Assuming you’ve looked at the other suggestions, keep in mind this is real GPS, no WiFi or cell assistance like your phone does. It only works if there’s proper GPS signal, which needs sky.
Also start pestering people in LongFast. :D If you’re in GTA by any chance, there’s many of us.
Make sure you try a low dBi antenna. Some of us have found worse results with 5dBi+ antennas compared to 2dBi.
Yeah, if you’re not too knowledgeable in RF, just try different antennas and see which ones get more nodes. I’m not so that’s what I did. :D
Those antennas might not be what you want. I’m on the 9th floor and used a plastic RAK dipole antenna with great reception catching nodes 15km away in urban environment. I then tried a couple of high gain antennas to see if I’d get better reception. The signal got worse. I was only able to connect to the closest, strongest nodes. Many of the further ones wouldn’t connect at all. It seems like the signal shape that the higher gain created made it more difficult to reach nodes that aren’t on the same height. If you haven’t thought of that, think about it, and either way test with regular 2dBi dipole.
It’s kinda both. There’s a common channel that everyone hears. Then there’s encrypted direct comm between any two radios. Then there’s privately encrypted channels for your own groups.
No rec about solar but I’ve seen cheap ones from Seeed. RAK also has em but they cost more. I have a small solar node from RAK but it was a bit expensive. Supremely made but expensive. I use it on my balcony.
Text in LongFast. People often don’t respond to DMs.
Yes. You can set a radius and you can also set the lon/lat to whatever you want.
Only if the node published their location and if it’s correct. Many people publish approximate locations.
It’ll probably work. I’d definitely setup a mesh if I lived on a farm. I put up a node on my balcony, 9th floor suburban environment, and people seem to be using it. I got some direct connections from 15km away. There’s also a guy 60km away across lake Ontario that’s connecting to my balcony node, but I’m sure he’s got a special antenna, likely directional.
Well you won’t be talkin’ that’s for sure! 😄
They should work as long as there’s no trees or buildings in the way. If there are, installing one up high, say the roof of a barn or on top of a silo should allow the rest to bounce off of it.
Do you have a link with info on different antennas and pattern characteristics?
People’s Meshtastic device has to be on, yes. They don’t have to have their phone connected to it. Once a phone is connected, the messages received since the last phone connection are transferred to the phone. There’s probably a limit to how many messages a device stores but it’s probably large.