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Susquehanna Valley Mesh

Semi organized group of mostly radio oriented nerds

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Focused around Lancaster, Lebanon, York, Harrisburg, Reading

Currently reaching DC, NYC, Baltimore, Hagerstown, Allentown, Wilkes-Barre, Scranton

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Web site – svmesh.net

Analytics Platform – malla.susme.sh

Pretty maps – meshmonitor.susme.sh

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FB group is active, popular with hams

Discord server is active, popular with technical folks

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What is Meshtastic?

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  • Radios (called nodes) talk to each other cooperatively, self organize
  • Unlicensed, ham is secondary user
  • Packet radio, 0.3kbps to 50kbps. Typically 1-3kbps
  • Primarily text and sensor data, audio is doable but limited
  • Basically SMS over radio network
  • Very new. 5 years old, only 3 years of active development

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Advantages

AES256 encrypted traffic, security is still mixed

Encrypted

Varies but radios are 0.15-1W TX, can run easily off solar

Low Power

150 miles max, 1-10 miles common

Long Distance

$10 starting price for DIY, $35 for commercial

Cheap

Fun

Grab n’ Go

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Disdvantages

Very low bandwidth, inefficient packet routing

Slow

Bandpass or cavity filters aren’t cheap

Interference

Limited bandwidth + lots of cheap nodes

Congestion

Becoming more popular can slow down development out of fear of breaking things

Development

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So what can you DO with it?

Mostly request “how copy?”

  • Cheap locator at events, concerts, etc
  • Put on dog that loves chasing deer
  • Secure comms with friends
  • Local community
  • Science and environmental monitoring
  • Not recommended for EmComm, but has already been used in real world
  • It’s a lot like APRS

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  • 9PM net call is common on LongFast. Someday will have to move to MediumFast

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Best Practices

  • Never use HAM mode
  • Remember to set region to US
  • Stick to 5 hop maximum unless niche location
  • Having outside and inside node is a good idea
  • Leave in 5 hop CLIENT or CLIENT_MUTE mode 99.99999% of the time
  • Having outside in CLIENT_BASE and inside node in CLIENT_MUTE is a good idea, and something to work toward
  • Don’t use ROUTER OR REPEATER, probably don’t use ROUTER_LATE
  • Use really long intervals for everything. 2400-6000 seconds, not 30 or 60 seconds
  • Meshtastic is a beacon system
  • Always ask for permission before putting somewhere you don’t own
  • Never put a node somewhere you can’t update it

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Meshtastic app

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Types of Nodes

DIY

Commercial

Repeater

Tower

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Currently Planned Tower Network

Black – Discussing, Red – Permission Given, Yellow – Tower Mounted, Green – Done

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App View

Analytics

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SVM Future��

  • Long distance experiments
  • Meshcore?
  • Offering services to the mesh like text gateway, NWS alerts, et al.
  • Trials with helping Search and Rescue do automated location tracking

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Science Nodes

  • Cheap nodes with analog, digital, I2C and UART ports
  • MicroPython
  • $40 price point

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Uplink Nodes

  • 915Mhz + 915/2.4 Ghz Hybrids
  • Can bridge multiple mesh tech

Next Gen Tower Nodes

Uses latest Semtech chips for near cavity filter performance, ESD protection, I2C sensor port, GPS + PPS. $50 hat

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