Life hack - many Commercial building have HVAC units with receptacles available with 24/7 power. $7 usb-C plug and you got node in your area, typically high and always powered.
I learned more about this subject in the first 5 minutes of your video, than all the countless other video's I have watched, from other channels combined. Great video, thank you.
I have 5 of them and have played with them. Pretty cool. I picked up a couple 10w solar panels and plan on putting 3 of them in a weatherproof box and use an antenna extension cable and use them as repeaters in strategic locations so the other 2 can mesh to them and cover a ton of ground.
These nodes are becoming so popular it’s crazy. Used to be able to get them in 2 days but now it’s more like a month. I have 6 heltec, 2 T beams, and a T Echo with 4 more heltecs and 2 more T Beams on the way. I’ve been setting them up all over town here in Jeff City MO. I like your post this morning about being supportive of the new guys in the group so I’m spending my morning watching your videos.
New to meshtastic and this video really breaks it down clearly for me. We will soon have 3 nodes running and need many more to manage the terrain in our area. Thanks for the great video.
I Set up my first node today. It's working well, not a lot of nodes in my area but thankfully I am repurposing a Helium mining antenna so my Heltec is reaching out there.
I saw LoRa a few years ago and was very happy a few weeks ago to see that open source Meshtastic has made LoRa a usable technology that's now exploding. I'm setting up a three node e-comm network for my brother and sister, each 2.5 miles from me. The solar panels arrived yesterday. The 8.5 dBi collinear antennas arrive tomorrow. Now that the Chinese New Year celebration has ended, hopefully my WisBlocks will ship today. I'm designing a custom enclosure to print. 🙂
TU Gil, I shared this video to a local ERC (Emergency responce communications) team I think they will like this and will also encourage the ones that are not intrested in becoming a HAM as you said.
Great idea! Nobody in my county of 130,000 is using it. No nodes. Using an online node map locator, I see several in Seattle, but it's 65 miles away and too many hills for my node to see.
I've been playing around with these for a few days and am looking forward to trying to send some off-grid messages back to base via the mesh from a remote location around 450m ASL in Wales. I have found the Meshtastic app to be rather unstable on older Android devices and Traceroute seldom seems to work, but maybe future updates will fix at least the latter issue. I have added my base device (Heltec V3) to my IOT WiFi network rather than use it via Bluetooth (seems more responsive for both the app and web client). Early days with my experimentation, but looks promising - a good addition to the prepper kit and a bit of fun too - yet to look at the network's resilience to D.O.S type attacks etc. but if nothing else, a good substitute for SMS in areas where there's no mobile signal or the networks are down. All the best.
@@RadioPrepper - Meshtastic app update today appears to have fixed the instability issues with my older Android devices, which is great as I can dedicate an old Lenovo tablet as a Meshtastic interface at the base station. Cheers.
I just got my first one flashed and am waiting on my second one. We shall see how it works!! Better to have something than to have nothing. It also will work on phones with no service (old smart phones that sit in a drawer).
Please dont forget us down here in Australia - were using 915MHz too - hoping, when experience allows to have an MQTT mesh to connect to the rest of the planet. Also hoping to setup some solar nodes but stressing about reliability of RAK wisbloks at this time - I keep hearing bad things!
I'd heard that the WisBlocks are the most reliable of the LoRa devices. The only complaint I've read is that a brown out power loss requires a manual reset, but a large enough solar panel and battery pack on such a low power device should avoid that problem. I'm using 6W solar panels and banks of four 18650 batteries for each node.
very interesting had never heard of this format so you log on it with your phone type your message which is sent on radio waves in a way is it like packet on ham radio ???
Thanks for this interesting topic! I am following Andy Kirby and Ringway Manchester a while now, also about this theme ... was wondering about the frequency choice, what would be the best for us here at continental europe, so 868 MHz should be the "better one" for us ... ok ... I am thinking about dropping some cheap devices in repeater mode (without any display or GPS chip) in the "wilderness" here ... vy73 from Hamburg/Germany, Dietmar, DL4HAO
Nice seeing a video from you on Meshtastic! Last week I was looking into this, quite curious about it. Tomorrow I'm receiving my first T-Beam, same model you have, got it from Passion-Radio. Being from Reunion Island, I'm not sure there are users around here, but I'll see. If there isn't much activity, I'd be curious to try the MQTT stuff. Later I'll get a second device, probably a RAK so I can do a nice outside installation with a fixed antenna, couple 18650s and a small solar panel maybe. And then I'll test the range between the two.
