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Meshtastic is open source project that uses cheap LoRa radios to create a mesh network that can be used to send messages over long distances without the internet.
↯ I collect Meshtastic-related resources on my bookmarks site.
They are "long range" radio chips. They cost anywhere between about $12 to $75 depending on how much work you want to do. There are some that are just chips with antennas sticking out of them. There are others that are intended for purposes like monitoring foot traffic in retail locations. And there are a few that are built to look basically like a Blackberry.
Most of them do Bluetooth and some also do Wifi.
To get started, I got the H1 kit from muzi.works because it has a battery, case and big antenna all-in-one. For a first timer, this was a good choice because the chip came pre-flashed with the Meshtastic firmware, and all I had to do was turn it on.
(muzi.works sells a variety of Meshtastic supplies, including other cool radio kits.)
After a while, I wanted more nodes so that I could actually send and receive messages, so I picked up a few more Heltec v3 chips. I got mine directly from Heltec, which took about a month. A friend printed me some Nibbler cases. I connected each radio to my laptop over USB-c and flashed them with the Meshtastic firmware in the browser. Each one only takes a few minutes to set up. In about half an hour, I had my own local mesh up and running.
Now I can send messages back and forth between my radios. I am not quite close enough to other radios to reliably connect to the wider Austin mesh. However, this hasn't stopped me from having fun with the technology.
I attached a mesh node to my drone. This was a fun afternoon project where I connected one node to a drone and sent it up a few hundred feet, then connected to it with a land-based node and sent messages across town.
I wandered around Chicago and found lots of nodes. Almost like a hide and seek game, I was looking for other players out there in the spectrum. I sent and received a few messages.
Meshtastic is a firmware that runs on the LoRa chip. The one I bought came pre-installed. You install the Meshtastic app on your phone. It connects to the Meshtastic device over bluetooth. In the app, you can see the other Meshtastic radios near by on a map! Then you can send messages directly to those radios, or to the default channel, which is basically public.
Being able to send messages to folks nearby without the internet (and without corporations mediating those messages) is very appealing to me. I would love to be able to message with my friends using distributed tech that doesn't require travelling over IP networks. It is also possible to imagine disaster scenarios where the power and internet may be down, and sending messages this way could be useful. This is Texas, the grid could explode at any second.
Personally, I think it is cool to have a tiny long range radio beacon that can theoretically send messages... It is very interesting to explore the local radio spectrum and see what is happening. Like a Flipper Zero, it is another way to interact with the invisible world.
But so far I have only sent and received a few messages, and those were mostly of the "Does this work?" variety. There are not a ton of people yet so the mesh doesn't have a ton of traffic.
But this would be SUPER COOL if a lot more people got on board, or at an event like Def Con in Vegas where there might be a bunch of people on the mesh at once.
Meshtastic is definitely still in a wild west stage. Anyone in range can send you a message, and there doesn't seem to be a way to block people. The public default channel is also unmoderated. It is also possible to share location details over Meshtastic, and while interesting to see where certain nodes are located, it could be dangerous to share your location this way with strangers.
Welllllllll, it is common practice to use the same default key to encrypt all channels, so this only really counts if you control the key for your channel.
I was delighted to find an active discord and a bunch of folks in Austin working to build and expand the mesh in town. They've got a bunch of solar powered nodes running, and have done a lot to build a good community. Check it out -> AustinMesh.org