How to setup Meshtastic and ATAK

[@SixtyAteWhiskey]

Alright let me clarify a few things. 1. I am dumb 33cm does not equal 15 in, my b I used American math. 2. Taiwan utilizes 920-925 MHz for Lora 3. I stated that LoRA does not NEED repeaters, not that they can’t or don’t utilize them at all. 4. Yes LoRA has a confirmed transmission record of over 830 mi and a confirmed 1 to 1 transmission through Meshtastic of over 200mi. 5. I figured it was slightly obvious if you really read into the Meshtastic documentation, but that 830 mi number comes at the requirement of having line of sight. If in a congested area you will likely need a repeater nearby. I am sorry for any confusion or undue anger I caused with not clarifying. In my anecdotal experience I have been able to TX/RX across my city which has several elevation changes in between, which is what I based the rest of this video on. *I am not trying to be intentionally misleading.* It was a mistake. 6. LoRA at 915mhz in the US, which is what I reference in the video later on, does not require licensing to utilize for LoRA. 7. it is not that deep, I am not being paid by Meshtastic or anyone else to make this video. I DO have affiliate links which I have placed the appropriate warning there to alert people as to such. I thought this would be a decently fun project for people to do and possibly a form of disaster communication if SHTF. www.thethingsnetwork.org/article/new-lora-world-record-1336-km-830-mi meshtastic.org/docs/overview/range-tests/ www.data-alliance.net/blog/lora-long-range-wireless-for-internet-of-things-iot-frequency-bands/#:~:text=LoRa%20Frequency%20Bands&text=915%20MHz%20in%20North%20America,868%20MHz%20in%20Europe

[@maxdelayer]

For much of the past week most of my city has been without cell service or internet due to a hurricane (not to mention water and power in some places) and it's surprising to me how powerless I felt without any connection to the outside world or way to check up on local friends who live closer to the disaster zone. Most people are getting news for food/water distribution and what stores are open via a local FM radio station. I was very jealous of the first person I saw with a walkie talkie - made me wish I got into radio as a hobby earlier. It's very funny to me that as soon as I get cell service back and can watch youtube, this is on my feed. I assumed this type of option existed but had never researched it, and this video is a super helpful breakdown of how to get my foot in the door on this hobby. Definitely going to learn more about this so that I'm prepared in the future!

[@antistupid4712]

Get yourself a cheap baofeng, learn chirp, you are now a local warlord. Hold your territory and build a posse asap.

[@protectyour2a482]

I’ve utilized this recently on an elk hunt and it worked fantastically guiding a friend in on an elk from the opposite ridgeline. This would also work well for cases of natural disaster/ cyberattacks. It definitely has its role in a handful of situations

[@JODmonn]

This is going to be so much useful in basecamps, treaking routes, natural disaster and so many other things.

[@affordabledcgenerators1607]

I have a rugged Ulefone with a giant battery. No cell plan, use it with my Garmin messenger, bring it when I travel, has a wifi phone number. I don't bring my personal phone with sensitive data anywhere in case it is compromised. This would make a great addition to have meshtastic capability and ATAK. Thanks for the video!

[@orsmplus]

Meshtastic + ATAK is awesome. I use it when I'm out prospecting with my mates - we can share the locations of our finds. We can communicate that a 3rd party is in the area. We keep a PaxCounter at base camp to alert us to anyone coming near our camp while we're away. We can add old maps as overlays with the rubber sheet. And we can do all of this without any kind of wireless/phone reception.

[@imaginsharky]

11:48 the RoN police theme is actually so fitting for presentations like these, I plopped it into a presentation I had to do and I got compliments for that section great video by the way, one of my friends were hit by Helene.... we're all looking for alternatives to cell now

[@wilmertoorn2773]

And so good sir, you have found another subscriper. Good video. Clear information. No shenanigans. Very much appreciated.

[@0p.4]

Great video -- I'm not a LoRa expert however, just a kind correction: LoRa works like wifi, so yes there are no routers, switches or bridges but the AP itself does blast the signal out to all devices until it finds a recipient. Because of this, if an ARP is sent out to 'node a' that is meant for 'node c' a single point of failure can occur if 'node b' (which knows where to send it after 'node a') goes down. It's important that all nodes are either within range of each other or that you have a redundant node up that detects "hey 'node b' is down, reroute traffic through 'node 2' instead".

[@williamhelton1644]

Agreed, the opening statement of this video is very misleading. You still need infrastructure or you will find these device have very limited range in real world environments. Buildings and hills block radio signals. You either need tons of users spread around with their own nodes or better yet, nodes on towers and roofs. Nodes at high elevation will bounce the signal over or around obstructions.

[@contabilidade00imperiocont95]

From mato grosso here. This is so cool.