Noob here, great infovideo thnx v much, since you talk about prepping my Q: Say for example the internet and electricity are down will you be still able to communicate? provided you have some alternative electricity source
@@RadioPrepper Wow ..well I don't want to sound pessimistic but the idea of a total internet/electricity shutdown is not a far fetched fantasy anymore seeing what is happening east of our borders in other words in a doom scenario can be a life saver. What is your advice for the most basic starters kit to build some knowledge and understanding of the system?
Chicken and egg. The sooner people start, the faster a network develops. One of the fundamental rules of information theory is that a network's utility is a function of the number of nodes. One node, and you're talking to yourself, which isn't very useful.
RP - I like your mic cable snake. "The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants. (Le bien-être du peuple en particulier a toujours été l’alibi des tyrans.)" -Albert Camus
This was a super helpful video, thanks! Can you help me understand something? How does the phone communicate with the node? Only Bluetooth? Or just Wi-Fi? The reason I ask is because if it is either of those, it seems like I always need to have a node with me? I guess I am trying to understand the limitations of the phone to node distance, as opposed to the node to distance. Thank you!
@@vinny142 just my two cents, but Meshtastic does not rely on any centralised system that can go down and instantly break the whole network. It simply meshes devices together into a device-to-device network, so each of them can help extend the range of the others around. Unlike the phone, or internet, if the provider goes down, it's all gone. It just happenned a few weeks ago where I live after a cyclone. Annoying. So I don't know if using the word off grid is good or not here, but according to Wikipedia's definition, looks like it does. "off-grid is a characteristic of buildings and a lifestyle designed in an independent manner without reliance on one or more public utilities." from Wikipedia, mentioning "public utilities". Then if you want something that has an unlimited range from point to point without any relaying, well there is still ham radio, providing the best atmospheric conditions for a contact, appropriately sized antennas and everything. But that's something else entirely. Different systems for different usecases.
How good is it in relaying text messages across countries??? like for instance from Britain to Greece or Australia? Also, it seems that if each ship and sailboat crossing the Atlantic would have such a device on their mast, then (because they are mostly using the same route, ships and sailboats are always only a few miles apart from each other) they would have constant connection to latest weather reports and marine traffic data. Then there would be no need for AIS, Iridium or unaffordable Starlink.
@@RadioPrepper Interesting that you think that it wouldn't work in the ocean. It seems it has more potential than AIS tech if you add a blockchain-like database capabilities to nodes (plus packet sorting algorithm); and/or introduce a few satellites to the network or super-nodes broadcasting across vast distances. At anchor, yes definitely - it'll work as it is now. Actually, I can see it becoming a thing within cruiser subculture: arrive at the dock, announce yourself and that you have a bottle of rum, anyone with coke and ice is welcome. And it's on.
@@RadioPrepper ...additionally, you can place HF antennas in Cabo Verde, Guadeloupe, Bermuda and Azores that repeat the latest versions of the packets across vast distances, while the receiving vessels form temporary local networks among themselves sharing information P2P through bittorrent like protocols.
The curvature of the Earth will get in the way.. You might get tropospheric ducting propagation occasionally, but not reliably. I doubt long distances would be practical. It has to be line-of-sight. Mast top to mast top can be quite far, but crossing oceans, unlikely...
Right now Im testing between 2 units that I own. How do you find others in the area? And range test setting seems to do nothing...I need to research how to use that setting.
Interesting way of communicating. Does it have any store and forward capabilities or must sending and receiving phones be on and connected when the message is sent? I've read that this system is limited to 300 nodes.
No message storage. That's the weak point. It wouldn't take much protocol change to wait for a clear path to the recipient and then transmit a stored message but that may violate some communications laws pertaining to unattended or automated stations?
Question, must some of these Meshtastic / LoRa devices be specially configured to be a repeater? or repeater mode. or do they do their own thing by itself. Will it auto relay / repeat and extend the "zone" for extra coverage if more LoRA (or meshtastic Heltec devices get powered up in the region.)?
