An Introduction to Meshtastic • Hacker News Board

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#41

Post by eth0up » Fri, May 08, 2026, 2:31 PM UTC

I recently received my ham (Technician) license. This was mostly a result of the state of conflict between various nations, but something I've long perceived as vital for community and individual resilience and stability in difficult times.

Many are using GMRS, as it provides easy access to the entire family for $10 over ten years and requires no test. But as does most UHF/VHF or line-of-sight comms, it relies heavily on repeaters.

My handle on meshtastic, LoRa, etc, is still first impression, but I know a lot is going on here, with compelling twists and alternatives in development, eg js8call?. I'm very interested, though haven't had time to learn anything yet.

Being in Florida, which is 1) a power island 2) a hurricane magnet and burgeoning tornado scape among other vulnerabilities, resilient backup comms seems more than prudent.

I've been procrastinating and distracted, but have had the idea of learning markdown and hugo, then making a Florida ham/mesh/LoRa/gmrs/etc website designed to be highly inclusive rather than exclusive, with the hopes of getting many involved.

I don't know much yet, but the whole mesh subject is objectively fascinating and promising. I went from not knowing AM/FM to ham in two weeks of study. I'm still patching and catching up, but seriously interested.

KR4KZI 73

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#42

Post by neilv » Fri, May 08, 2026, 2:31 PM UTC

I'd expect a group that cared about privacy and security... not to need a cookie consent dialog like that.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#43

Post by konart » Fri, May 08, 2026, 2:32 PM UTC

voidUpdate wrote: post #20

perarneng wrote: post #18

In russia they have limited internet now. something like mestastic is something everyone would need to make sure we could have communication even though someone tried to limit it.

Is russia densely populated enough to be able to make it work? Around me I'm having trouble getting a connection to any other nodes because there isn't a critical mass of other people running mesh nodes and there's a hill between me and the next city

https://meshmap.net

https://www.meshcoretel.ru/en/MOW/map

Maybe other maps too...

I thing Russia's main problem (not only with mesh) is that you have millions of people living in or near few cities and very few inbetween.

And those living "inbetween" typically have no money or time for things like mesh, they are struggling with simplier things.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#44

Post by srmatto » Fri, May 08, 2026, 2:36 PM UTC

varispeed wrote: post #26

Cyan488 wrote: post #8

I had never heard of this before, then last week I watched a video about it and was hooked. Now I'm seeing it everywhere! Meshtastic and Meshcore are both cool LoRa-based mesh text messaging that operate in an no-license-required band. While this limits your transmit power, it doesn't prohibit encryption - the inverse of most ham radio rules! Some cities have thriving communities of Meshtastic and/or Meshcore. You ca…

So you have the mesh and then what? Do people communicate to distribute prohibited anti-government propaganda or is it a network of people who otherwise be too shy to talk to each other by other means? What is the use case?

Digital Radio Hobbying, think HAM radio but with a microcontroller and apps.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#45

Post by srmatto » Fri, May 08, 2026, 2:39 PM UTC

boredatoms wrote: post #40

There was apparently drama, should we be using this or meshcore?

I would try to select based on the merits of the project and its adoption instead of drama.

For me the team behind meshtastic needs some help behind their approach to APIs, the app releases frequently break that contract and they probably just need a little help in that area to improve it.

Meshcore sounds compelling to me because it has that fixed vs dynamic target approach which I suspect is more true to the real world given folks are standing up solar powered radios attached to fixed points and then trying to send messages from their phones.

Edit: I guess meshcore isn't really a real project.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#46

Post by dmd » Fri, May 08, 2026, 2:39 PM UTC

varispeed wrote: post #26

Cyan488 wrote: post #8

I had never heard of this before, then last week I watched a video about it and was hooked. Now I'm seeing it everywhere! Meshtastic and Meshcore are both cool LoRa-based mesh text messaging that operate in an no-license-required band. While this limits your transmit power, it doesn't prohibit encryption - the inverse of most ham radio rules! Some cities have thriving communities of Meshtastic and/or Meshcore. You ca…

So you have the mesh and then what? Do people communicate to distribute prohibited anti-government propaganda or is it a network of people who otherwise be too shy to talk to each other by other means? What is the use case?

If you see this technology and think "wow! that solves [problem I already have]" - then it's great.

Otherwise, you buy a couple, set them up, spend a week or two sending very slow and unreliably forwarded messages that mostly amount to "hi! i have an ACME 32ABC radio! What do you have?", and then put it in a drawer or sell it on.

Just like ham radio, really.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#47

Post by mingus88 » Fri, May 08, 2026, 2:40 PM UTC

yardie wrote: post #38

I've been using Meshtastic for years. Still have a few Heltec v2 nodes running. It's been a lot of fun. It also encouraged me to get my HAM license since most of the local meshtastic/meshcore users are also in the radio clubs. It reminds me of the early internet. In the early 90s the entire list of URLs could fill a notebook. And it was my first exposure to P2P nets. Meshtastic is a bit like that where it doesn't wor…

Same. The internet isn’t fun anymore, and hasn’t been in a long time.

These local meshes remind me of BBS days. You have to know a few things to access it and the community is all the better for it.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#48

Post by itomato » Fri, May 08, 2026, 2:46 PM UTC

srmatto wrote: post #45

boredatoms wrote: post #40

There was apparently drama, should we be using this or meshcore?

I would try to select based on the merits of the project and its adoption instead of drama. For me the team behind meshtastic needs some help behind their approach to APIs, the app releases frequently break that contract and they probably just need a little help in that area to improve it. Meshcore sounds compelling to me because it has that fixed vs dynamic target approach which I suspect is more true to the real wo…

the merits of one are largely vibe-coded by one overly enthusiastic guy.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#49

Post by itomato » Fri, May 08, 2026, 2:47 PM UTC

Panda_ wrote: post #6

moffers wrote: post #4

I took a plunge into learning about mesh networks, specifically because I love the idea of p2p/decentralized systems of communication. To be honest, I was surprised to find that my expectations for “where we are at” with this type of technology was pretty off-base. For some reason I thought by now it would be straightforward to do a little more than text messaging over a truly public and decentralized off-internet me…

The Reticulum Network Stack is a more generic lora capable protocol. It is intended to run over almost any two way link so it's less bandwidth efficient per packet than Meshtastic but in return it gives you packet routing rather than flooding. It can be run over TCP, LoRa, WiFi, etc. https://reticulum.network/start.html has an overview and how to connect. There is a manual with a lot more information on how it works…

Reticulum has more to offer, it’s just not the welcome mat/filter the others are.

Chit-chat is one thing.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#50

Post by szszrk » Fri, May 08, 2026, 2:48 PM UTC

dewey wrote: post #19

Somewhat related thread from the past days https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47999636 that also discusses Reticulum which is an interesting project in the same space too. From what I could see the general vibe seems to be shifting from meshtastic to meshcore.io in the past months.

It's a natural direction to hop from Meshtastic to Meshcore.io as the community grows.

They are implemented a bit differently. The chatty nature of Meshtastic works very well in small groups, or unknown area, when you need to talk a bunch of your friends scattered during a trip, to monitor your tracktors on a large field, etc..

Then you try to scale it to a larger city and it just completely breaks. Then Meshcore.io enters the picture. Every larger community that switches says the same - it's a huge reliability difference. It also comes at a cost of some discipline and more infrastructure planning (repeater nodes).

The more I play with both the more I respect both projects.

As for Reticulum, I don't see it competing in the same category at all. It has much higher aspirations, but also it seems at the moment it's much less practical and popular.