The ARROW presentation by Blake KE8SQU on Meshtastic prompted me to start exploring this LoRa-based radio protocol which operates in the 915 MHz ISM (unlicensed) band.
I ordered a Meshtastic radio from Rokland, their "WisMesh Pocket v2". This radio is designed as a ready-to-go portable device with a little screen, case that holds a battery, a little antenna, and generally speaking enough working parts that I should be able to turn it on and go try it out. I'll write more about it and link to it appropriately based on how well I am able to make it work.
When it arrives my initial plan is to work this into my Ann Arbor "Bike Every Park" parks challenge - throw the node in a backpack, stop at a city park, see if there's coverage there, try to make a QSO, make a suitable note, move on.
First park to try is Burns Park near my house which I know is near the node that W9TNC runs - it should be easy. From there I will start mapping out the radio terrain. My expectations are that the tops of parking structures will be good locations for 915 MHz operations, as they seem to be also for VHF/UHF. But what I don't know quite yet is what the density of stations is - the "Meshmap" suggests "not very dense" so far.
The other thing I want to do is get a node running at home running FrozenBBS, a message board for Meshtastic.
This is going to take a little more work on the hardware side; as the author writes
I have a RAK4631 radio with a RAK13800 Ethernet module, with the BBS code running on a Raspberry Pi 4 next to it. I went through a lot of false starts making this work.
The rationale for making my first node a portable one (rather than a fixed station at home) is that with the bicycle operations I can do a nice survey of the vicinity and see what is out there that could work and get a better intuitive sense for what 915 MHz propagation is like with altitude and trees figuring in. At worst, if reception is bad but I know who has a node running I can just ride close enough to be within line of sight!
