[naive gust]

https://x.com/TheWolfblitz7/status/1886832236005351472

TheWolfblitz7 (@TheWolfblitz7) on X

FPV Detection node in the works for @cemaxecuter and WarDragon compatibility.@TheMeshtastic

This can send Serial updates through USB for any Serial monitor app (PuTTY, VScode, Arduino IDE, etc.), and will send lock messages via Meshtastic. Can also forward Serial msgs over Mesh

X · Feb 4, 2025, 5:40 PM

[trim stirrup]

Got my basic Harbor Breeze solar light node build up and running. Actually stayed up overnight. Doesn't have mqtt as it's just sitting there.

have 2 other nodes to carry around

[cunning crystal]

I'm one of the closest nodes to you, at least on Meshmap but I can't see ya

[trim stirrup]

I need to look at a better antenna and get it a bit higher. Have another wishblock coming and I may look at something a bit better.

The nice thing is this solar panel is working really well. The device stayed up overnight.

[naive gust]

whats your device ID? I might have you on my list

[cunning crystal]

WPG2

[naive gust]

Dont think I have you just yet

[cunning crystal]

I never see anyone but this one guy with a solar node here that for some reason is only on every 6-8 hours or so

[naive gust]

Gotcha, west point. Actually have you direct

[cunning crystal]

really? hm

[naive gust]

I think I barely got you though, I didn't get any node info other than basic stuff.

[cunning crystal]

Yeah I gotta get some power in my attic and get it up there

[cunning crystal]

I’m building a garage atm and my toner is packed somewhere so I can’t figure out where this dead romex up there is going

[naive gust]

I have that one 3 hops away.

aec4

[cunning crystal]

There’s a dude called Faraday Solar North Wales nearby somewhere, he has to be right near me but I haven’t managed to contact him

[naive gust]

node id?

[cunning crystal]

fsnw

[naive gust]

don't have that one. I do have a few near you though. drcstang02 (dc02), (1590), and (699B) all grouped around Collegeville

[cunning crystal]

Yeah i see those on mesh map, ive never managed to pick them up

I was driving around there the other day and didn’t find them

[oak shard]

Just found Tardis 1 on my way up to and back from Hatfield

[naive gust]

I got Tardis 1, but no position info

[oak shard]

Gathering parts for a solar node build that I can deploy at home. Hopefully in the next few weeks it'll be up

[lone karma]

Yay 😄

If anyone needs help updating remote nodes, let me know! I want to go for walks but I need a mission/job to do to have the motivation

I have a rak solar node ready with an antenna on the way and a solar lowes box but I don't have mounting equipment, or the sma wire. Does anyone wanna team up?

I want to put one on like hawk mountain or something

[lone karma]

@naive gust do a traceroute, who does it hop through?

I was really worried the solar power wire wouldn't be okay lmao

It is fine though

I'm about to make another

[naive gust]

sent a traceroute, I'll see if it comes back

[thick bear]

I’d be game for this. Find a nice sunny winter day to go out there

[lone karma]

I don't think anything is stopping it. I have the hops set to like 4 or something

Maybe 5

[trim stirrup]

what parts are you using?

I put this together the other day and it's working well. just have to be careful of the polarity on the rak board

https://meshtastic.org/docs/community/enclosures/rak/harbor-breeze-solar-hack/

looking to remove the light and get some parts 3d printed to mount it better. then swap out the antenna for something a little better

have another board coming in that I'd like to make a nicer node with.

[naive gust]

@thick bear just picked up your East Goshen node I think

This you?

[hollow jackal]

Go birds! ...if only to have a fun excuse to use Meshtastic during the parade. Every time we've had one, there's so many phones in one area, the cell towers seem to have trouble keeping up

[thick bear]

Yea!!

[naive gust]

I had the wrong freq slot selected earlier. Fixed and got a few nodes around 202 now

[hollow jackal]

Definitely interested in your build. I have access to a great rooftop that I place a node on, but it's a real pain to get up there. If I place a node on the roof, i really dont want to have to get back up there to maintain it

[lone karma]

If we get an antenna here https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ma9jhiiHYS9eKKtB6

It would bridge a LOT

50ft antenna

[cunning crystal]

that’s the rub, nearly everything requires physical access to update unless you’re doing a linux build

something like the femtofox might end up being a good choice https://discord.com/channels/867578229534359593/1329096340700921898

[lone karma]

Directional Bluetooth antenna

[naive gust]

On a roof in Malvern today. Got these nodes but I don’t think this roof is worth it. Building is pretty low elevation.

Also too many metal walls up here to block signals

[cunning crystal]

I dunno picking up nodes near rofo from malvern i'd say is pretty good

I can't even pick up stuff within 5 miles around here 😄

[naive gust]

This roof would’ve at least needed a pole to elevate the node above the metal walls. I also didn’t have a good power option up there. I’ll do some more hunting.

[hollow jackal]

Would the remote administration from another node be sufficient? Im thinking of the possible rooftop node as functionally more of a router (whether it actually should be that role is probably up for debate) but i wouldnt really need to connect to it directly from my phone

I guess for firmware updates it will be necessary from time to time to be in at least BT range but hopefully I wouldnt be required to do it too often

[silk sandal]

hey everyone, I’m Alex chiming in here on behalf of Philly Community Wireless to invite you all to our space in North Philly for a Meshtastic Workshop Steve from Iffy Books will be running in a few weeks. We’re hoping there are ways we at PCW can help to grow out the meshtastic network, this event will hopefully spur more interest and help coalesce a group of our volunteers interested in setting up nodes in our PCW network area and other parts of the city and region. Here’s the flyer for our upcoming workshop- please consider coming out!

[naive gust]

Go birds!

[lone karma]

No, it would take weeks to send a file that big over LoRA

For updates I mean.

Administration can be done over lora

I found a neat trick btw
If I have multiple nodes to administer the other nodes, I can manually set the private key on all of them to be the same and then just have 1 private key

The public keys are still all different

[hollow jackal]

Right, that's what i meant. I could go up to the roof a handful of times a year at most just for firmware updates but otherwise wouldn't even need to be in BT range

[hollow jackal]

Oh yeah, that totally makes sense. Never thought to try. Good call

[lone karma]

You can't recieve the messages sent to it

You can only do that if you go up there with Bluetooth

However, how far away is it really? I've gotten a good (slow) Bluetooth connection from 20 meters away

Not good enough to flash, but good enough for sending and recieving messages

Like 60 feet

[hollow jackal]

Oh to clarify, I'm not looking to use this node directly. I have a node in my own house. This is a neighbor's very tall roof who could give me access from time to time and i was hoping to use this node to extend the mesh's reach

[grand apex]

I want to build a roof node as well, but once mine is up there, it’s up there for a while. I think I’d have to pay a roofer to get me up there or something…

I wonder if the West Philly tool library has ladders tall enough.

[median tapir]

One option I've considered is mounting the antenna outside and passing a wire through the wall so that the unit itself is inside.

[oak shard]

Picked up C4BC tonight

And BLUE

[median tapir]

Saw a new node DuD1 for a while pretty consistently, but they didn't respond.

[obsidian wraith]

We've used external BT antennas on WisBlock's, and exteral USB BT antennas on laptops to get 100m with Bluetooth. Very handy on high mounted nodes.

[lone karma]

That's a neat idea

Just needs a bunch of more glue

And holes

[fossil rock]

They saw dud1 over in the NYC connect

LGA flight apparently

[lone karma]

I saw them too!

