All,
I made the initial post about Meshtastic LoRa and got some good feedback. I got email, text, some follow up posts and after the Club meeting yesterday Cliff Leath (KI5OPP), Johnny Thomas (WB5JT), Haskell Maroney (K5HRM), Mark Johnson (W5PTXC) myself and a couple of others stayed and chatted for a bit. This whole concept is very new to me, but clearly some of you have been looking at it. The biggest issue is that you have to basically have saturation coverage for it to have any meaningful contribution to EmComms, so it won’t happen overnight. But I think the concept is cool and has a lot of promise and so I am going to continue to add notes to this thread. It also gives me a chance to educate people about website forums a bit.
The matter of low forum participation numbers is…bothersome to some. But studies have been done on the matter and there is a lot of detail that informs us that there is very commonly a 90-9-1 participation percentage. 90% are lurkers, 9% occasionally participate and the remaining 1% do most of the contributing. With 55-60 members we should not expect to see two or three dozen participants, but they are there. Looking at the posts, just not commenting on
them on the forums. And non-Club members can read this material too. It might drive some site traffic and it might drive some people to get interested in ham radio and it might drive some people to join the Club, if for no other reason than to be able to post here and participate. In any case, you don’t have to take my word for it, if you want to read up on the topic of forum participation rates here is a link to a Grok analysis on the matter (link here). Now back to this LoRa discussion topic.
Cliff has now purchased two of the units, the ThinkNode M1 ($59) and the Wio Tracker L1 Pro ($47). The second one is produced by a company called seeed studio (yes, three e’s) (http://www.seeedstudio.com). More on them in a moment. Cliff opted for models that do not have a physical keyboard because online posts about the ones with keyboards had a lot of negative commentary about how small they were and how hard it was to use them, they were prone to breakage or getting debris in them, etc. There is a screen keyboard available on at least one of the two that he bought, but his plan (implemented) was to pair a no-longer-used Bluetooth phone to them and use the keyboard from the phone. He planned to repurpose an old phone that was no longer being used for phone service, but he did determine that tradeoff there is the slow speed of the now obsolete phone. Which lead me to wonder is there such a 
thing as an autonomous Bluetooth keyboard? Particularly a compact portable one? Well yes there is! Here is a link to some Google results for such things (link here). That might interest someone to experiment with them at some point.
So it turns out that seeed studio is a pretty prolific writer of articles on the whole topic of Meshtastic. Continuing our quest to get educated on the matter Cliff turned me on to their article Meshtastic Node Explained: Types, Range, Kits, and How to Choose the Best Setup. I think that article really, really, demystifies the topic. And in addition to the complete unit that Cliff bought, seeed studio offers some DIY kits for those that like to tinker. From their website “DIY Meshtastic node involves purchasing individual components yourself. For example, an ESP32 dev board such as the Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32 series (XIAO ESP32C6 or XIAO ESP32S3) paired with a Semtech LoRa module, plus connectors, a case, and an antenna. Building yourself is cheaper and gives you complete customization control on choosing antenna, battery, housing, etc. However, it requires 
soldering and firmware flashing.” Jerry Keisler (WA5KZA) might even get interested in digital if he can build it himself!
Also from that article is Meshtastic Projects: Real-Life Use Cases and How to Get Started (March 11, 2026) and What Is Off-Grid Communication and How Is It Changing with LoRa and Meshtastic? (October 230, 2025). There is a growing body of information and excitement over the technology, but wait, there’s more.
There is also another evolving new standard – MeshCore. It is something of – something of – a competitor to Meshtastic, but the great news is that most or all of the hardware for both can be used for either one by simply flashing the firmware to change from one to the other. Cliff came up with a link to this nice YouTube post on the topic – Dual-Protocol Mesh Node Outperforms Single Firmware Setup. Now, that video does talk about hardware with both in one box, but that costs more. And if you want to know why there is a different standard, Phillip’s view is that it is like the ham radio digital BS. Yaesu: System Fusion (C4FM), Icom & Kenwood: D-STAR, Kenwood, Motorola, and Others: DMR and Commercial Public Safety: P25. Seriously, nobody learned anything from the events of September 11, 2001 (On September 11, 2001, catastrophic public safety radio interoperability problems crippled the emergency response.)? Well, yes, they did, but nobody made any of these players play nicely together. If I had the ear of Brendan Carr, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), I would tell him to tell staff to look into a rulemaking that said a small sliver of VHF and UHF in the Technician bands would have to be served by digital radios and they all would have to use a common standard. Why? If there is a tornado that wipes out infrastructure why not force digital interoperability in a narrow set of the spectrum that we already have access to? I know the manufacturer’s would hate having to play nice with each other, but it sure makes sense to me.
