Get Started With Meshtastic FAST!

Here is the fast setup for the Heltec V3
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[@AD6DMDennis]

It's very surprising how fast the interest in this has picked up in early 2024.

[@BillyMcCord]

@hamradiocrashcourse stop by the South West Ohio GMRS booth at hamvention this weekend we would like to say hello ! Also if possible we will have our mestastic router up and running! Building 1 booth 1802

[@voltmastr]

Are we back into using pager? 😂

[@dieselstruck]

@@voltmastr this is decentralized + encrypted

[@DeSmith-o4b]

We all sense something is coming and we no longer trust telecom and internet companies.

[@PBerBlueCobra]

Anyone paying attention to what's going on knows something is coming.. and like another comment said, no one trusts thr gov or telecom or internet agencies.

[@VE6LK]

Super informative and helpful Josh. Thanks for excellent content like this. 73

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you!

[@Radi0activeBen]

I had never heard of it until a few months ago. Now a friend and I have a couple of repeater nodes up high in our area.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Nice

[@NoOneFPV]

I've built 4 Heltec V3 units now... two for myself, two for a friend. Acquired a RAK, a T-Beam and an T-Echo as well. I've been having fun. :)

[@JamesHalfHorse]

just set up a couple. I figure I can make a radio, antenna, battery, solar panel and case for 50 bucks maybe. If I can get my neighbors interested I will build a few like this as repeaters and put them along the road and maybe use a few gpio pins on a few for driveway and gate sensors which I understand it can do but haven't seen anyone demo it yet. Could set a node up so a new person out here wants it just zap strap the whole package to a tree or post that gets decent sunlight and go. Go along with the GMRS repeater I have for community/emergency use. I bet parents around here would more likely give their younger kids a tdeck or a radio to call home than turn them loose on a internet connected phone provided it even gets signal some places around here. We had a flood once and were without phone for over a week (exchange was under water) only some cell. Took nearly a month to get internet back. It will be very interesting to see how well they mesh here in the mountains. I think if I can get the high points it with a decent omni and maybe a yagi back to another if it's far away will do well.

[@gregsmith1116]

I have two LORA units at my QTH and they are meshed all due to your video many months ago. I got them on Ali Express!

[@TravisMurdock]

Can you make an antenna recommendation. I'd like a SignalStuff like antenna and another one that has a 90 degree swivel antenna. Everything I'm seeing is garbage.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

On my Amazon store.

[@robd003]

What about using RAK WisBlock boards? Aren't they way more power efficient since they're using nRF chips?

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Yep. They are very good.

[@ericwilliams1687]

928Mhz or 915Mhz? First, great video!!! Thank you. So helpful for me. One of the clearest I have seen. Humble question though, I think the link to the antenna is a 915Mhz and yet the Meshtastic device link is to a 928Mhz? Are there 915s and 928s in the U.S.? Compatible?

[@ChrisC-fp9qu]

Question? Can you flash the device directly from the internet on your phone 📱? I have my phone powering the device usb C to usb C. Im just wondering if you can flash the device on the go if no computer is available.

[@dorvinion]

This is one of those things that sounds neat but I'm having a hard time seeing the use case. Chit chat doesn't do it for me even if it can be encrypted because you can do that on the device we already always have with us. Sensors/IOT controls on a larger rural property maybe? The distributed/open network is neat and all, but you're still gonna have that cell plan which has considerably more capabilities in it. I know someone will say "But what if the cell is down?" Storm damage I guess maybe - but in most cases it won't be down for long, and the nature of the mesh requires everybody be within a rather small radius and since these are people you know you have a good idea where to go to check on them. If its down and never coming back you got bigger problems to worry about.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

If you trust phones, then yes this is moot.

[@dorvinion]

​@@HamRadioCrashCourse I suppose the question is who are you wanting to keep your private conversations private from. If its commercial interests you can largely mitigate those concerns by using privacy focused phone OS (Graphene and the like), or Pine phone if it is ever ready for primetime. If you are concerned about Feds the same methods used to avoid commercial interests should also work to keep government interests from taking an interest in you. If they decide to take an interest in you then you're kinda screwed no matter how you communicate. I will grant the mesh does have one notable benefit over a phone at least - if you plan to go petition with a group for redress of grievance and are concerned that some participants might cross the line, mesh can't be geofence drag-netted

[@gsahookah599]

I agree, @dorvinion. For the life of me, I can't understand why so many Hams are gravitating to this cute tech with a vigor worthy of 'world-changing' technology. The mesh craze is utterly confusing to me. Sure, as Hams, we all love to tinker, but seriously, this is completely useless as a viable "off-grid" and/or emergency communications tool. With that said, I do see merit in having fun with this as a hobby interest; something to tinker with while perhaps bored with traditional ham operations, etc. These devices can give an interesting use-case for our dusty 3D printers perhaps.

