What is Meshtastic.  As a beginner that’s complicated.  Have a look at Wikipedia and Youtube – this will take a while.

As far as I can tell it’s a public free to use volunteer mesh radio network.  People provide network nodes that connect to other network nodes creating a larger mesh of communication that can transfer simple text messages and small data blocks from one node to another node.  A bit like sending TXT messages using a cellphone but limited to a non-cellphone independent network provided by enthusiasts who provide the nodes.

If life’s working normally it’s an interest rather than a useful service.  If anything happened to the internet or cellular system Meshtastic could probably be the best communication system available.  Nodes are small, cheap, low-power and easily maintained with a bit of technical know-how.

I’m new to this so any input from experienced users is very welcome.

To Make it Work

You need 2 parts:  The radio module with LoRa radio and a esp32 processor to run the Meshtastic firmware (program code) and a cellphone app which provides the user interface.

There are several radio hardware options but for this page I’m only looking at the Liligo T-Beam unit.

Radio Module – T-Beam

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Phone App – Meshtastic

This is the user interface