I bit the bullet before the inflation. I bought one for my truck and one for my house. The one for my house is installed . Not yet with the truck. I saw this video and decided to check the one for the antenna cause before they didn’t have one. When I saw the one for the motorcycle price it went up crazy!!!! How such a small piece cost so much!!
i would like to get a Meshtastic but would like a ready out of the box or almost ready out of the box unit. Can i get pre soldered unit? And assembled ?
There isn't generally any soldering needed, other than maybe a battery pack and solar panel and you could use crimp connectors for those if you bought a pre-soldered battery pack.
dommage jai âs tout compris car pas tres doue en anglais mais se systeme a l'air sympas le peu que jai compris mais j'attend avec impatience la version en francais pour mieux comprendre le principe
I tried to mix the devices and they will not talk to each other unless they are at the same speed, it would be great if it could change speeds to allow better distance..@@RadioPrepper
Too bad I would need about 200km range. If the signal is extended by other users, can they see and manipulate my messages?Or does it work like WhatsApp, where everyone has their own account and only sends what is sent to selected accounts?Thanks
@@RadioPrepperThank you for the info, that sounds good.🙏🏻 The only weak point for me is the range. I would need 200 km for my relatives. But maybe there will be a solution soon🤷🏼
@@RadioPrepper I didn't know the Heltec and the others had charging circuitry built into them, and I was hoping to charge the batteries outside of the device, as well.
@@RadioPrepper We use 915MHz in ZL and that is in the ISM band so there are no rules apart from power limits. I do know that in some countries the security services get bent out of shape due to the encryption.
@@RadioPrepper Yeah, the manufacturers who read this might want to sell more units, but I’d rather spend the extra money on a hardened model if they decided to build one.
@@audiomaker1 - Good luck making an EMP hardened electronic device that is connected to an antenna. Spare transceivers are definitely the way to go, and LoRa hardware is cheap enough to do that.
Yes. Rattlegram works. It's different, and has It's place too. In Maui Hawaï during the fires, it was clear that UHF/VHF with their repeaters were either "down" or full of people shouting. A text is much clearer and, i find, the SMS is sent in 4 seconds. If it's received, it's clear.
@@PeterJavea SMS is also far more bandwidth efficient than voice. In most places, when there's an area wide emergency, the authorities say to use text instead of voice, so the towers don't get overloaded.
I like gadgets and all but this is some J6er crap. The useful range is bad, the infrastructure has to be supplied by the user. And its easy to jam. All these meshtastic videos are just cash grabs using monetized links. Again it's a cool gadget but real world its junk. Might work well for cartels and criminals in certain situations. But would fail in a fubar situations. Your screams have a longer range.
What's J6? Anyway, it's a cool gadget anyway for those of us interested in radio, especially small data packets over radio, including hops. I could say I was interested in hops, but that's a different interest!
Life hack - many Commercial building have HVAC units with receptacles available with 24/7 power. $7 usb-C plug and you got node in your area, typically high and always powered.
I learned more about this subject in the first 5 minutes of your video, than all the countless other video's I have watched, from other channels combined.
Great video,
thank you.
Thanks for a very informative video. I just learned about Meshtastic yesterday and am watching every UA-cam I can find about it.
Really? I’m 5 minutes in and have no idea what practical use this has.
I have 5 of them and have played with them. Pretty cool. I picked up a couple 10w solar panels and plan on putting 3 of them in a weatherproof box and use an antenna extension cable and use them as repeaters in strategic locations so the other 2 can mesh to them and cover a ton of ground.
These nodes are becoming so popular it’s crazy. Used to be able to get them in 2 days but now it’s more like a month. I have 6 heltec, 2 T beams, and a T Echo with 4 more heltecs and 2 more T Beams on the way. I’ve been setting them up all over town here in Jeff City MO. I like your post this morning about being supportive of the new guys in the group so I’m spending my morning watching your videos.
Cool. I haven't had much trouble getting them, but you have to be patient indeed..
New to meshtastic and this video really breaks it down clearly for me. We will soon have 3 nodes running and need many more to manage the terrain in our area. Thanks for the great video.
Fantastic video. The best intro to meshtastic on UA-cam! You earned a sub!
I Set up my first node today. It's working well, not a lot of nodes in my area but thankfully I am repurposing a Helium mining antenna so my Heltec is reaching out there.