[oak shard]

Did someone just fly over!? Getting blown up

[oak shard]

MQTT definitely makes this more fun

[median tapir]

I've had nothing but issues with MQTT

[oak shard]

The constant notifications are a bit much, but once it finally clicked, it's working well

Like right now I'm showing 263/263 nodes

[lone karma]

Over 200 nodes?

My devuces stop at 100

[onyx swallow]

Excited about this event. I need a second node to test my first and also to strap to my drone to see if I can actually see some other nodes.

[oak shard]

It will only show up to 100/100 on the connection log. Check your notifications screen and you'll see what nodes are online through MQTT

This is on Android, not sure how iPhone shows it

[naive gust]

Is anyone picking up my node (1f8c)??

I have an automated message system I want to test out with someone

I'm between King of Prussia and Norristown

[oak shard]

MQTT? Or through Simplex?

[naive gust]

anyone who has me non-MQTT over mesh

[oak shard]

Gonna cut my nodes off MQTT and see if I get you

[spring aspen]

Yeah I've got you here in Hilltown. I'm all the nodes with emoji shortnames and Dune character names.

[naive gust]

bout to send a test message...lmk if you receive it

on public

[spring aspen]

Longfast is very hit or miss for me. I'll shoot you a DM from Muad'dib.

[spring aspen]

No dice. No ACK on the DM, either.

[naive gust]

yea, I have a feeling that I am bottlenecked by weak direct nodes...but once my msgs make it out to them, they are strong with the rest of the surrounding mesh

just sent a shorter message

[spring aspen]

Here's what I've seen in your area. Saw Kevin and Starlink 5 today, despite what the map says.

[naive gust]

I actually talked to Kev on public like 10 seconds ago lol

I'm right in between those two nodes

but low elevation 😦

[spring aspen]

I saw his Hello on LongFast at 5:09 and nothing else since, lol.

[naive gust]

yea I think the nodes around here are all low elevation so they are having to hop around hills intermittently

[spring aspen]

Makes sense.

[median tapir]

Anybody know 6c08?

Got a message through while I was in the shower, but connection seems spotty.

[lone karma]

@spring aspen have you seen solar bees recently?

Anyone in Philly who wants to go on a walk for me to enable a setting on my node and do an update over Bluetooth?

It's not in a good neighborhood though

It's not actually in a beehive :/

It has very weak window sunlight and is staying charged

[spring aspen]

Have never seen solar bees. Have Local 8 and a few others in philly, though.

[trim stirrup]

Need to reroute the antenna sma connection

[cunning crystal]

Cute, what’s on the bottom for mounting

[lone karma]

I think there's a third piece?

My only gripe with the lowes lights is that the panel isn't glass

They used real glass for the led lens

They used a more expensive lithium manganese battery with cell protection instead of lifepo4 AND and have a really well designed voltage protection on the charging circuit...

Why'd they skimp on the panel?

The circuit can also do lifepo4 fyi, just lift a pin on the chip

[cunning crystal]

According to meshsense I'm actually picking up someone direct from Norristown now

Which if actually legit I'd be pretty impressed with considering I can't see much of anyone else a lot closer to me.

[naive gust]

had to take my node down in Bridgeport near Norristown. My apartment caught fire the other day and they removed every tenant out of the building for 2 weeks

[obsidian wraith]

Sorry to hear that.

[wicked coyote]

Meshsense has an experimental arm build now

Also I cannot get the normal x64 bin to run in headless mode

Had to open an issue on GitHub so we'll see

[obsidian wraith]

https://affirmatech.com/download/meshsense/meshsense-beta-arm64.AppImage (64-bit)
https://affirmatech.com/download/meshsense/meshsense-beta-armv7l.AppImage (32-bit)

that's from the NEMARC discord.

oh, i'm on bullseye, seems to have some issues getting it installed
Chris - KB3KCN — Yesterday at 8:55 PM
Ah possibly true. They were built on bookworm
Also, installing libfuse2 helps
sudo apt install libfuse2 fonts-noto-color-emoji

not sure if that helps.

[wicked coyote]

This is my headless issue, https://github.com/Affirmatech/MeshSense/issues/61

Here's the discussion on arm support, https://github.com/Affirmatech/MeshSense/issues/22

Funny enough I'm seeing that bullseye issue on my Debian x64 machine

Same glibc error

[trim stirrup]

it's a $10 light. it's cheap off the get go. and has plenty of battery with the default battery. simple, cheap and quick build for solar powered node. just soldered the battery connector wires to the battery enclosure and was good to go.

[trim stirrup]

https://www.printables.com/model/958722-meshtastic-harbor-breeze-solar-panel-n-type-antenn

https://www.printables.com/model/886187-harbor-breeze-meshtastic-mount

[cunning crystal]

ah that's nice

[median tapir]

Whoa

Jsut got a new node, be34, over near phonixville, not airplane, 16 miles, SNR 5. 75?!?!?!

Somebody get a proper tower node up?

[onyx swallow]

Best I can do is temp drone node to extend range. Just order the node to attach to it.

[wicked coyote]

Got meshsense running in docker now

[naive gust]

what are the features / benefits?

[wicked coyote]

Webui map, can message through webui, optionally feed big global map

My usecase is really remote management and contributing to the global map I a nice bonus

[naive gust]

how does this change remote node admin?

[wicked coyote]

Dont know, I don't use that and this poorly documented app doesn't mention it

[cunning crystal]

it doesn't do remote admin, tbh it doesn't do a ton. I use it but it's kinda meh

im hoping they find some more people to maintain the "official" Rust based client

[spring aspen]

meshPhillyNews just showed up for me for the first time.

Out here near Perkasie.

[naive gust]

Anyone tried 2.6 yet?

[grand apex]

I added it to mine, but it looks like at least half of the nodes I see don't even have 2.5 yet

[bleak tangle]

Btw, if it's of interest to anyone here

We will have someone doing the ham radio licensing test at philly maker faire

Along with a 6 hour intensive beforehand yo get people ready for the exam

Essentially the 2 months of studying required crammed into a single sitting

[silk sinew]

Do you know the cost?

[bleak tangle]

I belive the class will be free of charge but not 100% certain

[lone karma]

What is the date?

[bleak tangle]

April 6th at Cherry Street Pier

I belive the class will be from 10am-4pm

[lone karma]

Oh no

I will be in another state

Someday I'll get the ham license 😓

[trim stirrup]

Just passed the Technician's test last week. Already had a decent understanding of the electrical components from school a million years ago. I then went to https://hamstudy.org/ and spent about an hour a day for a few weeks on the study mode. They pull 35 questions from a list of 300. All the questions and answers are out there so it almost becomes a game of just memorizing the test.

used https://wm7x.net/ to take the test remotely. they were awesome to work with. I highly recommend using them.

[fossil rock]

Second hamstudy

The hardest part was getting scheduled for a test

I actually took it out in San Diego at a local club there when I had a weekend off work travel 😂

[shadow forge]

Im dating myself here but I took my tech no-code back in....1995

Took it while I was in my Avionics school....so the test was somewhat easy.

[oak shard]

Anyone seeing GtZ3? Running tests today

[median tapir]

@merry bone keeep seeing you, I swear if we could get something up in this area we could bridge the gap.

[merry bone]

yeah, I don't know of a good spot

all just houses in there

[obsidian wraith]

Shame, I have a client in the mall there, and we may be putting Starlink up. I don't think that's going to help you folks, right?