[@Adidas_Altyn]

THANK YOU FOR THIS im so glad there is more content on this, im gonna make a few for me and my friends

[@waylonk2453]

There are numerous reasons why I shall subscribe to your channel

[@JohnyR0b0t]

@sixtyatewhiskey bravo man, you need to do more of these. Clear concise and relevant. Very easy to follow- you got me fired up about some Meshtastic and you got a subscriber

[@thomasrichuno]

Great video, gonna look into this for comms with my family. Thx 👌🏻🤙🏻

[@phildf2447]

Didn’t realize ATAK was available to the civilian market, thought I was about to witness a COMSEC compromise video

[@ReeseMacalma]

This is some really great info, thanks for making these kinds of videos - I'm really looking forward for more.

[@_personoid_5897]

I love it when you post!

[@TheOfficialArgo]

I wonder if somebody with skill could make an ATAK version of the Mestastic firmware for keyboard enabled devices like the T-Deck. Cut out the middleman of the phone, and have 1 less battery to worry about dying.

[@Manonsilvermountain]

Great video! Btw, Lilygo T-deck comes with console, so it's all in one. Give it a try!

[@Fish-Green_tea]

Hey! That map at 3:15 in your video shows Taiwan and China in the same color, but Taiwan government actually provides 920-925 MHz for Lora/IoT.

[@SixtyAteWhiskey]

@@Fish-Green_tea good info, thank you!

[@orcus7877]

Amazing video

[@Vikingza]

Thank you for the very interesting video. How could one track the meshtastic node with internal GPS on ATAK using a Lora Noda as a receiver?

[@JohnWeland]

I’d like to build a handful of stationary nodes with a admin, public& private channel. Then have a bunch of mobile units that only talk that private channel for ATAK.

[@wampyr88]

Hi what phone case would you recommend? Juggernaut only works with phones I don't have

[@joemama.556]

is there any way to turn off packet forwarding for all the other channels but mine? I see that feature as a severe security concern, it would be very easy to make a lora device emmit constantly and locate it via radio direction finding since this is a well knowm system everyone can make your device retransmit packets of data. not to mention battery savings which could be crucial in a tactical/emergency situation

[@JNET_Reloaded]

my lcd screen dont work how do i get a static default bluetooth pin and what is the pin? isit 12345678? cant remember ??

[@aaroncarey1584]

So do I have to have t-beam one or can I use the other one and use the GPS from my phone and still show on ATAK?

[@Hchris101]

Very cool 😎

[@dalenvigil]

Except that the "long range" part is only theoretically true, and in practice entirely false. Point-to-point it is MUCH shorter range (like low single digits) because despite glossing over the physics of RF, it doesn't mean they don't exist. That "long range" requires direct line-of-sight, with highly directional antennas, with absolutely nothing in the way. There aren't any mountains in between the ocean and a cliff on the coast of the Iberian peninsula. They work for farmers because farms are built on flat (practically speaking) land. They work ridgeline-to-ridgeline because there's nothing in the way. You can get miles ridgeline-to-ridgeline, but you can't reach valley-to-valley despite being even closer in physical location. Those LoRA pirate nodes on all those mountain tops in Utah worked BECAUSE THEY WERE ON MOUNTAINTOPS. Can't change the laws of physics. Same reason you can talk to the ISS with a cheap $25 walkie talkie and a handheld yagi, but can't talk to your friend on on the other side of town with the same walkie talkie. Public safety radios work in similar frequencies to LoRA in the US. Public safety radios require a metric boat load of repeaters to actually keep first responders in contact in an urban environment. Same thing for LoRA if you're wanting actual distance, you need a bunch of repeaters all over the place. Which in practicality means you're having to install a bunch of powered LoRA nodes all over wherever you want to create your mesh. A couple LilyGO's ain't gonna cut it, you need actual infrastructure, which means height, power, and location access. The idea that you're gonna grab a couple boards of AliExpress and go off-grid but still be able to contact someone across the country is entirely crap. The truth is, with a robust and highly saturated network of nodes, these aren't much good beyond your neighbor down the street.

[@SixtyAteWhiskey]

I feel like me providing anecdotal evidence to the contrary on the point that LoRA is really just LOS and not LR would do no good in trying to dissuade you in your belief, so I’ll refrain from doing so. I understand your apprehensions and respectfully disagree. I don’t disagree however that LoRA’s power does diminish with objects in the way of the TX/RX. I’d urge you to experiment with these “Ali express” boards for yourself and see what they can do. Overall this was meant as a fun project, (while still being adept enough at possibly acting as disaster comms) I’m quite surprised by how strongly people have reacted. I did not intend to cause such intense responses.

