this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2025
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This Tiny Radio Lets Me Send Texts Without Wi-Fi or Cell Service (www.howtogeek.com)
submitted 2 days ago by jwr1@kbin.earth to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] pezhore@infosec.pub 32 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It is cool! The barrier to entry is relatively low. The only thing to really worry about is:

  1. What band/frequency is appropriate for you country.
  2. Are there others around to which you can connect?

If there's not a lot of people around it's not the end of the world. Nodes can connect over the Internet via MQTT servers. Yes, this defeats the purpose of having an offline/decentralized communication platform, but it is a good stop gap until more nodes are put up.

Here's a sample of what I can see in a somewhat large-ish Midwest City in the US (there's about 63 nodes I can reach by hopping through relays).

[–] themadcodger@kbin.earth 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I got mine recently in a dxent aized city and while there are plenty of nodes popping up on the map, the local channel is pretty quiet. Is that normal?

[–] pezhore@infosec.pub 5 points 2 days ago

Yep, that can be normal. For my city, the local group has a private (but free to join) channel that's a bit more active.

Do a web search for meshtastic and your city and see if one pops up.

[–] brunoqc@piefed.ca 3 points 2 days ago

I don't know. It's the same for me but I got a pretty bad reception. The only time I saw some messages was when someone was sending some from a plane, so I guess it was a special occasion.

[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Where'd you get that map from?

[–] pezhore@infosec.pub 3 points 1 day ago

The official meshtastic app has a map view that shows all known nodes.