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Truly Meshtastic

Welcome to 2024 and all the exciting events that are sure to fill the year.

One thing most people will have noticed is that the frequency of extreme weather events, earthquakes and other civil emergencies seems to have skyrocketed of late and 2024 is almost certainly going to set new records in this area.

Sadly, despite (or perhaps because of) our technology, we're probably not going to be well prepared for the fallout created by these disasters.

Our reliance on electricity grids, the internet and the other "critical infrastructure" elements that are so easily disrupted by flood, hurricane, CME or other naturally occuring events now places us at a significant disadvantage when compared to our forbears. We are now far less self-sufficient than we once were and I suspect that losing Facebook for more than a few hours would likely result in nation-wide PTSD cases presenting at every hospital across the country.

As I have lamented on several occasions, the gradual demise of HAM radio has also made us more vulnerable to failures of the landline and cellular networks, with the recent shift away from good old POTS to fibre-based connectivity making this even worse.

However, what if there was another fall-back network we could use in times of strife?

Well guess what? There is... or at least their could be.

I'm talking about mesh-networks based around low-cost LoRa hardware.

With nodes for these networks costing under NZ$100, anyone can hook one up and become part of a totally decentralised communications network that has the potential to provide a much needed "last resort" in times of disaster.

The beauty of this hardware is that it's plentiful, cheap and uses such low levels of power that you could even throw one on the roof with a solar panel and 18650 Li-Ion cell where it would quietly go about its business without any need for human intervention -- possibly for a decade or so.

These systems use ISM (license-free) frequencies on 2.4GHz, 915Mhz or 433MHz to talk over incredibly long distances, providing line-of-sight is assured. In an urban environment (with all the associated noise) they can get several Kms and outside the buzz of the city tens or even hundreds of Km are possible, given the right setup.

There is now even software that effectively gives your smartphone access to this network (for sending/recieving text messages) via Bluetooth or WiFi. Unfortunately a LoRa mesh network is not going to provide streaming video or even voice comms, due to its very low data rates. However, given enough nodes, the distribution of text-based messaging becomes practical and useful.

Imagine a nation-wide network that operates without reliance on telcos or the expensive and vulnerable gear they require -- that's the meshtastic system.

Right now, given the low cost and simplicity of this system, I can't help but think that it would be a great idea to encourage everyone to set up a network node on their roof. The value of such a network would be immense, come the next civil emergency when telcos may go down and even the power grid may be unavailable.

There are plenty of DIY projects around at the moment and I'm pretty sure it won't be long before the market is flooded with "turnkey" solar-powered nodes that anyone can purchase and throw on a roof or some other high vantage point and effectively forget -- until it's needed.

Governments, councils and civil defense agencies should all be looking at how they can promote Meshtastic as a disaster-ready network -- before it's actually needed.

With economies of scale I would expect to see a decent solar-powered node being retailed for as little as $130 or so within a year. Perhaps with some tax-incentives, central government could assist the households and businesses of the nation to create the most robust "disaster-proof" comms infrastructure possible through the ubiquitous installation of such things.

Even if it's not going to be adopted for wide-scale disaster comms, it's still a whole lot of fun so I've ordered some gear from AliExpress and expect to have a node operating here at my home and another at the workshop within a month or so.

Yeah, it's a far cry from HAM radio or even CB radio but it's a step in the right direction.

I'll probably build up several solar-powered nodes that, if there was a disaster, I could go out and locate on hills or useful locations to extend the mesh as far/wide as possible.

Just doing my bit!

Carpe Diem folks!

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