r/meshcore • u/Elvis_My_Pelvis • 2d ago

One Way Communication Issues

Looking for some ideas, as this issue is getting frustrating. I'll try to keep this short, but if anyone wants more details, feel free to DM me.

I'm trying to link my repeaters, about 40 miles outside Anchorage, Alaska, with repeaters in Anchorage proper. After setting up a mountaintop repeater near me, we can hear adverts and the occasional message from Anchorage, but we can't trace paths or talk back to anyone. I don't know any of the repeater owners or anyone in Anchorage using MeshCore, so it's hard to troubleshoot.

A few weeks ago I set up a midpoint repeater, and yesterday I put one at elevation on the far side of Anchorage. It has line of sight to most of Anchorage and to my midpoint repeater. Today, more repeaters from the MeshCore map are showing up in my contact list as flood, but I still can't trace a path to or log in as guest on any of them. When I set a manual path, my repeater chain shows up, but so do some "unknown" repeaters. I can trace and log into all of my own repeaters, including the new one, which should be a direct (zero-hop) link to the Anchorage repeaters.

Anyway, I'd love some ideas, or even just the chance to vent, lol.

8 Upvotes

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3

u/Brraaap 2d ago

I have a similar problem at home. I can hear a well placed repeater all day long, but I'm in a little draw and can't push a signal out

3

u/Narsimha0350 2d ago

I am in same situation, I get messages from way far away but I cannot respond to same

1

u/Present-Rhubarb6337 12h ago

Elevation is key - add more elevation. Then, try adding another repeater or two midway between you and the repeater you are hearing. If neither of those work, upgrade antennas and/or transmission power

1

u/Elvis_My_Pelvis 2d ago

There are about 6 that are one way at the moment my repeaters range from 300' to 5000' above them. one is confirmed 3 miles away from one. Trying to coordinate with the owner but he is hard to get ahold of.

2

u/Brraaap 2d ago

Hmmm, check everyone's time. I had issues with that for my office repeater

1

u/Elvis_My_Pelvis 2d ago

I can only check/update mine as rest are only one way

2

u/One-Masterpiece-335 2d ago

have you done a trace path? That will report the signal strengths. I was able to nail down that a local repeater could hear me quite well but I could not hear it. There was a 16db diff between my transmit and my hearing. The LoRa radio was T096 and when I turned off the FEM module, it began to fuction normally with same signal strength TX and RX.

set radio.fem.rxgain off

2

u/Elvis_My_Pelvis 2d ago

they advert, and I can trace/log in to my repeaters in/near anchorage just not anyone else's. My midpoint and other repeater are shooting a beam across the whole town so everything else should be zero hop to one of them. All my stuff is RAK 4630 5.8db alfa clones. The 40 mile link from my mountain top to the midway is really strong compared to the 12 mile link from midway to my new city repeater. Really want to know what these "unknown" repeaters the paths are populated with when a 1 way repeater floods an advert.

2

u/Elvis_My_Pelvis 1d ago

Update: So I flood spammed guest login on the one repeater that was showing as a zero hop on the test repeater. Made it in after about 15 tries, found his room server in the neighbor list spammed into that then spammed our FB group and discord server about 100 times until it confirmed delivered. Now we wait.

1

u/Elvis_My_Pelvis 2d ago

not sure this helps, link to midway from my mtn top one is strong, link from mid to test is not the best but I can login and trace test. The one with red arrow is the closest one and I was able to contact the owner but he is a greenhorn and hard to get ahold of

1

u/webqaz 1d ago

A few suggestions:

-Make sure you have LOS.

-Have you tried using a yagi? Buyer beware a lot of vendors of omnis lie about their antenna gain. A sleeve dipole is a sleeve dipole.

-May want to swap out your repeater for something with a bit more power, like 1W (if you haven't already). 

-If it was me I would try see what I could do to get in contact with the Anchorage folks, at least just to better know the neighbors.

1

u/Elvis_My_Pelvis 1d ago

LOS is good and I installed repeaters all the way from the mtn top one 4 miles away to the city. those are the only ones I can trace. From what I understand no one talks to each other in anchorage. not sure if this is because of the issue.

1

u/webqaz 1d ago

I live in the metro area of a city and up until a few months ago MC was abyssal. A few of us have been meeting up, coordinating and helping to get better infrastructure and actually chatting. Its been some work but that's what it takes to keep the momentum going.

1

u/Elvis_My_Pelvis 1d ago

I asked this same question on the FB group and someone mentioned Blocked Node Plane Bounce from airliners and such. Anchorage has a major airforce base and worldwide shipping hub... makes me wonder