If you have strong opinions about #Mesh networking, please let me know.

box464@mastodon.social

@Edent I live in “the hills” outside Austin, TX and meshtastic is basically worthless until I get into a city or go further west into the flatlands. I was very disappointed.

And, not sure what the channels are like for you but the chat for me was definitely not my preferred circle of people. I’m sure that varies greatly depending on your location.

bekopharm@indieweb.social

@Edent I can hear that poor thing screaming in agony trying to hang on.

edent@mastodon.social

@bekopharm damn straight. Electronics should be made to suffer.

bekopharm@indieweb.social

@Edent 27 mice and 1 marten near you liked that too.

alec@perkins.pub

@Edent better antenna could help. I’ve definitely seen a big difference between antennas. Also have you tried the medium range or narrow settings? I think narrow has really taken over as the preferred setting in a lot of places. https://analyzer.letsmesh.net/map?lat=52.82493&long=-1.27596&zoom=5

edent@mastodon.social

@alec Thanks. I'm on Narrow - as recommended by others.
Looks like I need a better antenna!

alec@perkins.pub

@Edent I have recs for the 915 band, alas I don’t know 868. Something else to mind is the narrow setting has a pretty sharp falloff. It really needs infrastructure relatively nearby to work reliably. If you can figure out the closest repeater you might be able to orient the antenna toward it. Also outside is much more effective, but of course challenging.

m0rpk@mastodon.radio

@Edent that ‘rubber duck’ vertical antenna will do better if it has a counterpoise or a ground plane to act against. A ‘rat tail’ counterpoise is just a bit of wire 1/4 wavelengths long, connected to the outer shield at the antenna base. They’re most common on handheld radios. Probably the cheapest and quickest thing to test.

m0rpk@mastodon.radio

@Edent For example, https://baofengtech.com/improve-the-performance-of-your-rubber-duck-with-a-rat-tail/

edent@mastodon.social

@m0rpk thanks, I'll investigate

jackchallen@mas.to

@Edent I'm just idly looking at meshcore. How are you getting access to the noise floor? Any ideas if it's an Android-only feature?

edent@mastodon.social

@jackchallen it is on the Android app. Don't know about anything else.

voyagermesh@dresden.network

@Edent
AFAIU you run it as companion, right?

To overcome the loneliness (we have all been there), flash this one as "repeater", let it send some adverts once in a while and "Share -> Upload to Internet Map" with roughly your coordinates, and then wait.

(You might need a 2nd board as "companion" to do that admin stuff, the cheapest naked board is enough).

There *are* others like you, who *will* then see and try to close the gap to your repeater, just like you.

Maybe some social media noise in your area helps.

In the meantime, look up your area in https://map.meshcore.dev and drive around, to check reachability. Maybe you know friends and family in-between where you could set up another (yay, ) repeater.

Good luck.
It's pioneering work.
There are not many such opportunities today.

@jwildeboer

realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

@Edent If you look back through @nullagent 's past history, meshtastic has been shown to be very flawed.

enot@masto.hackers.town

@Edent that antenna is likely part of your issue, and that it's touching the roof. if you can't get a better antenna right now try moving it into the open space to the right of this image.

edent@mastodon.social

On the advice of several people, I stuck the antenna at the highest part of my loft, pointing down so it wasn't in contact with the roof.
Signal strength improved - but still poor.
Still can't actually send messages to the nearest #Meshcore repeater.