[@scotch8]

​@@gsahookah599I have one ordered but don't have it yet. I get that it's not going to be any new groundbreaking tech. It just looks neat to play with for cheap. I could potentially see hanging one with GPS on everyone's day pack if we're hiking or hunting, but probably not. I don't know enough about it to know if it beacons location data automatically or what. It's just to play with for me.

[@thedoobie1]

Is it me? I can't find, "The Links in the comments"

[@Samc6127]

I did, as anything. You got me into this, made me pass my general test. Your videos are great. Helpful, not stand offish, and you break it down for us non tech savvy folks.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Great job! Thanks for the kind words.

[@twanner]

Josh, in your video, did not see an antenna connected when you connected power to the board.t It is low power but, the probability that you will fry the radio is not zero.

[@twanner]

@BrandonLang-tw7qb Referring to time stamp 2:11.

[@tomleddy7620]

Great video. Correct me if I’m wrong. Isn’t mesh just like APRS but with encryption? And I guess it’s cool to have a little device to play with too. Oh, and no license required as well. Thanks

[@nickmastrocola7125]

What gauge hook up wire does it use inside? Looking to copy your GPS unit very cool stuff

[@Out-to-Pastor]

Could you do a video on the wismeshpocket? I know it's still preorder at the moment, but it really seems like a turnkey solution.

[@williamwiese9963]

Great video! Whats the new Meshtastic Defcon 32?

[@angelodepalma538]

Everyone is crazy about mesh. I haven't seen one application other than sending messages from your kitchen to your living room.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

They go much further than that!

[@OnAirVoice]

Kinda makes me think of packet radio. Updated a bit.

[@psynurse]

regarding voice.....I see companies making encrypted mesh radios that seemed to be designed for more commercial use and or the civilian versions that are fairly expensive. Milo is one of those along with beartooth....would love to see someone do opensource mesh radio

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

They’re so cost prohibitive and tbh, I don’t think they’re doing much you could do on your own with some learning.

[@GENERALCHAOS13]

I have the older Heltec LoRa32 before V2 I can't find the Keyword Search for Mastastic Setup

[@elsuperpollo2273]

If my family would move out of California, to were I'm at on the east coast I would buy a few lora mesh devices so we can have our own private form of text communication. I'm trying to get a couple of my neighbors to get thier amateur radio license. I do have a couple meshtastic devices linked up to a neighbor of mine 4 houses away from me.

[@etrigan1976]

Not sure if someone has mentioned this but I ran into the issue where my heltec wouldn't show up in the Ports list. It showed up in the "other devices" section in DM. I installed the driver from the their website and it showed up in my ports list. proceed as normal from there.

[@dickmoberg230]

I had the same problem. Wish I had seen your post earlier. Found some help on the Heltec discussion site. I used the driver from Silicon Labs. Worked great.

[@larrymccalvy7202]

What are your thoughts about using Meshtastic with Win-link? Is there enough bandwidth?

[@toddc4221]

What is the range of one node?

[@dieselstruck]

I love the idea but I what I would like to see is a robust board packed on a really rugged case. I seems the variety of boards have some quirks that still can be solved. I know this is experimental but a robust board in a rugged case would be great at this point.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Go look up the RaK wireless LoRa board. Easy to build it “robust”.

[@Buzzygirl63]

I got a Heltec V3 about a month ago, out of sheer curiosity. They are super cheap on eBay, like $25. It was easy to set up and easy to configure. That said, as of May 2024, despite roaming and searching around my area (it's a large metropolitan area) I was not able to pick up other nodes. Given that this is SUPER new tech around here, hopefully this will change soon! Also, the stock antennas the various Heltec V3 kits come with are almost useless. Definitely need to upgrade them. Thanks for always being on the cutting edge of communications, Josh!

[@nikandr23]

soo.. for $25 (lie) you got device.. antenna is shit.. device is useless.. what is next?

[@thesickhorseranch]

@@nikandr23 So you've never had trouble with a new device or upgraded an antenna before. I bet you're fun at parties in your Moms basement.

[@ephramrafael7140]

​@@nikandr23 I'm really confused where the lie is in his statement. I don't usually feed trolls but out of curiosity I searched "Heltec V3" on Amazon and the top two listings are 23.99 and 26.99 for the device in question. If you're referring to the stock antenna being trash that's pretty much common across all entry level Chinese radios of every type. Many common wifi routers have trash antennas out of the box but they do their job adequately for the end user. I've met almost a dozen people over our local mesh. Several in person. My nodelist is full at 100 contacts from a little stock Heltec V3 unit I drive around with at work. I spent $10 on a better gain omni antenna and got even better results. Meshtastic certainly isn't for everyone, and certainly isn't applicable to all use cases. But the point of all amateur radio, licensed and unlicensed, is to experiment and apply solutions that work for you. One person may get a HAM ticket to do APRS and track their boat across the water while another may be more interested in conventional two way phone conversations across large distances. Calling the platform useless really highlights your interest and motivation towards radio in general. For some people, Meshtastic is a useful tool. Others it's just a passing interest in radio. For me, it was a gateway to a HAM License and now I'm building antennas to try and talk to astronauts on the space station... but I still keep my mesh node with me at work in the truck, meeting new people and helping the network pass signals.