Took me several hours to buy today,getting very popular!!!
I saw LoRa a few years ago and was very happy a few weeks ago to see that open source Meshtastic has made LoRa a usable technology that's now exploding. I'm setting up a three node e-comm network for my brother and sister, each 2.5 miles from me. The solar panels arrived yesterday. The 8.5 dBi collinear antennas arrive tomorrow. Now that the Chinese New Year celebration has ended, hopefully my WisBlocks will ship today. I'm designing a custom enclosure to print. 🙂
Me too, waiting on two Wisblock!
Range in town up to 10km,open area up to 50-100km under normal conditions and a small eightwood antenna ! Meshtastic is an amazing “toy” 😊
Another toy 🚗
for the toy box 📦.
Much more than a toy..
@@RadioPrepper It's for messaging......
I'm going to be setting a few up this week in Eugene Springfield and the McKenzie Oregon.
TU Gil, I shared this video to a local ERC (Emergency responce communications) team I think they will like this and will also encourage the ones that are not intrested in becoming a HAM as you said.
Great!
The maximum range has been 254km mountain to mountain with LOS between omni antennas. RAK boards are more energy efficient and better made, IMHO.
... and without mountains range is like "less that wifi"?
@@stalin200000 I get up to 5 km in a semi rural area using a small quality omni antenna. Depends on terrain, definately better than wifi.
Danke!
Thanks, much appreciated!
Great idea! Nobody in my county of 130,000 is using it. No nodes. Using an online node map locator, I see several in Seattle, but it's 65 miles away and too many hills for my node to see.
So you'll be the first!
I've been playing around with these for a few days and am looking forward to trying to send some off-grid messages back to base via the mesh from a remote location around 450m ASL in Wales. I have found the Meshtastic app to be rather unstable on older Android devices and Traceroute seldom seems to work, but maybe future updates will fix at least the latter issue. I have added my base device (Heltec V3) to my IOT WiFi network rather than use it via Bluetooth (seems more responsive for both the app and web client).
Early days with my experimentation, but looks promising - a good addition to the prepper kit and a bit of fun too - yet to look at the network's resilience to D.O.S type attacks etc. but if nothing else, a good substitute for SMS in areas where there's no mobile signal or the networks are down.
All the best.
Indeed, thanks!
@@RadioPrepper - Meshtastic app update today appears to have fixed the instability issues with my older Android devices, which is great as I can dedicate an old Lenovo tablet as a Meshtastic interface at the base station. Cheers.
I just got my first one flashed and am waiting on my second one. We shall see how it works!! Better to have something than to have nothing. It also will work on phones with no service (old smart phones that sit in a drawer).
Got the second one. Range test to follow.
Was not aware of this system. Very interesting! Gonna have to try it out, thanks Gil!
Thank you sir for the education on this device.
Please dont forget us down here in Australia - were using 915MHz too - hoping, when experience allows to have an MQTT mesh to connect to the rest of the planet. Also hoping to setup some solar nodes but stressing about reliability of RAK wisbloks at this time - I keep hearing bad things!
I'd heard that the WisBlocks are the most reliable of the LoRa devices. The only complaint I've read is that a brown out power loss requires a manual reset, but a large enough solar panel and battery pack on such a low power device should avoid that problem. I'm using 6W solar panels and banks of four 18650 batteries for each node.
great introduction video about meshtastic.....you earned a new sub thanks!
Well done Sir.
The comms channel has very comprehensive tutorials on meshtastic as well as does Austin meshtastic group.
Subscribed again today.
73
very interesting had never heard of this format so you log on it with your phone type your message which is sent on radio waves in a way is it like packet on ham radio ???
In case you somehow attach speach recognition and speach synthesis on the receiving side, it will be possible to speak to one another.
Thanks Gil, I need to learn more but my brain it too busy now. Lol
Thnx buddy. :)
qrv 433 since few minutes lol, pending 800 Tbeam soon ;-) , I wish it will get some QSOs 🙂thx for inspiring videos (y) 73 from Valbonne
Super, nous sommes plus nombreux sur le 868 dans le coin..
Good job Gil..!
