Getting Started

Hardware

You will need at least a personal, handheld node that will be your direct connection to the mesh. Additionally, most people need a “roof” node to create a reliable first hop to the area infrastructure.

If you don’t already have a device, see our list of recommended complete nodes.


Meshtastic

To connect to the wide-area Meshtastic network in the NYC area…

  1. Ensure your node is on the latest Beta or Alpha firmware
  2. (optional) Enable LoRa > Ok To MQTT to show on the map/chat

Personal/handheld/mobile nodes

  1. Role: CLIENT_MUTE
  2. Position: disabled, or
    • enable smart position
      • smart interval 30 minutes or more
      • update distance 100 or more
    • disable altitude
    • GPS polling interval: 30 minutes or longer
  3. Telemetry: off
  4. Device info: 18 hour interval or longer
  5. LoRa hop limit: 5

Stationary/fixed nodes

  1. Role: CLIENT_BASE*
  2. Position: disabled, or
    • disable smart position
    • enable altitude
    • GPS updates and broadcasts: 24 hour interval or longer
  3. Telemetry: off, or at least 6 hour interval if remote
  4. Device info: 24 hour interval
  5. LoRa hop limit: 3

Radio settings

Current primary mesh radio settings:

Preset
Long Range - Fast
Frequency slot
20 or 0
Public channel name
LongFast or blank
Public channel key
1 byte, AQ==
Explanation of the settings

The above settings are necessary to keep the network in a high-performing state. The Meshtastic default settings are oriented toward small-scale meshes that require frequent background packets to be effective. However, on large meshes these defaults are unnecessary and quickly create congestion that reduces the utility of the network for everyone. Reducing this extraneous background traffic as much as possible is essential for preserving the usefulness of the mesh.


MeshCore

To connect to the wide-area MeshCore network in the NYC area:

  1. Ensure your companion node is on the latest firmware

MeshCore radio settings:

Preset
US/Canada recommended
Frequency
910.525 MHz
Bandwidth
62.5 kHz
Spread Factor
7
Coding Rate
5

Increase coding rate if you find your messages are not getting received. This setting is cross-compatible.

For repeaters:

  1. Set zero-hop auto advert interval to 180 minutes or more
  2. Set flood auto advert interval to 12 hours or more