To be frank I want to jump into it, set up a relay node in my shed with a decent antenna, I just can't find the time to do it..
And there are so many options on how to build a node, I likely have choice paralysis/overload.
this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2025
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I don't have any suggestion for the node itself, but you should use a 3dbi antenna so that you keep a circular radiation pattern. If you use a high-gain antenna, it will cause you to not be able to talk with nodes that have a significant elevation change from you, such as airplane flights.
Thanks for the info :)
Do you have a link with info on different antennas and pattern characteristics?
I started reading about Meshtastic yesterday, and got an urge to set up a node even if (according to some maps) no one is near me. But then I started wondering, if I could reach another node, what could I do with that connection? What is it used for? Is it more about technically being able to send messages without an ISP. Do people use this for any real application?
It's basically a local chat program. Think of it like signal or text messaging, but that only happens locally in your area, unless you enable MQTT, which connects it to the internet. But in my opinion, at least that kind of defeats the purpose, especially if you can reach other nodes locally. You could enable MQTT to add yourself to MeshMap.net if you wish. But that's an opt-in process. And so, if you're looking at MeshMap.net, you may see nobody in your area when there actually are people using it.
I see! Thank you, that's hopeful then. Is it designed to be very local area, or is that just the way it is now? Could it one day be used in a more general way beyond chat?
That really depends on the nodes you have around you. If everyone is sitting in their houses with small Keychain nodes your mesh will never reach more than a few miles. But if you add a few key nodes in high places with good antenna then each hop of the mesh can easily reach 10+ miles. Even with the default 3-hop limit I've hit a town 60 miles away from me.
This thread is my first introduction to mesh and am curious if it might be worth investigating further. I looked at the map above and see that my nearest "neighbour" is about 900km away, then I see your post where you seem happy that you got 60 miles. I guess things would be quite for me for a looong time if I built a node.
People have made BBS's with it, like from the 1990s, and there are some very limited games you can play over the mesh, such as Mesh Tac Toe. Look up TC2 BBS and Specfive.
When I got a node, I learned there are actually quite a few more people in my area than meshmap suggests, because there is a state based MQTT server that most people in this area use. It also means I'm still chatting somewhat locally, but hitting a much wider net than a purely local radio could.
Most don't upload their location to any of the node maps,l
I would use the default if you want to connect to other random nodes.
Changing it makes sense for private meshes, not for joining the public though.
Well, eventually some people are going to have to change, especially those in suburban or urban areas will probably need to go into at least medium or short range modes just due to the density of nodes. I live in a small city (~50k pops) and was just checking around to see if anybody else was in one of the faster modes. But at least as of yet, I don't see anybody. So for now, long fast is fine, but there will come a day when it no longer will be.
Yeah I don't think meshtastic is the right choice for dense areas, even on faster methods it will quickly get overloaded.
From what I understand, you can have several hundred nodes easily on the fast modes. That is definitely a quick overload compared to your traditional cell phone network. But there are not that many people with Meshtastic and not that many events where the super fast modes are even required. Even in large metropolitan areas, I'm only seeing upwards of 30 or 40 people on MeshMap, and obviously that's not showing everybody because that's opt-in, but that would still be well within the range of the fast modes.
Am I wrong to think that while meshtastic is still in its infancy there are other applications aside from just chatting? For example there is the whole element where you can have devices send useful information to a script that is outside of the internet. For example location data, events, weather even things like ATAK.
Don't get me wrong it's great to chat with people but this isn't meant to replace something like the internet
Yeah, that's definitely something you can do. Although I have not personally done so.
There's no one on long fast where I live
How high is your node?
I live on a hill, mostly above the city.
I've tried 3db and 5db antennas. Also walking around the city.
Verified my nodes work and can talk to each other.
Occasionally get an unknown node from a passing train or a message from a flight.
I think there's just no users here tbh. South east England.
I think a lot of the UK has gone over to meshcore but at least personally I wouldn't use it because the app is not open source and I refuse to use anything that's not open source if I can at all avoid it. https://meshcore.co.uk/
Also, keep your antenna game down. That 3DBI is fine. And even the 5DBI is okay. But much higher than that. And you'll start to see problems with elevation changes. Not wanting to let your nodes communicate.
Depends where you are, I guess. Where I live, we use MediumFast, though first I had to find this information, in order to switch from LongFast. Maybe there are some meshtastic groups in your area? (like in Matrix/Reddit/Facebook groups)
I know for a fact there's quite a few nodes on long fast around here. But I don't know if nodes are on any other presets or not.
I used MeshMap.net to figure out what people were using in my area. Although for now it's still long fast.