Thank you! Long time no see, I hope you are doing well 😀
Thanks for this interesting topic! I am following Andy Kirby and Ringway Manchester a while now, also about this theme ... was wondering about the frequency choice, what would be the best for us here at continental europe, so 868 MHz should be the "better one" for us ... ok ... I am thinking about dropping some cheap devices in repeater mode (without any display or GPS chip) in the "wilderness" here ... vy73 from Hamburg/Germany, Dietmar, DL4HAO
868 is legal in the EU, there is 433 but most people use 868..
Nice seeing a video from you on Meshtastic! Last week I was looking into this, quite curious about it. Tomorrow I'm receiving my first T-Beam, same model you have, got it from Passion-Radio. Being from Reunion Island, I'm not sure there are users around here, but I'll see. If there isn't much activity, I'd be curious to try the MQTT stuff. Later I'll get a second device, probably a RAK so I can do a nice outside installation with a fixed antenna, couple 18650s and a small solar panel maybe. And then I'll test the range between the two.
Awesome! I will make a video on building a repeater..
@@RadioPrepper That would be great! Looking forward to it!
really interesting Gil...
Is this a device you have to build yourself from a kit? It sounds like a great added later to åsafety and emcomm
Not a kit..
Noob here, great infovideo thnx v much, since you talk about prepping my Q: Say for example the internet and electricity are down will you be still able to communicate? provided you have some alternative electricity source
Yes, that's what it's for..
@@RadioPrepper Wow ..well I don't want to sound pessimistic but the idea of a total internet/electricity shutdown is not a far fetched fantasy anymore seeing what is happening east of our borders in other words in a doom scenario can be a life saver. What is your advice for the most basic starters kit to build some knowledge and understanding of the system?
I would say, get a couple Heltec V3..
s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Deq7dYz
I've got a couple of these so far, and I'm really excited to see adoption in the sailing community.
I will definitely put one on my sailboat.
Merci Beaucoup mon ami !
I would love to try this out but things look pretty scarce in the US...
Chicken and egg. The sooner people start, the faster a network develops. One of the fundamental rules of information theory is that a network's utility is a function of the number of nodes. One node, and you're talking to yourself, which isn't very useful.
But it’s really important you’re using an device with an 1262 chip (more power)
RP - I like your mic cable snake. "The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants. (Le bien-être du peuple en particulier a toujours été l’alibi des tyrans.)" -Albert Camus
10:17 10:21 10:22 10:23
Hey Gil, since you're also a drone guy, can you make a video with a LoRa on a drone, to see how far the signal travels? Cheers.
Not sure it's legal here, I need to check..
This was a super helpful video, thanks! Can you help me understand something? How does the phone communicate with the node? Only Bluetooth? Or just Wi-Fi? The reason I ask is because if it is either of those, it seems like I always need to have a node with me? I guess I am trying to understand the limitations of the phone to node distance, as opposed to the node to distance. Thank you!
Only Bluetooth yes. Some nodes have WiFi, but the setup is a pain..
@@RadioPrepper Thanks!
It relies on the presence of other Meshtastic units within range?
It can use them to relay messages to extend the range. Ironically this means it is an ON-grid system, but don't let the preppers hear that...
@@vinny142 just my two cents, but Meshtastic does not rely on any centralised system that can go down and instantly break the whole network. It simply meshes devices together into a device-to-device network, so each of them can help extend the range of the others around. Unlike the phone, or internet, if the provider goes down, it's all gone. It just happenned a few weeks ago where I live after a cyclone. Annoying.
So I don't know if using the word off grid is good or not here, but according to Wikipedia's definition, looks like it does. "off-grid is a characteristic of buildings and a lifestyle designed in an independent manner without reliance on one or more public utilities." from Wikipedia, mentioning "public utilities".
Then if you want something that has an unlimited range from point to point without any relaying, well there is still ham radio, providing the best atmospheric conditions for a contact, appropriately sized antennas and everything. But that's something else entirely. Different systems for different usecases.
Off-grid-power...
How good is it in relaying text messages across countries??? like for instance from Britain to Greece or Australia?
Also, it seems that if each ship and sailboat crossing the Atlantic would have such a device on their mast, then (because they are mostly using the same route, ships and sailboats are always only a few miles apart from each other) they would have constant connection to latest weather reports and marine traffic data. Then there would be no need for AIS, Iridium or unaffordable Starlink.