[@xitec75]

I see some security-related issues here. A smartphone is a serious security problem, if security is important for you. A smartphone should be something like a client only but no "master" for the devices by design, otherwise there is no real privacy or security here in any way. This begins with the scanning of the bluetooth-ids by the phone and they might be send to google as they are now searching for all kind of bluetooth-devices and their last known positions. Additionaly, any kind of security-code for a protected channel on a smartphone is non-rational if you are security related. The core idea is good, but is there a way to program/use these devices without a smartphone?

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Reach out to the Meshtastic people.

[@dustinmeier9753]

Seems simple enough to use an air gapped cellphone to eliminate the perceived security concerns. Such as an old phone that doesn’t have a cellular plan. You can buy non-branded phones as well. I see no reason why you couldn’t use a Raspberry Pi running Android in place of the cellphone.

[@xitec75]

@@dustinmeier9753 interesting idea

[@ChrisC-fp9qu]

What Phone and App are you using? My app on Android does not look like yours.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Just the Meshtastic. They look different.

[@lamardsol]

haha i just put the heltec loRa 32 in a script i'm working on and the wisblock starter kit and some TTGO t-beams

[@brady5125]

I’m really interested in meshtastic but I have no interest in assembling one of these devices. Is their anywhere I can get a few of these assembled and ready to go out of the box?

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Links in the description.

[@alexgraf3567]

So some devices can transmit at the 433mhz, can you program a DMR radio to receive the info that heltec puts out…?

[@BunnyMcHusky-cg1tj]

Anybody have friends or family in North East Ohio? Please hit them up to this. I think I have the only two nodes in the state. I Need a network!

[@elsuperpollo2273]

I wished If you had your amateur radio license tech, gen to extra you can get exemptions to work gmrs without seperate license paying more money to the fcc.

[@Bezstopy]

yeah, I would connect antenna before firmware update ..just in case :D

[@ShefaliBegum-l1p]

Brannon Roads

[@wowcolors]

How do you hide GPS position in the primary channel and only share location in the encryption channel?

[@bairdie3708]

In my area i can pick up 20 nodes, cannot get a response from any of them to confirm anyone has received or seen the message, im needing to buy another node just so i can verify that i am sending my message out

[@DerekMurawsky]

Is there a way to get this logging GPS locally to track hikes that you go on? Or an easy way to log the messages to a map? I think this would be great for scouting and other outdoor hobbies.

[@rustyhaddock7954]

Josh, the default channel is encrypted too! Also, if you do with the license setting, encryption is turned off -- you know regulations and all that. :)

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

It’s not encrypted on default.

[@scotch8]

I think it is unless you toggle the amateur license toggle. It's just a publicly available key that everyone can get. Could me wrong though.

[@rustyhaddock7954]

@@scotch8 Correct. Everybody gets its because it's on the default channel.

[@joel6221]

my board came with crappy antennas ... can i purchase better ones separately

[@jdscoco]

I have a couple units setup and it works great. Works better with Androind than Apple IMO. This thing is great for my area that is sometimes difficult to maintain cellular connections.

[@karlschwab6437]

Very,very informative, but for this old ham, it's not for me. Not interested at all.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

It's OK, but glad you gave the video a watch regardless!

[@DestigmatizePodcast]

Question, just out of sheer curiousity. Would it be possible to combine a baofeng repeater set up with a LoRa transmission? Or would that technically be considered against FCC? Or is it even feasible? Anyway, love the videos man!

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Yeah, that would be against the rules.

[@rickymcdaniel6708]

What kinda range do they get. And they require a cellphone to work? I'm new to this and don't really quit understand it yet.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

I have quite a few videos on Meshtastic. Search for it on my channel I cover how it works and ranges.

[@KD5DXN]

Great information 👍 Always enjoy your videos. Keep up the good work.

[@Evan-tt5kk]

For being a crash course I feel like you went very quickly into the weeds of setting it up. I still don't really understand what this is or why I should get one and was hoping this video would help me learn the very basics

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

I have other videos that explain what Meshtastic is this was just how to get it running.

[@MichaelLeo]

I cannot get any distance out of my setups...like, 100 feet tops...very frustrating!

[@prizeking1647]

You need to get the antenna high up above buildings.

[@lightingnut]

So how can I send a txt when I am out of cell range but have a couple of these mesh radios? One would be with me and the other would be in cell range. Is there a way to do it when using the app?