[thick bear]

I mean yes if you attach one of these to that starlink dish 👀🙊 https://www.printables.com/model/958722-meshtastic-harbor-breeze-solar-panel-n-type-antenn/comments

[median tapir]

I'll check rf, might help others, unlikely to help me. Downingtown is in a valley and the crest is brutal for rf line of sight.

Actually, depending on height might be quite helpful.

[lone karma]

Add a zero to one of those

The green one maybe

[median tapir]

A zero?

[lone karma]

100 meters

[median tapir]

Well, sure, but the roof of the mall isn't going to be 100m...

[lone karma]

I see radio towers on Facebook Marketplace sonetimes

Some malls have that weird clocktower thing

Water towers are 50m

[median tapir]

Sure, got access to no water towers sadly

[lone karma]

Not yet

Sometimes all you have to do is ask your town

[median tapir]

Sure, the reading was for @obsidian wraith suggestion of the mall roof

[lone karma]

They're government infrastructure so you can't just slap it on

[median tapir]

Which he has access to

[lone karma]

Well, another thing... That mountain might mean nothing

Use the wisp calculator

http://wisp.heywhatsthat.com/

Set the frequency to 908

Set the height to 10m

Go into settings and make the range 100 miles

Then make 2 towers, one at each location

Then check the profiles/viewsheds tab

[naive gust]

https://x.com/TheWolfblitz7/status/1897868850575683736

TheWolfblitz7 (@TheWolfblitz7) on X

Thanks to @YukonK9 at @K9DefenseTech for the design.

Can't wait to start assembling these FPV detection nodes!

X · Mar 7, 2025, 4:36 AM

[merry bone]

what mall? Exton mall?

[cunning crystal]

back in HS my gf lived next to that radio tower up on Valley Hill road, shame meshtastic wasn't around in those days 😉

[obsidian wraith]

Yup.

[merry bone]

so I volunteer at the Chester County Library right there. We have been talking about putting a node on the roof of the library building for a while now. We have the node built and ready to go we just have to installi it.

That said it's not exactly the best spot. The roof isn't that high, and we don't have much but a ladder to work with so we couldn't even get it to the top of the roof.

If you have a better location at the mall maybe we could provide the hardware if you can get it in a good spot.

[wicked coyote]

Why not both?

[merry bone]

the buildings are probably like 100 yard apart

if there is a node on the roof of the mall I don't know that a node on the library gets you much

[median tapir]

Agreed

[obsidian wraith]

Okay. I'm, not sure what the timeline is yet, but it's not :too: far off. We've got some AP's to mount in the next weeks, I'll check it out. Maybe the parking garage would be best so that you all can maintain if needed? I'm not up there too often. Although now looking, the parking garage is shorter than the mall, although I'm not familiar with the mall roof at all.

[merry bone]

yeah, definitely a location that we can maintain is nice. the node is setup for remote admin right now so we can at least change settings and all, but if it needs firmware or something that'll be an issue.

also it's a solar node so the more sun the better

keep me posted on your timeline. I have a partner in crime at the library so I'll make sure she's good with it, but I think it'll be no issue

[obsidian wraith]

No issue with what?

[merry bone]

using the hardware, we both put time/money into it

[obsidian wraith]

oh, I'd supply it if need be. It's $80 or so. no biggie. If we have to non-pen mount, that's the biggest cost.

I'm heading up to South Philly for a Wings game tonight. Will send LongFast.

[naive gust]

Is there anyone near KOP / Norristown that has a 3D printer that I could throw some cash to prototype a model with? Had to leave my printers behind when I moved

[cunning crystal]

I'm over in Lansdale and have a few

[median tapir]

Why my node DB is always full.

[lone karma]

If you're using a rak board, you can usually just update via bluetooth.

[thick bear]

I’m in malvern. Also there’s the Hive 76 makerspace in Philly

[grand apex]

Been seeing that hive76 node consistently in south Philly ~4 miles away. Couldn’t get a traceroute though

[thick bear]

Eeeee the antenna is still not properly mounted. Luckily it’s getting warmer so my motivation to climb up there will increase 🙂

[grand apex]

After saying that I checked and for whatever reason it hasn’t been “online” for the last day

[onyx swallow]

I believe that would mean you spend your hole day there and wouldn't be able to see anything else.

[onyx swallow]

I know they are looking to change location so it might not be there much longer.

[bleak tangle]

Yep! But may be worth it to some people

[bleak tangle]

Not a location change. They are actually expanding in the building they currently are in! 2xing the square footage of the space

[vast narwhal]

Just got set up in roxborough

[obsidian wraith]

Plane overhead. Messages from New Castle, DE to OXford, Pottstown

[median tapir]

Yeah, haven't seen the plane nodenyet.

But also, this is a long time for a plane node

[obsidian wraith]

Live messages on LongFast. Pretty cool nonetheless.

[median tapir]

I just got ident from a node near DC...

[obsidian wraith]

Confirmed the Susquehanna folks saw messages from me in New Castle, DE

[stoic plume]

hey folks, southwest phl here. i recently built a couple solar nodes to play with, i put one in my backyard until i mount it better and one in my van but am i like eating up hops or anything having them so close together? is that even a thing? i just wanted to check if i should only have one going or spread them out further or something

[silk sinew]

Welcome to the club! I need to get my node back up and running, it’s only on the second floor of my rowhome but it points towards SW PHL from south Philly. As for the nodes, You’re probably fine. Technically they’ll congest the network, but if you don’t have any regular connections it’s fine. You won’t crash the network or anything like that. It’s recommended that mobile nodes be on client mute. It won’t repeat received messages to other nodes, but usually that won’t be necessary on a mobile nodes

[stoic plume]

ok great thank you for the info.

i have a clear line of sight to cc so id love to get mine on my roof when i figure out a stable build

[grand apex]

You can put one on client mute

Sorry didn’t see @silk sinew already said that.

[silk sinew]

No please add more, I’m out of practice on meshtastic haha

[naive gust]

https://www.tindie.com/products/thewolfblitz7/fpv-meshtastic-detection-node-drone-detection/

[flint hound]

Hello!

Have a few nodes active in Philly, and also started a dedicated discord server for Philly Meshtastic and Amateur Radio

[median tapir]

I'd suggest any mobile node that you might walk around, drive, fly with should be client mute.

Basically, if not, you can temporarily bridge otherwise unconnected parts of the mesh and really screw up people's node DB.

I spent most of my days shouting this at passing planes...

[flint hound]

https://tenor.com/view/old-man-yells-at-cloud-yelling-old-man-news-the-simpsons-gif-5498361754025948763

[silk sinew]

Do you have a link?

[flint hound]

https://discord.gg/XGHYaDqy

Didn’t want to just spam it out and be THAT person :p

[median tapir]

@flint hound your discord focused on the city proper or room for the burbs?

[flint hound]

https://tenor.com/view/the-road-to-el-dorado-both-both-is-good-gif-8304204

[lone karma]

The packets themselves have hops. If someone sees a 3 hop message, that node will rebroadcast the messagwith 2 hops left. 30 people could see that message and all of them will rebroadcast it until the packets hit 0 hops left.

Like a fractal

[obsidian wraith]

We're still in a thin enough mesh in our area that I set all mine still to 7.

[raw storm]

Has anyone here seen this node?

