In my local area, we were able to get a mile or so with line of sight. And the price (less than 50 for 2) without soldering is a pretty good deal for a beginner. It also comes with a case.
You can also get the www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTXL61LY?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_… or add in a battery later on. Its meant to be a beginners kit because you an check to see if it works easily and its upgrade-able in almost all parts. We have close to 20 members in our local group (its a whole lot of fun) and almost everyone starts with one of these.
Its more for testing it out to make sure it works. But yeah I have an outdoor one and an indoor one. So I can message and receive pretty easy plus help the local network.
Meshtastic is neat and I always contemplate building a node for fun. However, I’ve yet to see many practical uses for it beyond maybe texting while hiking.
Well I had many blogs about how to add sensors etc. Mostly I personally use it as walkie talkie but also I have seen people use it as a tracker for pets, and motion sensors at home maybe. I use it for temp sensor in each room in a handheld and I will take out for hikes etc.
Seems like this could be very useful if in a country with poor communication systems or a wartorn area. Also worth saving (print it out perhaps) if in the US and Trump becomes king.
It’s best use is alternative communications in a disaster, where the mobile network is affected. Or if a dictator decides to shut it off during a protest.
Overall it could work well as a communications means for activists in street protests since these often overload networks by sheer volume of users concentrated in one spot.
Meshtastic utilizes LoRa, a long-range radio protocol, which is widely accessible in most regions without the need for additional licenses or certifications, unlike HAM radio operations.
Mmm.
Long range (254km record by kboxlabs)
Generally-speaking, range and data rate tend to move inversely with each other. What’s the data rate?
ZOON can reach up to the data speed of 256Kbps which is suitable for drone and other robotics applications. The speed is highest for modems that use LoRa chirp spread spectrum in the market. The data speed can range from 256Kbps to 0.5Kbps.
LoRa is a very flexible modulation scheme, that can provide relatively fast data transfers up to 253 kbit/s. Conversely, the parameters can be configured in a way that will result in a very low data rate, all the way down to a mere 11 bits per second. This will in turn result in a large processing gain for the receiver, and therefore much longer range of the transmission.
So, there are obviously interesting applications for a radio data network that you can build out yourself without restrictions. But for most day-to-day stuff that I use, the considerably-higher data rates provided by cell phone networks are preferable.
Skimming online, it looks like one group that is really excited about LoRA are hikers, because it gives them the ability to at least get a text message out with their location if they run into trouble in areas outside cell range, and it’s a lot cheaper than having satellite phones. That sounds like a good application.
I can also imagine a lot of interesting things you could do on a farm, do wireless control of equipment and such.
Or with some robots that need to receive occasional commands or send position updates, but don’t need much in the way of bandwidth.
But I’m not sure how many people have an application for which this is a great solution.
CalTopos Viewshed layer is also a handy tool, it’s purely viewshed so no RSSI calculations, but it’s great for figuring out where a good spot for an antenna would be.
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