Although it’s been two years since Ham Radio Crash Course put this video out, it’s the one that showed up on my feed one day, and got me looking into the this “rabbit hole” of Meshtastic and the devices that run LoRa communications.
In this video, Josh (channel owner) does a great job of explaining how the technology works from an end-user perspective and keeps tech talk and buzzwords to a minimum.
The video is a very high-level overview of LoRa connectivity using Meshtastic (firmware/app) from the basic use case of off-network communications.
Many videos and articles take a survivalist or grid-down approach to the tech, and while that is a strong argument for deploying such a communications network, but in my situation, It’s more of a hobby that I can tinker with, that could be used if everything went south.
I think that if there was ever a natural disaster or something where normal communication methods were interrupted, sure, these Mesh devices would probably work at least in highly localized areas, but in Battle Creek, there is a strong HAM community, and many people have family FRS/GMRS radios and would go to those first.
Battle Creek is probably not ever going to be a “hot spot” for Meshtastic, and as of early 2024, the technology is a lot more popular in Europe than in the US. Perhaps it’s understandable since the US communications grid is built out so well, that no one feels the need to “solve a problem.”
Regardless, if you’re like me and take a hobbyist’s approach to Meshtastic and LoRa, this is a very cool, “emerging” communications technology!