Useless for that because the number of hops is limited, currently 7. Also there would be always holes in the mesh. Great for sailors at anchor though.
@@RadioPrepper Interesting that you think that it wouldn't work in the ocean. It seems it has more potential than AIS tech if you add a blockchain-like database capabilities to nodes (plus packet sorting algorithm); and/or introduce a few satellites to the network or super-nodes broadcasting across vast distances.
At anchor, yes definitely - it'll work as it is now. Actually, I can see it becoming a thing within cruiser subculture: arrive at the dock, announce yourself and that you have a bottle of rum, anyone with coke and ice is welcome. And it's on.
@@RadioPrepper ...additionally, you can place HF antennas in Cabo Verde, Guadeloupe, Bermuda and Azores that repeat the latest versions of the packets across vast distances, while the receiving vessels form temporary local networks among themselves sharing information P2P through bittorrent like protocols.
The curvature of the Earth will get in the way.. You might get tropospheric ducting propagation occasionally, but not reliably. I doubt long distances would be practical. It has to be line-of-sight. Mast top to mast top can be quite far, but crossing oceans, unlikely...
hello
c'est très interessant comme systeme
Thanks.
Right now Im testing between 2 units that I own. How do you find others in the area? And range test setting seems to do nothing...I need to research how to use that setting.
What would you recomend for a hf,vhf,uhf scanner short of a hf transceiver? Thank great work
Sorry I don't know anything about scanners... Ask on radiopreppers.com
Interesting way of communicating. Does it have any store and forward capabilities or must sending and receiving phones be on and connected when the message is sent? I've read that this system is limited to 300 nodes.
No message storage. That's the weak point. It wouldn't take much protocol change to wait for a clear path to the recipient and then transmit a stored message but that may violate some communications laws pertaining to unattended or automated stations?
No idea, but that's a HAM rule, and Meshtastic isn't amateur radio. Yes that would be nice!
Thanks
Question, must some of these Meshtastic / LoRa devices be specially configured to be a repeater? or repeater mode. or do they do their own thing by itself. Will it auto relay / repeat and extend the "zone" for extra coverage if more LoRA (or meshtastic Heltec devices get powered up in the region.)?
They all repeat but those setup as repeaters get priority..
Kind of curious, is it possible to send a text via LORA from one side of the US to the other side?
Not with Meshtastic.
Nice video. I'm waiting for two t beams to arrive. Do you have a link for the file for the 3d case?
Hi, it's on thingiverse..
Man!!!!! That EMP shield went super expensive!
That's why I didn't buy one..
I bit the bullet before the inflation. I bought one for my truck and one for my house. The one for my house is installed . Not yet with the truck. I saw this video and decided to check the one for the antenna cause before they didn’t have one. When I saw the one for the motorcycle price it went up crazy!!!! How such a small piece cost so much!!
Salut Gilles vraiment cette capsules j'aimerais vraiment lavoir en français!!!
Elle est aussi en Français. Lisez la description..
Do you have a link to the stl for that t-beam case?
I think it was on Thingiverse. There are some cool ones on Printables by TonyG..
Does it have to use cell phone? What if there a power outage?
No, it is totally decentralised. You can recharge it with a small USB solar panel.
Hi
Where can I get the enclosure for this liligo TBeam please.
I've got one coming soon.
Thanks
Great,it's on Thingiverse. There are a few on Printables also.
i would like to get a Meshtastic but would like a ready out of the box or almost ready out of the box unit. Can i get pre soldered unit? And assembled ?
There isn't generally any soldering needed, other than maybe a battery pack and solar panel and you could use crimp connectors for those if you bought a pre-soldered battery pack.
They all are..
dommage jai âs tout compris car pas tres doue en anglais mais se systeme a l'air sympas
le peu que jai compris mais j'attend avec impatience la version en francais pour mieux comprendre le principe
C'est publié!
Have you tried changing to long slow to reach Marco?
Not yet..
I tried to mix the devices and they will not talk to each other unless they are at the same speed, it would be great if it could change speeds to allow better distance..@@RadioPrepper
Do you need different devices to use different speeds, or is it per channel?
it seems everything is sold out on their website
Which one?
@@RadioPrepperAll the Lilygo's
How frequently will the device need to have software upgrades?