Meshtastic is open-source and then suddenly MeshCore shows up and there is a commercial component. If you care to learn more here is a link for you to check out – MeshCore Team Feud: Here’s What Happened. I am not usually willing to devote the time to watch videos used to monetize a topic for those making it, but some people dig them over everything else. Club member Gary Sorensen (K9AIA) loves educational videos and he is going to love the wealth of video on this entire topic. In this case that video explains a lot of the…dispute.
Worried that if RRVARC members were to invest in Meshtastic gear and MeshCore wound up the de facto standard (think VHS versus Betamax) I decided to ask Mr./Ms. Grok about it. I asked “If members of my ham radio club start getting equipped with Meshtastic gear and MeshCore goes hypersonic and becomes the de facto standard, are they harmed?” Grok’s reply:
No, your ham radio club members are not meaningfully harmed—and in many ways, they could benefit. Meshtastic and MeshCore are complementary tools for off-grid, low-power mesh networking using LoRa radios, not direct competitors to traditional amateur radio.
Quick Context on the Tech
– Meshtastic: Open-source, flood-based mesh (every node can relay). Great for ad-hoc, mobile groups (e.g., events, hikes). Simple setup, popular for beginners. Runs on cheap hardware (~$20–$100 per node). Often used unlicensed in ISM bands (like 915 MHz in the US) or under ham rules with higher power.
– MeshCore: Newer alternative (emerged ~2024–2025) with structured routing—dedicated repeaters handle forwarding, clients (“companions”) mostly don’t. Better for large-scale, fixed infrastructure meshes with higher hop counts (up to 64 vs. Meshtastic’s ~7). More efficient in dense/urban areas, lower congestion. Also open-source at core, with some commercial/client apps.
They use the same hardware ecosystem but different firmware/protocols—they’re not directly compatible on the same network. Many people run both or experiment. “Hypersonic” growth for MeshCore would mean denser infrastructure (fixed repeaters), which actually helps Meshtastic users in range via potential cross-experimentation, though separate networks.
Why Ham Radio Club Members Aren’t Harmed
– Different niche: These are primarily short-text/GPS/data meshes for local/off-grid scenarios (emergencies, events, rural comms). They supplement voice, HF, APRS, Winlink, etc.—not replace them. Hams often view them as “another tool in the toolbox” for ARES/public service, especially where voice isn’t ideal. Many hams already experiment with them.
– License flexibility: Unlicensed operation is common (ISM bands), but hams can use higher power/ham bands (e.g., 70cm or 33cm) for better performance. It can even attract new people to ham radio—some non-hams get into Meshtastic/MeshCore and then pursue licenses.
– No spectrum conflict for hams: In the US (your area), 902–928 MHz ISM band is shared. Proper configuration avoids issues. Hams have primary/secondary allocations in parts of it and can coordinate. MeshCore’s structured approach may actually reduce airtime waste vs. pure flooding.
– Club upside: Adopting this gear builds skills in digital modes, antennas, solar-powered nodes, and emergency comms. It encourages hands-on building/experimenting—core to ham culture. If MeshCore takes off, club members with Meshtastic can still participate in hybrid setups or switch firmware easily on the same devices. Denser networks (more repeaters) benefit everyone locally.
– Real-world ham perspective: Clubs and ARES groups are integrating these for backups. It’s not “harming” traditional ops; it’s expanding reach to family/friends without licenses during outages.
Potential minor downsides (not really “harm”):
– Time split: Some members might focus more on mesh tinkering than HF contests or traffic nets.
– If the club is very traditionalist, there could be internal grumbling about “not real radio.” But that’s cultural, not technical.
– Learning curve or fragmentation if both ecosystems coexist (common now).
In Paris (urban/suburban with rural areas nearby), this fits well—MeshCore could shine for regional coverage with fixed nodes at repeater sites, while Meshtastic handles events.
Recommendation: Encourage experimentation. Many clubs host Meshtastic/MeshCore builds or mesh nets alongside traditional activities. It modernizes the club, attracts younger members, and strengthens emergency capabilities without displacing core ham skills. No one’s “harmed”—radio experimentation evolves, and hams have adapted for decades. If MeshCore goes big, your club with gear is positioned to lead locally rather than sit it out.
There you go. I plan to continue to encourage the dialog on this topic. If you have something to share and don’t know how to do it here, want some help writing it up, etc., please get in touch and I will help. And if anyone finds a broken link, a link that pulls something other than what you expected, there are any problems with this write up at all, please drop me a note so that I can fix it.
73
Phillip Beall (W5EBC)