I have an RTL-SDR tuner that has been begging for a use, and I may have just found it.
Update: Got a prototype setup on my laptop. Letting it run to see if I can catch a test alert to see if it gets passed to the mesh. Then gonna try to deploy it to a PiZeroW2. Also plan to tee the output to an Icecast sender so other devices on the network can listen to the weather reports. Right now, it's piped to a player to listen to it on the laptop.
Update 2: Managed to catch a weekly test, and it picked it up and forwarded it. Nice. The only problem was the mesh "ate" the first message. Might just be that node I'm using as it's always been problematic using it over TCP/WiFi (the USB-serial chip is broken in this one). So next step is to package this up in a PiZero2W. (Confirmed that specific node is just wonky. Hooked a node up direct to USB and all message parts were successfully received).
Update 3: If you want to test the setup without having to wait for a weekly test, you can download a sample SAME audio clip from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Same.wav). You'll need to convert the sample rate before you can use it, though.
$ ffmpeg -i Same.wav -ar 48000 same48.wav
$ cat same48.wav | Meshtastic-SAME-EAS-Alerter --test-channel 0
2026-04-02T15:32:31.172Z INFO [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Successfully connected to the node.
2026-04-02T15:32:31.175Z INFO [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Loaded locations CSV
2026-04-02T15:32:31.175Z INFO [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Monitoring for alerts
2026-04-02T15:32:31.175Z INFO [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Alerts will be sent to channel: 0
2026-04-02T15:32:31.175Z INFO [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Test alerts will be sent to channel: 0
2026-04-02T15:32:31.201Z INFO [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Begin SAME voice message: MessageHeader { message: "ZCZC-EAS-RWT-012057-012081-012101-012103-012115+0030-2780415-WTSP/TV-", offset_time: 47, parity_error_count: 0, voting_byte_count: 69 }
2026-04-02T15:32:31.201Z INFO [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] No location filter applied (locations empty) or no locations in alert
2026-04-02T15:32:31.201Z INFO [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Attempting to send message over the mesh: 📖Received Required Weekly Test from WTSP/TV, Issued By: Broadcast station or cable system, Locations: Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Sarasota
Connected to radio
Sending text message 📖Received Required Weekly Test from WTSP/TV, Issued By: Broadcast to ^all on channelIndex:0
Waiting for an acknowledgment from remote node (this could take a while)
Received an implicit ACK. Packet will likely arrive, but cannot be guaranteed.
Connected to radio
Sending text message station or cable system, Locations: Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, to ^all on channelIndex:0
Waiting for an acknowledgment from remote node (this could take a while)
Received an implicit ACK. Packet will likely arrive, but cannot be guaranteed.
2026-04-02T15:33:11.227Z INFO [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] End SAME voice message
2026-04-02T15:33:11.251Z WARN [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Program stopped, no longer monitoring
Working Prototype
$ rtl_fm -f 162.400M -s 48000 -r 48000 | tee >(play -q -r 48000 -t raw -e s -b 16 -c 1 -V1 -v 4 - sinc 125-3.2k) >(Meshtastic-SAME-EAS-Alerter --host 192.168.1.236 --test-channel 0) > /dev/null
Found 1 device(s):
0: Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN: 00000001
Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Tuner gain set to automatic.
Tuned to 162652000 Hz.
Oversampling input by: 21x.
Oversampling output by: 1x.
Buffer size: 8.13ms
Exact sample rate is: 1008000.009613 Hz
Sampling at 1008000 S/s.
Output at 48000 Hz.
2026-04-02T14:20:49.702Z INFO [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Successfully connected to the node.
2026-04-02T14:20:49.704Z INFO [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Loaded locations CSV
2026-04-02T14:20:49.704Z INFO [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Monitoring for alerts
2026-04-02T14:20:49.704Z INFO [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Alerts will be sent to channel: 0
2026-04-02T14:20:49.704Z INFO [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Test alerts will be sent to channel: 0
Oh wow! I was not aware how inexpensive pre-builts were. I may just pick one of those up then. Thank you for the link!! Is there any benefit of having nodes connected to MQTT? Ive heard theres some smart-home applications for people with acres of land, but would you say theres a usecase for people who live in an apartment or in.the suburbs?
I don't use MQTT currently, but there's several things you can do with it:
I tried setting up MQTT with HomeAssistant but couldn't get messages to come in correctly. Most likely my own fault but I just never got back to it as I didn't have a specific need in mind when I was setting it up.
Bridge meshes could be interesting. Like if I could convince a friend to get one as well, then we could use meshtastic when were nearby each other or miles apart.
MQTT is kind of a PITA to get working. I had to use MQTT-Explorer to figure out a proper configuration. It seems since then, the developer has started using Copilot to write and test the application.