It could be in your go bag but then have expired software and be useless.
It will always work within your group..
Too bad I would need about 200km range. If the signal is extended by other users, can they see and manipulate my messages?Or does it work like WhatsApp, where everyone has their own account and only sends what is sent to selected accounts?Thanks
The messages go right through and can be encrypted, in which case nobody without the key can read them.
@@RadioPrepperThank you for the info, that sounds good.🙏🏻
The only weak point for me is the range. I would need 200 km for my relatives. But maybe there will be a solution soon🤷🏼
@pfarraldcash6095 it depends if there are stations in between..
Owh, I found the english version
How does one charge those batteries?
Via the USB port.
@@RadioPrepper I didn't know the Heltec and the others had charging circuitry built into them, and I was hoping to charge the batteries outside of the device, as well.
Heltec not sure, but I'd say yes. RAK yes.
Would these still send texts from out of state with no cell service?
Only if there are a few nodes relaying your texts in between..
@@RadioPrepper what are the odds?
Distance?
@@RadioPrepper several states away for my son who works out of state a lot
Not going to work..
DOES THIS WORK ON ANDROID PHONES
Yes.
Sounds similar to APRS…
Note it is very cost effective. Uses very low power. Giles you could also hang it from your drone……
Not sure that's legal here, but yes!
@@RadioPrepper We use 915MHz in ZL and that is in the ISM band so there are no rules apart from power limits. I do know that in some countries the security services get bent out of shape due to the encryption.
I'll have to check that out here...
I was able to do over 200 miles distance between nodes.
I use the 868 ISM band in my aeroplane for PilotAware. Flarm also use this band. These are traffic awareness devices.
U dont need a license in US to keep FCC happy?
No.
This is so over my head.
You'd be surprised how easy it is once you get into it...
@@RadioPreppercan others read your text messages? And can they be blocked?
@terriwatson7925 yes, you can create a private chat room (channel).
Given you still need a smartphone, makes it useless for privacy purposes.
Why is that? You can use a tablet. You don't need an Internet connection. It's encrypted. You can use avdedicated device.
Hard to take advice on tech from someone who uses a Mac... but still a good video.
I'm a Unix sysadmin if that makes you feel better..
Now, if they could survive EMPs….
Have a spare in a Faraday cage..
@@RadioPrepper Yeah, the manufacturers who read this might want to sell more units, but I’d rather spend the extra money on a hardened model if they decided to build one.
@@audiomaker1 - Good luck making an EMP hardened electronic device that is connected to an antenna. Spare transceivers are definitely the way to go, and LoRa hardware is cheap enough to do that.
rattlegram
Yes. Rattlegram works. It's different, and has It's place too. In Maui Hawaï during the fires, it was clear that UHF/VHF with their repeaters were either "down" or full of people shouting. A text is much clearer and, i find, the SMS is sent in 4 seconds. If it's received, it's clear.
meshtastic s better, costs more expensve,just a different comm.@@PeterJavea
@@PeterJavea SMS is also far more bandwidth efficient than voice. In most places, when there's an area wide emergency, the authorities say to use text instead of voice, so the towers don't get overloaded.
just wait till you buy some of this meshtastic stuff online - Wait months for nothing to turn up from dodgy chinese companies... Says it all.
On which site? I had no problems on Aliexpress..
@@RadioPrepperLikewise, I have no issues with AliExpress either; fast delivery, import duty taken care of, cheap or free shipping to UK
I got mine in about a week or less from AliExpress. Some places offer 5 day shipping, some offer 8 day. At least to the UK.
I like gadgets and all but this is some J6er crap. The useful range is bad, the infrastructure has to be supplied by the user. And its easy to jam. All these meshtastic videos are just cash grabs using monetized links. Again it's a cool gadget but real world its junk. Might work well for cartels and criminals in certain situations. But would fail in a fubar situations. Your screams have a longer range.
I couldn't disagree more. Range is excellent, and it would be a great asset in an SHTF situation.
What's J6? Anyway, it's a cool gadget anyway for those of us interested in radio, especially small data packets over radio, including hops.
I could say I was interested in hops, but that's a different interest!
I guess you are able scream a few miles!... AND someone CAN here you!
✋73's🎙KD9OAM🎧