[@dalenvigil]

​@@SixtyAteWhiskey I've put together around 20 full mesh networks using LoRa over the past couple years, for a number of individuals and groups and got in on the Meshtastic train when your only option was to compile it from the Github and sideload apps on your phone. I guarantee I have sufficient experience with Meshtastic and mesh networks, including everything from commercial hardware down to the AliExpress dime a dozen pieces of hardware. Does it work in specific circumstances? Absolutely, and it's an incredible tool when utilized correctly. Is it this uber-off-grid country crossing rally the troops in a natural disaster with a $35 device and a vape battery? Absolutely not. The issue is that videos like yours, along with many many other avenues of information, are only telling a small part of the vast array of information on the topic, and glossing over the rest of the iceberg of context. You're neglecting to point out that outside of highly controlled experiments utilizing specialized equipment and specifically narrow parameters, these just won't do what you're espousing they're capable of. The plural of anecdote isn't data. So while you might personally have a set of circumstances where you can get two nodes to talk across a small town or city, you're not pointing out that these successes are not par for the course and to get reliable and repeatable results on that scale isn't just you and your buddy ordering some Wisblock kits off of Amazon. It's like claiming that wifi is this great long-range internet pipeline because two guys on mountaintops in Italy managed to pass some data back and forth 190 miles away, while neglecting to inform your audience that you have to have a range extender just so you can connect to your wifi router from the second floor. I don't think it's some nefarious conspiracy or anything, it's just providing limited content to your audience without the (very important) rest of the context. The issue is that it's very incomplete content and doesn't echo the reality of what it takes to make this actually functional for the purposes you're (collectively) stating it's capable of. And since the internet collectively has a gnat's attention span and just wants to give some Bezos bucks for this "OMG new tech to turn you into a Red Dawn Wolverine," this lack of credibility remains. I'd be willing to be that for every pair of Meshtastic devices sold, maybe 10 percent actually get used with any regularity for the intended purposes you state in your video. Just like all of the other prepper whiz bangs that end up unused, most just sit in a drawer after Jethro finds out he can't talk to his hunting buddies 3 states away from his iPhone in his underwear and he's "encrypted with military technology so the feds and the fish cops can't track him." Although I do have to commend you for pointing out the myriad of other uses where this technology actually shines in its intended purpose. I've saved several farms and ranchers tons of money and headaches with this stuff, properly designed and implemented for specific purposes. My point is, they're great units with lots of really cool capability, and within a certain scope they're amazing. However, there are a metric butt ton of caveats that just don't get talked about and 99% of the audience will never take the time or effort to expose themselves to it and figure it out. And the more that this lack of information gets echoed, the more people have unrealistic expectations and will continue to waste money, or god forbid try and rely on it in a sporty situation where they actually need to get the message out and it fails miserably. Don't get me wrong, it's not nearly fleecing people like the "end-of-the-world" radio games some companies are playing, but it's kind of disingenuous to your audience to give them incredibly unrealistic expectations through omission. Again I don't think it's nefarious or anything, I think you just have very limited experience in a very narrow scope with some successes that have colored your understanding of things.

[@SixtyAteWhiskey]

Okie dokie

[@Killertomatoe01]

What was the random phone you ended up buying for the ATAK? Asking for me cuz I wanna set up a dedicated system

[@SixtyAteWhiskey]

@@Killertomatoe01 it was a Galaxy A03s, although I’d try and find a different one as that one can’t be OEM/bootloader unlocked (I tried for 5 hours).

[@antistupid4712]

Look at Moto g power devices. Can be unlocked from Motorola directly, long batt life, can also be loaded with Lineage. Welcome to a deep rabbit hole lol.

[@SaphireSystrine]

:o this is really cool!

[@cringesellsbutwhosbuying]

Hi, I apologize in advance if the request requires too much effort, but any chance of seeing a comprehensive video on the channel with a breakdown of police (including SWAT) gear and weapons? I remember you did a video on your own gear, but the question here is a bit different. I'm planning a gear sheet for my airsoft team, and in my region it's common to base it on real troops/units, and because of the great respect for police officers we decided we would base it on the image of the US SWAT. I realize that unlike the military, police restrictions are not always as strict, but I'd like to outline the boundaries nonetheless. I tried to do my own research, but it was not very successful.

[@alr5373]

I'm quickly learning how Al is being implemented into TVs, Cell phones, and computers to teach itself about it's environment then report back to those in power. This tells me that I shouldn't use a GPS in my setup. Unless I can constantly spoof the location to somewhere like Epstein's island. But even then it may mess up the routing of the communication. I've got a question for anyone who really understands the software of meshtastic: Does any of the information in the communication include any unique id? If so, can it be spoofed?

[@AtticusG3]

Afaik ATAK TAK Civ and the entire "TAK" project are US GOVERMENT projects. They are closed source. This video doesn't state otherwise, so no fallacy in the video, but for security minded folk this is a big concern to be aware of.

[@DTHRocket]

There is NO WAY you are sending a message 830+ miles on a LoRa radio without a ton of repeaters and/or nodes in between.

[@SixtyAteWhiskey]

@@DTHRocket hackaday.com/2023/09/15/new-lora-distance-record-830-miles/ meshtastic.org/docs/overview/range-tests/#:~:text=Current%20Air%20Record%3A%20206km%E2%80%8B

[@MAGICMESHROOM]

Ya a little misleading