[forest pond]

yeah I saw it, not sure if a plane flew over

Im up near Scranton

[naive gust]

Yea, from d89e: "AA5049 to MHT"

[median tapir]

Same

[raw storm]

Ya must have been from a plane, it was pretty far from me

[merry bone]

https://share.inquirer.com/OVEwkc

maybe not the best place to install a node right now...

[stoic plume]

ohhh ok cool, thank you.

[median tapir]

Anybody know District 47?

I reciwbd them directly Aston to Exton, but I was in an office building and saw it on my car node about an hour after and they were dark.

[silk sinew]

This guy? https://www.instagram.com/district47.us?igsh=MXFnbzBlYXpidjJ2Zw==. I don’t know them but I have seen them on Instagram

[median tapir]

Ah, I don't have jsntagram so couldn't reach out.

[silk sinew]

I wonder if I originally found the guy via a message like that, maybe he sent out his Instagram. Can’t remember

[median tapir]

Ah, yeah, I was at my kids therapy spot and didn't see til I came out and signal was a ghost.

[merry bone]

can anyone see the node BOOK? it's on the roof at the library, although not in the most wonderful spot

that'd be the Chester County Library in Exton

[median tapir]

@merry bone this you?

GPS looks like the library

Been seeing it for a few hours, but haven't gotten enough good packets to go past unknown.

[merry bone]

yeah that's the one!

we moved it to a better location on thursday

still not ideal but we are making incremental improvements

[median tapir]

@merry bone clear as a bell from whole foods, but so close to low signal to downingtown

[merry bone]

I got it at plaza azteca the other day but it was pretty low signal even there

[spring aspen]

@lone karma is SPAN down? It's been almost two weeks since it popped up for me.

[lone karma]

Update failed 😦

I have to bring it down again

[spring aspen]

Ah, bummer.

[lone karma]

I even used that new app that isn't supposed to fail.

It will be up next month.

I am... Not home

[silk sinew]

How’s the mesh in TN?

[naive gust]

I’m from Nashville originally. I have a friend in East TN, says there are 10-15 Mesh nodes around Tri Cities area.

Harder to do with the Appalachian mountains but they work around the hilltops pretty well

[lone karma]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/emojis/1026532993923293184.webp?size=48

[slow swallow]

Whoa, seeing a LOT more connections on the library's node than last time i checked

Also hi

[median tapir]

In Exton?

[slow swallow]

Yep

[median tapir]

Hmm, interesting, I'm nearby. UT not seeing too much traffic off it yet

[slow swallow]

Most of it still unrecognized

[median tapir]

Granted, I've got a weak connection to it

Ahh

[slow swallow]

The only ones not unrecognized are a Yoda and an Obiwan? 👀

[median tapir]

Interesting

Yeah, I see it consistently here in Downingtown

But can't get a signal over

[slow swallow]

Shoot... Might have to drag a bigger ladder up there and get a handful of feet higher

[median tapir]

If I get mine outside of the attic might help

What kind of antenna?

It's a bit of overkill, but seems to work well.

[near igloo]

Is there a discord channel for the Lancaster area mesh? Anyone know?

[obsidian wraith]

Not specifically, but there is a Philly one, and there is a FB group for them.

[median tapir]

@merry bone @slow swallow whatever yall did I am getting it on my node mounted on my car now.

[merry bone]

I don't think anything changed in the past week or two...

unless @slow swallow knows something I don't

[median tapir]

Lasted for like 20 min

But this was I. The valley in Downingtown... So can't be far off for a solid Exton to Coatesville mesh

[slow swallow]

Whoaa nice!!! I haven't changed anything yeah!

But there isss a handful of feet left to capitalize on 👀

[slow swallow]

Uhhhh i forget, lemme try and track it down real quick

5.8 dBi N-Male Omni Outdoor Helium 915 MHz Antenna (Large Profile 32")

[median tapir]

Interesting, guess we jsut got a good bounce or something off a cloud.

[median tapir]

Getting BOOK pretty reliably today

Low signal, but heartbeats keep coming.

[onyx swallow]

I've been over where BOOK is suppose to be a few times and my devices never seem to pick it up. Starting to think there is something wrong with it.

[near igloo]

Hey if anyone in Fishtown sees node 1164 can you hit them a test. buddy of mine just getting started

🙏

not sure their current nodename

!06c81164

[lone karma]

@spring aspen is span back up 😅

It is online but I maaaay have forgotten to set the LoRA region to us

If you don't see it tonight, I'll fix it next week

[spring aspen]

Saw it at 1800 tonight.

[lone karma]

After 1800 though

I was still wrangling it then I think

Or maybe that was 1600

Was the signal different from usual?

The antenna smashed straight into the ground earlier today and the fiberglass came off

[lone karma]

Thank you for verifying that it's not broken 😅

Signal is fine

I was really worried lol

[hidden locust]

Anyone here 3d print ?

[merry bone]

yeah I do

[edgy fulcrum]

thx @near igloo. long-time phl resident + techie here, but new to meshtastic. @near igloo got me off the ground and now have a triad of esp32 boards up w/ nodenames some form of msht.hcf.fail . two are dedicated to semi-fixed relays near frankford+girard atm. looking forward to meeting others & helping to build out the network. still learning, so plz be gentle 🙂

[edgy fulcrum]

interesting. FWIW I was picking up LVE from my in-laws' place just barely over the peak of south slope of s. mtn & 378, close-ish to the star tower.

[lone karma]

Yup LVE is in coopersburg

They have a weird antenna array on their roof

[lone karma]

I will at some point

[median tapir]

Took my cub scout pack camping in Nottingham PA on the MD border and getting tons of mesh nodes and replies out here

Luckily between the node in my pack and the node on my car roof camp sight becomes a portable mesh

[naive gust]

anyone see 1f8c? just got it back up

[onyx swallow]

I do it all the time. Do you have a need?

Also anyone willing to meet up this summer. I have a node which has never shown me another node dispite all the times I have brought it places with me when I travel.

[silk sinew]

Where are you located? We have pretty regular meetups at Iffy Books in Philly, might be worth a trip next time we have one!

[lone karma]

My 3d printer is calibrating for the first time!

Quakertown PA

[lone karma]

If you have seen nothing, there's likely a problem... Erase it and reconfigure it

[merry bone]

maybe try a different antenna. some of the ones that are included with the boards are not great

also you mentioned not being able to receive BOOK. it's definitely still up. if you want to test it go over to the whole foods or the library parking lot... anywhere in that complex really should get you easily in range. if you're still not getting it then there is something up

there are open hours at the makerspace at the library thursdays, and I'm there from 4-7 if you want to troubleshoot.

[median tapir]

@merry bone did the storm take out the library node?

[merry bone]

it was there as of Saturday midday

I have not checked since

[median tapir]

Well,just seen it for the first time since Saturday afternoon

[merry bone]

ok so... @slow swallow and I have been wondering about something maybe related here....

when I was getting this thing set up I brought it outside in full sun and saw that the solar panel was giving us ~300mA. to me that was best possible case. full sun, panel pointed right at the sun.

more or less since we have had it on the roof we are seeing ~15mA.

[median tapir]

A guy is coming to trim my tree tomorrow, the node I got stuck up there will be coming down after 9 months int he elements. I know the antenna broke. Interested to see how the pi pico and solar panels held up.

[merry bone]

now we are thinking maybe at this point the batteries are full so it's only pulling 15mA.

