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From our member, Phil, G6DLJ:

A fascinating talk at the club on Friday by Mark G6OMT, assisted by Andy 2E0HVY, about the rapid growth of the open-source 868MHz Source Meshtastic network expanding in Devon, Cornwall and beyond. 

Mark kicked off with a basic overview of Meshtastic strength,  notably that comms can be made without the need for Internet connectivity and/or mains electricity simply using phones and tablets connecting to a nearby node via a domestic Bluetooth or local WiFi connection in the home. 

He then went on to talk about the choice of equipment, starting from the popular ESP32 self-contained Mestastic transceivers with in-built antenns which can be purchased for under £20, (snap together, no soldering req) with optional expansion header pins for use with telemetry sources such as weather stations etc. at one end of the scale to very ruggedised outdoor gateways designed for very harsh conditions from £700 to to £150 for the solar powered versions. 

The wrap went into some use cases such as Parish Council resilience planning, APRS and weather station reporting.  

The talk was followed by a very lively FAQ session with some hands-on discussions.   Several members have expressed an interest in setting up personal nodes at home as well as a club gateway.

Join Lin, M0TCF, from TARS on a very detailed on how the QO-100 Earth Station build is coming along.

Ever wondered how Mariners find their way navigation the large (and small) vessels?

Watch the video here! or click the YouTube below.