So help me out here. I've heard of meshtastic, I've seen a few videos on radios, not too much more than that.
I tinker. I'm a "has to many hobbies" hobby collector.
Please, piss off my significant other, and tell me why I should get into this?
this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2025
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Lol, I'm the same way. Meshtastic is the hobby of the month and it's been fun so far.
Here a few reasons I'm liking it:
- Learn more about radio frequencies
- Off-grid communication, while hiking, camping, hunting etc
- Communication and location updates in areas with poor cell service (concerts, music festivals, travel, boating, etc)
- Emergency preparedness
- In my area the broadcast channel is pretty active, so a community of like minded people to chat with
- Fun little devices you get to burn money on (I have 4 pre-made and parts for 4 more I'll make myself on the way)
if everyone uses giant high gain antennas mounted high, how long do you think it will be before all the channels are completely congested and rendered useless?
this happened to packet radio in the 80s/90s
Thats the thing, most people are doing to have a little pocket node to carry around and a much smaller percentage of people will go for rooftop nodes. I do think that Meshtastic could do a better job of letting people know what settings to use for their area and type of node. In busy areas with lots of rooftop nodes, having more people on client-mute helps keep congestion low.
Baymesh has stepped down from long fast to med slow and now we're at MF with ~30% utilization. With 2.7.13 disabling telemetry this should come down a bit further.
Hopefully thos buys us enough time until we have better forwarding algos.
This is a 5.8 dBi antenna though so it's reasonable. The real problem are 8-12 dBis
you need a power control algorithm too, though, not just forwarding algorithm
Make sure you try a low dBi antenna. Some of us have found worse results with 5dBi+ antennas compared to 2dBi.
What antenna are you using?
I'm a ham radio nerd and antennas are fascinating to me
Its a RAK 5.8dBi Fiberglass Antenna I got from Rokland. I'm just getting into all of this recently so I've got a lot to learn, but it's a fun process!