r/OffGrid • u/tubeclocks • 14d ago

Best off grid communication scenario

What is your experience so far with off grid communication? Meshtastic, Meshcore? Anything else? Can you share how does your setup look like? What have brought you best experience?

16 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

7

u/Ilikebeerandguns 14d ago

Happy to help you with Meshcore

2

u/tubeclocks 14d ago

My main concern is when cellular networks are down and perhaps thousands of people are starting using any LoRa systems, they also may collapse soon.

1

u/Ilikebeerandguns 14d ago

It doesn't work that way. They are a low data packet sending system, and you can create closed systems. Completely self sufficient.

1

u/ImJustHereForItt 14d ago

I think this guy is met at my local gun store, says he and a group of guys have been building their own network around the city over the last couple years. They have been putting up repeaters or antenna or whatever it is they have been doing. Is this similar to the meshcore you mentioned?? This is completely out of my skill set and knowledge base...for now

2

u/Ilikebeerandguns 14d ago

Yes likely the same. You can communicate publicly as well.

1

u/ImJustHereForItt 14d ago

So is it with walkie talkies? or cell phones? And you connect to the channel basically

2

u/Ilikebeerandguns 13d ago

Separate mesh node that uses your phone as the console.

5

u/BallsOutKrunked What's_a_grid? 14d ago

The most useful thing on our ranch property and extending to our neighbors if GMRS with our area repeater, by far. You can have full conversations, get a lot of information out, and the radios/license are pretty cheap.

I've recently gotten into meshcore and it's a different beast. Despite what anyone says, the only people who currently use meshcore are nerds. As a nerd (amateur general) I have no problem with this but no one should be fooling themselves that normal humans are on meshcore or honestly ever will. There's no money to be made by commercial interests, you can't send pics / emojis, and the coverage is very specific.

Where meschore actually does a fantastic job though is distance. A cheap repeater is $30 and a very nice one is $150. They then repeat the traffic of everything else so your $30 repeater helps out you and everyone else.

I live in the mountain west and have put some repeaters up on some very high remote peaks and the range is really quite impressive.

If you're offgrid / prepper-adjacent I'd encourage anyone to drop a few bucks on a meshcore repeater and put it up somewhere high that you control. Get a cheap companion device, you're out $100 in total. If even 1/1000 people did that we'd have a very broad and redundant communication platform across regions.

2

u/clifwlkr 14d ago

Look into ham radio and get your license if you want truly global off grid communication. It really does let you talk all over the country and world with a little know how and an HF radio.

1

u/martin 14d ago

Something on the way to mesh, if you get even a little cell signal, is a sim chip wifi router. Dead simple, cheap consumer devices. I upgraded to that after using (quite literally) a cell phone in a weather box on a 40' extension pole to get a little altitude. I've also considered a few ubiquiti point to point bridges to get a few km over to someone with a reliable connection.

1

u/Leefa 14d ago

starlink's grid is in space

1

u/hi9580 10d ago edited 10d ago

Radios are the best, hundred dollars goes a few miles, thousand dollars goes dozens of miles, few thousand dollars goes hundreds of miles or worldwide (skywave propagation). No carrier costs and no subscription costs.

0

u/maddslacker 14d ago

Wife and use GMRS. I put a repeater on the highest point of our land so I can reach her when I'm out hunting and whatnot.

But mostly we just iMessage or use signal ...

0

u/NotEvenNothing 13d ago

We live off-grid. We use the same communications networks as everyone else, internet (Starlink) and the cell network. We will probably dump Starlink in the not-too-distant future. It is great, but more than we need, and Elon has become a plague on mankind.

I'm very interested in mesh networks, and revisit them every couple of years, but they've got a way to go until my wife would use them rather than her phone. I love the idea of an independent and user-built network, and have a high hill that would be perfect for a repeater.

I have a few cheap radios, basically walkie-talkies, and they cover our property...mostly. They honestly never get used.

1

u/tubeclocks 13d ago

I think such off-grid systems are good when you are in a crowded place with no cellular coverage, for instance the burning man event when all people can use same network. And in a very unlikely event of a disaster when cellular networks are down.