[median tapir]

Ah, what kind of battery?

[merry bone]

but maybe it's also dying overnight, I'm not really sure. we aren't there to observe 24/7

[median tapir]

Hmm, could be, I am not getting it consistently enough to observe too much.

But I might be able to run a python script to track remotely

Right now it's reading as 100% 4.22v

[merry bone]

we have environmental data which reads solar panel mA and voltage, but we don't have battery charge

[median tapir]

Well, 2 hours ago

With the cloud cover it could be getting enough juice and then consuming it

So like a brown out loop

[merry bone]

so this is from the power management board that is sending power to the rak. it's not the direct battery voltage.

[median tapir]

Ahh

[merry bone]

which is the problem, we can't observe battery charge level

[median tapir]

Ok, yeah, that would complicate remote monitoring.

I had a similar issue with my solar node before the battery died

[merry bone]

we were thinking maybe we could set up a station to log packets and data. does anyone know of a solution to do that? just log packets that a node sends out to a raspberry pi or something we keep at the library. then we could parse it and see better what is happening, when it is transmitting, what the solar panel is doing, etc.

[median tapir]

It's a rak board,right?

Wifi lets you connect via the python client and can do a lot. But rak has no wifi

[hidden locust]

Rak has WiFi depending on what core you use

[median tapir]

A Pi could connect via USB serial.

[hidden locust]

Rak with WiFi

[merry bone]

we are using the Arduino core

[median tapir]

What board are you using for power?

[hidden locust]

WisBlock Base (RAK19007)

RAK11200 Core Module (ESP32)

RAK13300 LoRa Module (Semtech SX1262)

[merry bone]

https://www.printables.com/model/297089-v2-meshtastic-3w-solar-enclosure-base-station-lora

that's the design

this is the Etsy page for the power management board: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1609406536/mppt-solar-battery-charger-for-iot

[onyx swallow]

I'll try to flash new firmware. today I was able to borrow another node from a friend to test this one.

[merry bone]

@median tapir since you're the only one that seems to get BOOK somewhat consistently....

have you ever gotten it at night? if so how late? I'm trying to determine if it has enough juice to last through the night

I hope to have some better logging set up soon but for now you're it

[lone karma]

I have seen BOOK

[merry bone]

interesting that you're getting it over MQTT

same question then, if you look at when you received it, have you gotten it long after dark?

[lone karma]

midday

what size battery does it have?

[merry bone]

the LTO one that I linked in the design above

[lone karma]

how many mah though

I assume you tested the capacity?

[merry bone]

I tested it and it worked, I didn't fully charge and drain it and measure the mAh or anything like that

[lone karma]

a rak can run off a coin cell for a while

[merry bone]

yeah I can't believe it's battery capacity. maybe that it's not getting charged

but whenever I go by there during the say it's fine

[lone karma]

I guess you gotta have a phone connected to another one nearby for a night

[merry bone]

yeah that's what I'm working on

[lone karma]

Or do a stakeout

Drive there rn

WHere is it btw

[merry bone]

chester county library in exton

next to exton mall

[lone karma]

hmm

-# wheres the maps app

32 miles

hmmmm

I'll ask my dad if he can drive by or something

[merry bone]

I'll be there tomorrow, don't make a special trip

just if you look at the packet log and you see something in the dead of night I'd be curious

[lone karma]

I have a single packet from it

[merry bone]

like I said I'm surprised you're getting it over MQTT. I thought you hade to enable that and I didn't think I did.

[lone karma]

someone nearby has it

and that packet hit my mqtt node

[merry bone]

huh. well that's cool. if you're 30+ miles away that's the furthest I think it's gotten, MQTT or not

[merry bone]

this just came across my socials: https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2025-24797/

[lone karma]

Fixed in 2.6.2

I wonder if this is the reason for random corruption of settings

[flint hound]

Also, going to re-up this link because it’s been a while: we’ve got a dedicated Discord for Philly-area Meshtastic and Amateur Radio! Feel free to join: https://discord.gg/MWWbAkRR9v

[silent pasture]

Tried to reach out to you guys today

[silk sinew]

Via DM? I don’t think DMs are monitored. Those PM nodes are more intended to be repeaters

[silent pasture]

Nah over longfast

[silk sinew]

Did you make it?

[silent pasture]

Didn't get any response. I had to send a node up on a drone to reach you guys, so I dont have all the time in the world to wait on a response.

It's lonely down here and you guys seems to be the only thing I can reach

[spring aspen]

Are you near DE? I picked up a bunch of Delaware nodes this morning that I can't explain.

[silent pasture]

Nope, I'm about 30 miles south east of the Delaware memorial bridge

These are the nodes I picked up

[spring aspen]

Okay, because this is what I picked up in the same time frame.

And what was hopping through it.

[grand apex]

Those are @obsidian wraith

[spring aspen]

@silent pasture, is this you?

[silent pasture]

No, I didn't see it but I might have bounced it?

I've seen freejacks nodes before, but didn't see them this time

Nvm looks like you got a direct connection to 4074

[spring aspen]

Which is wild since I'm guessing it's in New Castle by the name. I'm in Perkasie, PA.

That's a record for me.

[obsidian wraith]

Yup! Those DEMesh ones are mine, AH are across the river in Pennsville. @silent pasture which node is you? @spring aspen which are you? 4074 is my main tower node that's in New Castle, DE right on the river, 100ft up.

[grand apex]

I don't know if this is a client thing, but when I get a first ping from a new node it always seems to show as direct first and updates later with the hop count.

[silent pasture]

(s1lv) truck node and (gl0w) propaganda relay should've been the ones spotted

[spring aspen]

I'm Muad'Dib (🐁)
All my nodes have emoji shortnames and Dune characters.

[obsidian wraith]

Oh You're all the way up there. You got my nodes from a plane probably.

[grand apex]

@obsidian wraith this DE one has been showing up for me in the last day

[spring aspen]

Yeah that's happened to me, too. I'm not getting my hopes up too high.

[onyx swallow]

tried this and it is still not working. I borrowed a node aka Node (A) from a friend and I was able to see my node, aka node (B) but node (B) couldn't see Note (A). How do I tell if this is a antenna issue or microcontroller issue?

[onyx swallow]

The antenna is not the one it came with. Sadly I paid extra for what I thought was a stronger antenna. I bought the node of etsy because of the tariffs but it is starting to look like I was duped unless someone near by has an antenna I could try to see if it is the device or the antenna. I'm debating seeing if I can geta refund from Etsy but it might be to long after I purchased it to get anything done about it.

[median tapir]

Nice, out in Oaks today and getting mesh out here.

[lone karma]

Wamna meet up and borrow my nanovna to test the antenna?

I'll bring wire cutters in case we need to trim it down

[onyx swallow]

The next 3 days at work is going to be intense. I don't know if I'll have free time until maybe the weekend

[glacial musk]

I've had this issue with my t1000e not seeing my sx1272-based radios, it's apparently an known issue between the radio types:

Currently, LR1110 radios (the one in the T1000-e) are unable to receive Meshtastic packets from the older SX127x radios. Semtech is aware of this issue, and we're hopeful they'll provide a solution soon.

[spring aspen]

Assuming these were in the same room, it's not your antenna.

[lone karma]

Hey guys there's an election coming up, don't forget to vote!

[pine zodiac]

Hello! Just got a tdeck to test out, anyone in the Newark DE area?