[@cef-ym3gb]

Cell is irrelevant. It's meshtastic to meshtastic device coms. Example: we both have phones with no sim in it and we each have a meshtastic device paired to each of our phones. The phone is essentially the keyboard for the meshtastic device and the meshtastic devices are communicating with each other over their LoRa radios to deliver the messages.

[@RoseliaLascala-s2f]

O'Kon Falls

[@blue1cee]

Any thoughts on the Lilygo T-Echo? I've got one in the mail. It seemed like the best device in its class but I haven't seen you feature it.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

It didn’t get a positive recommendation from the Meshtastic devs, so I haven’t featured it.

[@CruzMerz-w9m]

Schneider Stravenue

[@AshleySaltzman-k4x]

Julien Extensions

[@GlendaHornback-u9v]

Greenfelder Hills

[@BenthamKerwin-h9s]

Hayley Squares

[@CoyZumbrunnen-k6r]

Eliane Street

[@DawnYoung-h8f]

Percival Stream

[@JeanettaPrach-e2p]

Maggie Mountains

[@CrichtonBeck-x4j]

Enoch Isle

[@nikandr23]

sooooo... now you have Two Connected devices. or three. what next??

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Add more devices, then communicate.

[@BrookeKeith-m6r]

Morar Ranch

[@countryranger83]

I watched this video a couple days ago and got an idea to help push intrest in my area, BUT it feels like if more and more 'average citizens' started using the mesh, there would be some that would use the long-fast channel to send negative messages or vulgarity that the fcc might not like. If I start pushing this in the community people are going to come to me with complaints. What would be the best way to address them?

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Is this actually happening? Why don’t you just start this up and running before worrying about the little stuff.

[@countryranger83]

​@@HamRadioCrashCourseno it hasn't happened yet. I'm trying to think project management style with Murphy on my shoulder. I know how my geographic community works and that a large portion of them know how to and take pleasure in takeing something good and ruining it. I know it sounds cynical I'm just trying to prevent or plan for negative eventualities.

[@DuncanCorchero-n3n]

Alexa Spur

[@NicoleChoi-s9z]

Marvin Garden

[@BlakeHumphrey-l5f]

Celestino Wall

[@Bashirasgarovsz-c9l]

Delphia River

[@MackintoshPoppy-w8n]

Jones Valleys

[@Vaz_DeFerenz]

lol does it bother you that the grid in the backdrop isnt square with the camera

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Huh?

[@alexgraf3567]

Does plugging the heltec V3 into usb-c charge the battery?

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Yep! It charges LIPOs

[@FrankAnn-w2v]

Ratke Wells

[@YvonneAzure-r4v]

Wendy Rue

[@koldark]

Okay, this makes a bit more sense of why have one.

[@Coyot21]

Josh, i saw that you also have the Lilygo T-Deck in your inventory, have you attempted the Ripple firmware with it yet to eliminate the need for your cell phone interface?

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

I have not.

[@Coyot21]

@@HamRadioCrashCourse dang! I was hoping you had so i could pick your brain on how to get it working correctly. Hope you enjoy your trip. I will look forward to seeing your videos this week. Thank you for responding.

[@JuliaSimona-b8l]

Nikolaus Lights

[@GilbertCarol-z3u]

Carlos Via

[@syverjove]

Found out about it because of you, haven’t started yet. Thinking about setting up a repeater in my area since no one else has so far.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

You should!

[@syverjove]

@@HamRadioCrashCourse RAK wireless makes some pretty cool enclosures for their meshtastic line. Integrated antennas and everything. Anyone you know have any experience with their stuff?

[@MegFerdinand-w9i]

Nya Fort

[@A-a-ron480]

Thanks I will look for more.

[@GregOstravich]

Thanks. Had a challenge with a cable that I think was subpar as you mentioned could be an issue. Used my wife's MacBook with a UCBC to USBC and found the correct port and could flash it. Also turning off the other device(s) not in use and then adding the new one was helpful.

[@xSikks]

The app looks so much more polished on iOS.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Indeed.

[@HopkinsIngemar-e6o]

Ally Freeway

[@thomasmelton7073]

You spoke about printing the case as was wondering what printer you used.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Bambu Labs. They are all great.

[@ordyy89]

I love this channel.👍

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Thanks!

[@MyTube4Utoo]

I wonder if that's the international sign for communication at 00:11. 😆 Yes, Meshtastic is getting *HOT* around here. Thanks for the video.

[@drhdirutomich2458]

skech ?

[@KaciStacks-t9k]

Greenfelder Brook

[@corsavic1]

Best video for mesh' it is easy to follow thank you ..m7etk

[@HouseOdelia-d3j]

Lempi Vista

[@SusanRobinson-e6t]

Runolfsdottir Villages