My dad was a ham radio operator, so I spent a good chunk of my childhood tearing down rigs and building antennas with him. By the time I was old enough to break things on my own, I was compiling Linux kernels with AX.25 support just to mess around with packet radio.
Truth is, RF is more magic than science. You can do the math all day, but physics always gets a vote in the end.
I have been watching LoRa for a while now for wide-area sensor data. The “IoT” label is a bit overused, but the actual race between power and range is fascinating, especially with things like Starlink changing the game for global coverage.
Why Meshtastic?
Meshtastic is easily the most interesting thing in this space right now. It offers a decentralized emergency network capability with a much lower barrier to entry than traditional amateur radio. It is resilient, practical, and effective.
I am getting a repeater setup at the house to help the local network grow. I am also hooking it into my Home Assistant for some off-grid automation experiments.
The Hardware Stack
Here is the hardware I am currently putting through the paces:
- RAK19007 WisBlock Base Board: My go-to dev board for testing and modularity.
- WisMesh Tag: A solid, compact option for portable use cases.
- Wio Tracker 11: Testing this for more specialized tracking applications.
You can check out the full project at meshtastic.org.
If you are running nodes in your area, I would love to hear what hardware you are finding the most reliable for long-term mesh stability.
Hardware Gallery