[obsidian wraith]

Yup,! I'm all the DEMesh ones, There's a FB group for us, https://www.facebook.com/groups/demesh We're working on getting on a building in Newark, as well as the Windy Hills water tower. Both in progress.

[pine zodiac]

Cool! I'm thinking I'm having some firmware issues, worked fine out of the box then once updated I can't see anymore nodes so I have to work that out

[obsidian wraith]

OK we're around...happy to help.

[fluid plaza]

What freejack said I'm in Newark as well tho will be down south near Holts Landing this weekend

[pine zodiac]

I think I got it!

[lofty cobalt]

Live in Collingswood and drove into town with our t1000E. Definitely immediately ordered a few more with better range.

[plush kraken]

Any other way to communicate with the group for those of us not on Facebook? Newark here DS11 and NX01

[obsidian wraith]

There's a Philly discord, but not many DE people on there https://discord.com/channels/1350649001313173526/

[onyx swallow]

Did we all go Quiet after the Philly discord became a thing?

[cunning crystal]

Basically

[silk sinew]

Yeah I made this channel back in the day, but I’ve pretty much fully moved to the PRM discord. Much easier to organize there. We’ve got a website too: phillymesh.net

[lone karma]

I don't understand what you mean.

[cunning crystal]

I think he meant "go quiet" not do quiet

[tall olive]

Hullo. New to Philly/South jersey mesh. Just moved from CT. Nodes: HECK, OKRa, MTY, POOP, GAC. ( T-beam, heltec v-3, heltec v-3, T-Deck, Seeed Tracker)

T-deck (POOP) is the newest, but I've been fighting it and don't have it up and running. Now that the move is over I'll have more time to mess with it.

How is y'all?

[slender quarry]

Someone from Catskills (DEN1 at kmesh.us) is reading PM03 via 1 hop (558c) with both traceroute and dm delivery conf. Can you confirm on your end?

[silk sinew]

What are the last four of DEN1

[slender quarry]

4006

[silk sinew]

Can confirm I saw it from my rooftop in South Philly!

Only saw it once, but I did see it

[slender quarry]

For a window of time at like 2am he was able to TR to nodes that identified as central PA (Lancaster) and we were seeing nodes claiming to be in MD. Idk if the atmosphere was just right or if someone was flying a repeater or what, but it was amazing. Normally flyovers from airplanes last a few minutes but it was open for at least an hour, maybe 2. I'd say a solid 90 min

Tropospheric ducting is the word someone used on our discord. I'm just a CS guy who dabbles in RF so it's a bit above my experience

[silk sinew]

If you reached us I’m not surprised you saw MD, we regularly have a small period of connection to DE and MD (maybe once a month), so if the atmosphere was such that it reached all the way from you to us, then you could probably reach MD. I’ve reached as far as MA from PA

[silk sinew]

I’m about to head up to Albany, how’s the mesh up there? Are they on default settings?

[slender quarry]

Albany has some nodes but as far as I know they don't have a formal website. They have a channel here. I can't range them. In my area there's kmesh.us, hvmesh.net, and forest-edge.info and we can all reach each other most of the time

We're missing a link from southern hudson valley to capital region right now

Should all be reachable on LF20

[pastel horizon]

im in delco, got a device, i dont know how to talk to anyone, anyone close?

[iron finch]

There's a Delco channel in the Philly discord! Definitely some nodes active in Delco and someone local can help ya. https://discord.gg/Q88HkKzj

(Montco here so no way my nodes can hear ya, sorry)

[muted swallow]

Hi all, anyone here make it up to PSU area and willing to help out a newbie?

[lone karma]

I can already see out there using mqtt

[grand apex]

@lone karma your SPAN node has been showing up for me in Philly lately

not at the moment but I think I saw it with 3 hops recently

[lone karma]

Woah nice!

Can you see through who?

Next time you see it, do a traceroute!

I need to update it, but I'm afraid to because last time it corrupted

I have a whole different node to throw up there with a 3d printed mount this time to get the node closer to the antenna.

Currently it has like 15 feet of wire

It suffered from those issues where the storage would randomly corrupt over time

I can't set some of the settings

[grand apex]

I tried a TR but wasnt successful

[lone karma]

It might be under heavy load. I can see a very far distance with it.

Like, all the way to the mountains

It could theoretically reach a spot on the far side of Allentown

Somewhere around here I think?
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Aq62Qqskib7723dXA

There's this small area where you have direct line of sight to the antenna.

I'm planning on putting the current Sellersville Meshtastic node up on a tree or something in that area once I change it out for my 3D printed mount

[grand apex]

maybe a new antenna too?

[silk sinew]

Oh yeah, every one of those stubby antennas I’ve tested have been garbage, replace it with a slightly more reputable one (like the muzi works whip) and you’ll probably double your range! Just make sure to not disconnect the antenna while your radio is powered on or you’ll burn it out

[lone karma]

I know, this is for testing

I'm gonna put it on my pole

You have seen it before

[muted swallow]

Can you only see nodes with mqtt enabled?

[lone karma]

You can talk to them too

Okay-to-mqtt is a setting that needs to be enabled per-node

[lone karma]

Is this hole a real one?

Are there any nodes here?

Berks county park has some tall areas

Sand hill and Fancy Hill are both over 300 meters tall

That's by boyertown

[slender quarry]

pottstown is godforsaken so maybe.

[merry bone]

I'm on the southern end of that and yeah, it's tough to get anything

[iron finch]

The hole is not a real one. I live in the middle of the map and there are a dozen nodes in there. Half are missing because they don't have location sharing, the other half because it's been difficult to communicate out of the area because of topography.

Mountains block us to the east and south, so we a can't connect with the Philly mesh unless there's significant tropospheric ducting (maybe a couple of hours a month). A community member installed an infrastructure node atop Mt. Penn in Reading a couple of weeks ago so we've been opening up and connecting to the Reading-area mesh and a few nodes hopped outside of that.

My node map inside that hole:

@vague pasture is to thank for that Reading PA infrastructure node, and he's working on many more in the areas SW of Reading. He's a machine with what he's been able to do. 🤯

[vague pasture]

I deny everything, you have no proof, and where exactly were you that day?

Also, hello

I'm working on Pottstown. Hopefully should be in progress within the month.

Also Honey Brook

[iron finch]

Let us know how we can help! Site visits, township meetings, whatever!

[vague pasture]

Already scheduled meeting with folks who might get us access

powerpoint slides and all

[iron finch]

Schedule depending I'd like to help! Drop me a line.

[lone karma]

@vague pasture I have a spot on top of a grain silo at 200 Niantic road in Niantic PA, is that a good spot?

I can put up another node in a month or so

[vague pasture]

Looks like 35 ish feet?

[lone karma]

The silo is taller than that

There's a ladder I can use to get to the top

It's down the hill but still taller than the house

[vague pasture]

At 60 ft, not bad. I'd recommend a Heltec v4, 0.6W and a very decent solar panel

[lone karma]

I already have a rak with a flat cell that I got from a laptop

[vague pasture]

You can always gain a couple feet by clamping your node to a section of fence pole, and then using antenna clamps to secure pole to another pole

That'd be 0.15W

Very good RX sensitivity tho

[lone karma]

Yup I have a lawn light already

That antenna is a placeholder

I intend to mount a much better antenna to the top and run a wire to the platform on the top

I need a mag mount and an antenna... Unless someone wants to donate them?

