Work agreed to explore meshtastic as a possible option for emergency communications and sent me a pair of these little gadgets to try out.
Now i just have to figure out how they work
I got them flashed with the meshtastic firmware, and i managed to send messages between the two of them. I also managed to send one message to someone else (no idea who they were) and get one message back.
But that's it. I can't seem to connect to anyone else. Maybe I need better hardware or something, but this is not inspiring confidence that we would be able to make use of this in an emergency.
I managed to ping one more person today, and then as a test. I put one on my roof and took the other one with me on a bike ride. I managed to connect between them up to about a third of a mile away. That's not too bad
@MLE_online now I'm very curious whether some sort of directional antenna would improve it.
@smellsofbikes i believe that is the case, but then you're at the mercy of the direction the antenna is pointing
@MLE_online @smellsofbikes there are 915 MHz *omnidirectional* antennas that can offer quite some gain: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005132142342.html
The taller they are, the more gain they provide ... and the more expensive they get (mostly due to shipping long rigid stuff I believe).
They are not great if the geography is very hilly, you install it on a skyscraper, or you try to reach planes/satellites, but they will improve range if your problem is mostly 2D.
Cumbersome for mobile setups (antenna must be perfectly vertical), but interesting when putting an autonomous relay on a roof, where you'll need to budget some solar panel, battery, waterproof enclosure and mounting hardware anyways.
