I wasn’t planning on writing this article as Part 3 in our Meshtastic series, but a handful of questions came across my desk recently that I thought were insightful enough to wrestle with. These questions made me think a bit more about why I am interested in Meshtastic as a preparedness communication option for myself and why I think it is worth considering as at least part of any communications plan.
Many of the questions boiled down to something like, “Why would I consider this when ham or FRS or GRMS or whatever other radio technology exists?” That’s fair and rather than answer directly, I’ll just share the strengths of Meshtastic that have driven me to experiment with it:
- The devices that drive Meshtastic have very low power requirements and are easy to keep powered even when grid power is not an option. This is not necessarily true of all radio technologies.
- Meshtastic has fewer barriers to entry than many other radio options. The devices that populate the mesh tend to be affordable, costing as little as $40ish. It is also license-free which is a big deal for some users.
- Meshtastic offers native encryption. It is relatively private out-of-box and can be made even more private with some settings changes. There will be more on this later.
- Meshtastic feels, to me, a little more consumer-ready. Everyone sends text messages so, in my experience, family members easily pick it up.
Another concern that was raised is that Meshtastic requires the use of a secondary device like a cellphone. I think this concern has to do with two potential misunderstandings that the cell network is required or that the cellphone itself is always required as a front end.
The cell phone, when paired with a node, acts as the front end or user interface (UI) to make text entry and receiving easier. Meshtastic is not leveraging the cellular network to send texts unless the user gets into more advanced MQTT functionality. I think most people try to keep their cell phone powered in an emergency so this doesn’t seem like too onerous of a requirement if you choose a device that is not stand-alone.
That said, a cell phone isn’t even truly required as there are Meshtastic nodes that are stand-alone, allowing users to send and receive messages directly on the node. The options for stand-alone nodes and their UI are growing and I see this as a direction the market needs to go to see larger adoption of Meshtastic.
Finally, I had one person say they disregarded Meshtastic because the node maps that are available online do not show any nodes in their area. My answer to that would be two-fold.
First, it is important to understand that those maps only show nodes that report their location in a very specific way that the VAST majority of users do not do. The maps show only 1 node within 100 miles of my area and yet I have been able to ping more than 80 nodes. So, do not let the online node maps dissuade you from giving this a try as they do not represent the actual state of the mesh on the ground.
Second, your plan for Meshtastic may not need to include the larger mesh. This technology is very well suited to smaller, local groups – think small groups like neighbors, hunting parties, or similar. In fact, I think this is one of the best use cases for Meshtastic and it can be extremely practical and affordable to do with devices like the SenseCap T1000-E which I am currently working with for review so stay tuned.
I actually think the Sensecap T1000-E is an ideal place to start for most people. You can pick one up on Amazon cheaply. The antenna is well tuned and it will provide similar range to nodes with detachable antennas. If you decide to go all in, you won’t regret having it. Again, we will dive more deeply into this device later but for a node that just lets you see who is on the mesh in your area, it is hard to beat.
I appreciate your feedback and I suspect there may be more posts like this as I drag you all along while I learn Meshtastic.
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