[vague pasture]

Alpha 915 is hard to beat for smaller fixed nodes

[lone karma]

I'm getting kapton tape tomorrow to wrap this flat cell:

[vague pasture]

$15 ish on amazon. I have pile of unneeded decent 3 db's generics that I'm not using if you'd want.

[lone karma]

The outside shell is +, but it's a stainless steel cell and like 3000mah at 3.7v

[lone karma]

Lmao nice tower

[vague pasture]

that's my normal build

Yeah, coordinating to get it to 100 ft

Some more

[lone karma]

This is my SPAN node in sellersville

Pipe :3

[vague pasture]

Nice!

[lone karma]

I'm gonna remove the wire and swap the node out with the one with that 3d printed part

[vague pasture]

Smart moving solar panel away from board/antenna. Some do produce interference, we're looking at 5-6W soshine EMI issue

[lone karma]

Right now it's quite heavy with all the wood. I have some sheet steel that I'm gonna use to mount it...

The long wire was because it was top heavy

And straight line winds

[vague pasture]

You mount the antenna on the enclosure bulkhead, right?

[lone karma]

No

Well, the original design was like that

[vague pasture]

That's what you really want to do

You're using a wisblock?

[lone karma]

Hmmmm that's actually not a bad idea

Yeah I can update it if I put the phone next to the pole

[vague pasture]

You're going to have massive line loss, and you only have 0.15W TX to play with

Get utility enclosure. $5 on amazon, weigh nothing. Get ipex to N bulkhead, attach directly to wisblock. Mount antenna to bulkhead. Run power down to solar panel.

[lone karma]

I was gonna use a 3in wire but now that you mentioned that I could just make the antenna in the middle I'm gonna do that

The rak is inside the solar panel

That's a really good idea!

[vague pasture]

?

https://www.amazon.com/Zulkit-Dustproof-Waterproof-Electrical-150x100x70mm/dp/B08KY7VK8W/

lil more pricy but includes cable glands if you don't have them. Just need drill bit or step bit, plus bulkhead and antenna.

[lone karma]

The wire you see in my photo is one of these

[vague pasture]

minimizes cable loss. You should be transmitting closer to 0.1W with the direct bulkhead antenna and short ipex

[lone karma]

I have this

[vague pasture]

Probably were transmitting 0.06 or 0.08 with that.

[lone karma]

I'm able to recieve signal from coopersburg at least

Like 15 miles

[vague pasture]

https://www.amazon.com/wlaniot-Pigtail-Wireless-Gateway-External/dp/B08ZYK5SL9/

You said wisblock, right?

[lone karma]

I have one, but...

[vague pasture]

Cheap to replace. Hunt around and measure carefully. Leave yourself some slack but not too much

[lone karma]

I just don't remember what type of type-n antenna I have

[vague pasture]

I typically aim for my nodes to go at least 50 miles

[lone karma]

Well coopersburg still is 3 snr

[vague pasture]

Some go much further, but not consistently until they get further up towers

[lone karma]

Locust valley estates btw

[vague pasture]

3db is good choice for good local coverage

[lone karma]

The antenna is 6dbi I think

[vague pasture]

Good for long distance at cost of worst coverage locally

[lone karma]

But hey if you have extra antennas, I'd be happy to trade you the one on my pole. It has hit the ground at 10mph before and broke

[vague pasture]

Sure. Going to the Red Rose hamfest on the 4th?

[lone karma]

The foam inside that holds the wire got dislodged but it is fixable

I have no ham license

I could never get past remembering the resistor colors

[vague pasture]

Don't need one to show up and look around. Otherwise if you'll be somewhere between Lancaster and Reading, lemme know. I have a literal pile of the included nebra antennas. They're not bad

[lone karma]

I'd be able to use 3 of em, and I am sometimes in that area working... do you want me to 3d print ya anything? I feel bad showing up and not giving you anything.

I can also cut you some cat5 or buryable cat6 if you want some of that.

I've got purple empress tomato seeds and barium sulfate microspheres that I made... you know, the polar opposite of vantablack

Reflects 92% of light

[lone karma]

Did they forget to add it to the calendar
https://www.arrl.org/hamfests-and-conventions-calendar

Also what do you think of putting a node on the ridge hereish? 40.825453,-75.414799

Some of the spots are fantastic

[vague pasture]

I need power and preferably internet

These are the towers I'm looking at currently

Or already have nodes on

https://www.arrl.org/hamfests/red-rose-repeater-association-hamfest-6

I'm good, no trade needed. I literally have a pile of them I was going to hawk at hamfest for 5-10 each

[lone karma]

Lmk a day and time and I can stop by!

[vague pasture]

Shoot me a msg, I'll give cell number

Friday evening, Sunday afternoon, Monday afternoon are open

[stone leaf]

This enclosure is great. I’ve used it several times now in a couple different solar configs. I use it enough I’m at the point where I’m working on a printable plate for the inside. You can also easily pole mount it with u-bolts and its included mounting tabs.

[vague pasture]

What tape is that?

[stone leaf]

Just red electrical tape. Didn’t have black handy and kind of liked the look

Pretty temporary too so didn’t want to waste self fusing on it

[lone karma]

I got a reel of kapton tape

Yippee!

The outside of that cell is the positive side

I put one in a meshtastic node too

Harvested out of an asus battery

Asus sent a firmware update that bricked the battery, and it had 3 cells inside that were perfectly balanced and in amazing condition!

[potent marsh]

Hi everyone! New to meshtastic. Located in New Castle, DE. Just getting started with a Rokland T-Deck complete for a mobile unit and currently building a stationary node using a wizblock and 5dbi antenna that I will sling into a tree in my back yard hopefully around 70ft AGL. My mobile will show up as "Rick - Mad Electron" and the stationary unit that is currently testing in a 2nd story window till it's done being assembled shows up as "Rick - Tree Repeater".

[plush kraken]

Nice to see someone else from DE here

[potent marsh]

Looks like the delaware mesh isn't being too active, time to see if I can step in and help it along a bit.

[silk sinew]

Have you checked out deme.sh? That’s where they are I think, but this discord also works!

[potent marsh]

Yeah that just redirects to their Facebook page, im over there as well, but I dislike Facebook and prefer discord.

[silk sinew]

I agree, it’s interesting the variety of ways to communicate and what people prefer

[plush kraken]

Yeah No facebook for me

No I don't think DE is very active but there is at least some chatter on occasion. I have a fixed node and mobile node for myself. NX01 and DS11 if you happen to see them

[potent marsh]

I'll keep an eye out for you. I assume the names are star trek related?

[plush kraken]

You might say that, yeah

[potent marsh]

hahaha +1 for me

got all the parts and mostly assembled the node, it's outside solar charging right now before I epoxy the solar panel to the enclosure. Then the hard part is getting it 80ft up into a tree.

[plush kraken]

Yeah, not something I want to attempt

[potent marsh]

oh i'll attempt, just not this weekend, as it's a washout

[plush kraken]

I think it would be great if someone could get a node over by where UD has the Ham antenna

[potent marsh]

might be bow and arrow with fishing line attached to arrow, get over high branch, then feed up stronger rope with fishing line.

The company I work for has a warehouse leased right by the new WAWA on 896 by pencader, If this takes off well I may stick another solar node on top of warehouse to cover that area, need to see if I can get signal from my home node that far first.

[plush kraken]

Nice idea

[potent marsh]

Tree node is all assembled, now who has a drone with a drop grappler to help me get a rope into the tree? Any takers?

[potent marsh]

Wow I actually picked up PM03 phillymesh.net-03 from New castle with only 2 hops

[plush kraken]

You able to see anything in the Newark City area?

[fair kayak]

Hey all! I'm new to the mesh community but looking to get it more active in the area. I love the concept, I've built 2 handheld heltec v3s and I'm finishing up my first solar node tonight.

Any tips on where to mount this thing? (Don't worry!! I have gotten a proper antenna since I took that picture and I know not to set it to router/repeater yet as idk what y'all have going on)

[potent marsh]

not yet, i need to get my node higher

[iron finch]

A good start would be your roof or a tall tree, whichever you can get highest in altitude. That way your heltec V3s can hop through it and connect to other nodes (assuming in-house your heltecs don't pick up much if anything).

Also highly recommend the Meshtastic Site Planner and some similar RF LOS tools and topo maps to help figure out where your signal can go. If you're in an RF "valley", it may be better to find a higher elevation place to put that solar node to bring signal into your "valley".

And welcome! We're active over on the Philly Mesh Discord and would be happy to welcome you and provide additional help!

[lone karma]

wisp is also useful

https://wisp.heywhatsthat.com/

[neon yew]

Any good resource for more active suburban Philadelphia psks?

Hailing from the Ambler, Fort Washinton area

[cunning crystal]

Pop over to the discord, there's some shared channels but they don't really get any traffic. I'm over in Lansdale and I don't see much on LongFast but I'm sort of in a hole.

[plush kraken]

I can see a few Philly nodes from Newark DE. Don't ask me how but they look like repeaters

[silk sinew]

We saw you too! I think there must have been a flyover this morning connecting everyone

[vague pasture]

Good morning!

SVM will be doing our MF test on Sat Dec 20th through Sun Dec 21th. We'll be moving as many nodes over to MediumFast to test propagation and capture telemetry.

https://svmesh.net/medium-fast/

[near igloo]

is there a working svmesh discord?

[grand apex]

https://discord.gg/KRGsV8ETh

[dusty bronze]

Saw a couple nodes pop up in my area over the last two weeks :D I don't normally see people out where I am!

[vague pasture]

Where ya at?

[dusty bronze]

North outside Philly! Looks like they've all gone away, all alone again lol

[cedar kernel]

Feel free to pop in to the Philly Mesh Discord if you haven't. There are a few of us in the North Burbs with similar challenges

https://discord.gg/HZBVxQnFu

[finite mango]

I am north of philly too, good peoples in PRM

[bleak tangle]

Philly Maker Faire tickets are live!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/maker-faire-philadelphia-tickets-1980290996679?aff=oddtdtcreator

We should have a good meshtastic presence this year

[spring aspen]

Shame it lit on fire last year.

[vague pasture]

Williamsport tower is up and connected to main mesh

[lone karma]

Nice!

[craggy leaf]

Hello Delaware Valley people. I'm just across the river from NE Philly. Node is Bun0.

[hexed bear]

Hey all, Berks county on the Chester county line Near French Creek State Park. Looks like I'm all alone over here

[iron finch]

I'm out in Limerick and I pick up a couple of folks nearby where you describe. You don't see anyone at all?

[hexed bear]

Not at all, even drove up to Twin valley highschool that sits on top of a mountain and nothing

[iron finch]

Pike, 3TWL, and Amty are the ones I was thinking of near ya.

[shadow forge]

Youre not alone...im in Amity...the Amty node is mine

[hexed bear]

Which mesh map is that,? The one I looked at online only showed 1 in reading and no others

[shadow forge]

Thats the one in the app

Or it looks similar

[iron finch]

Yup, it's what I see from my attic node (LRG0) in Limerick. Using the Android app here.

[shadow forge]

Whats ur setup? One of those tiny ordeal?

[hexed bear]

Heltec v3

[shadow forge]

Yeah your limited with that small antenna. My node is outside running on solar 24/7.

[hexed bear]

Is it the board or the antenna? Literally just got into this this week. I'd like to build some solar boards and create a network in my area

[shadow forge]

Antenna and elevation are two key points. Nothing wrong with the board...

You can get as creative as you want or not.

[hexed bear]

So you have plans for that set up?

[shadow forge]

Yup...she has been running for over a year now.

[shadow forge]

Id have to look....I was just buying parts and trying things out....even tried a few panels before I found one that worked.

[vague pasture]

Newest node

[timid dagger]

Starting with a pair of these, any suggestions for a better set of ears?

[iron finch]

Bang for the buck, these can't be beat! https://heltec.org/project/gt-800-whip-antenna/

If it's going on a roof or into an attic, an upgrade to something like this is worthwhile: https://store.rokland.com/collections/all-helium-antennnas/products/low-profile-6-dbi-n-female-omni-outdoor-915-mhz-antenna-for-helium-rak-miner-2-nebra-indoor-syncrob-it-bobcat/?ref=phillymesh

[stone leaf]

Muzi whip is as good as you can get for personal nodes. https://nyme.sh/faq/#what-antenna

And the Alfa or that Rokland one are great for fixed nodes. We have at least one router using that 6 dBi low profile, another using the 5.8 large profile

Came to say hi because we saw some mega ducting overnight

[stone leaf]

NECMesh when? 😉

[iron finch]

Philly is ready! I find it funny you only see three of ours and I only see three of yours.

[stone leaf]

Assuming an even distribution of auto broadcasts that probably gives a good indication of how long the window was open

[timid dagger]

what is the typical pack and ship cost to the lower 48?

[iron finch]

For small orders close to $5ish. For larger orders (>$100) it's been up to $30.

[lone karma]

Man I love this community

[bleak tangle]

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/maker-faire-philadelphia-tickets-1980290996679

[vague pasture]

Kensington Philly

[lone karma]

Hey can anyone see SPAN? I replaced the antenna and got someone in Reading

It is in the Perkasie/Dublin area

That's a 43 foot pole

[iron finch]

Down in Limerick I used to see it all the time via a couple of hops... I haven't seen it in months 😕

[lone karma]

I know

Sorry

Last time I brought it down, the pole slipped and the antenna hit the ground at like 40mph... It was never the same after that

Today, I swapped the antenna and the wire is shorter

I can reliably see reading which was not possible before

[lone karma]

I hope you see it again soon!

the battery in it is HUGE now

[iron finch]

I'm glad you're back connected to the mesh!

[lone karma]

Woah i just got a direct ping in quakertown at -19db

there is a mountian in the way lol

and a brick building

I wonder if i can do remote admin from here

yay telemetry is back online!

that box is in direct sunlight, so that temperature is correct

I wonder what it'll say tonight?

[merry bone]

i'd also appreciate it if anyone can tell me if they see BOOK. should be visible in Exton/Downingtown/Malvern area

we got it set up again but aren't seeing any nodes, trying to figure out what's going on.

been up for about a week now

[lone karma]

do a factory reset

It just happens sometimes when you change a setting with a bad bluetooth connection

[merry bone]

I'll try that when I'm near it next, thanks. didn't know that's a thing

[lone karma]

You will have to re-setup all your settings

I broke through the mountain!

[lone karma]

woo 36 kilometers!

[merry bone]

the harder part is retrieving the node.

[lone karma]

You can initiate a factory reset over bluetooth

[merry bone]

that would be infinitely better than having to access it directly. I'm going to get to work on it later today. hopefully it starts to show up for people