joining the msp meshtastic network ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ if you're in the twin cities make sure to join medium fast instead of long fast ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ i decided to start getting into mesh networking and after a bit of research i thought it would be fun to try setting up a simple meshtastic node to see what's happening on the network near me. »»» what's meshtastic? ««« meshtastic is a decentralized wireless mesh network protocol built on top of the long range low power radio protocol LoRa. it lets people securely send messages and data to each other without depending on the internet to provide connectivity so it's really useful for communicating during natural disasters, in remote areas, or in other situations where the internet may not be reliable. there's a group in the twin cities that's set up a mesh network using meshtastic so i thought i'd buy the hardware and give it a try just to see if it's easy to get connected and to see who's already out there using it. »»» connecting to the MSP mesh ««« once i picked out a radio (this is the one i bought) it was actually really easy to get everything set up. the radio i picked out connects to your phone over bluetooth through the meshtastic app so once i got it out of the box i just had to turn it on and install the app. what i *didn't* do that i should have was search to see if there were any special settings i needed to connect to the local mesh network. i just used the defaults and was confused when i didn't see many other nodes or messages in the main channel. turns out the MSP mesh network uses medium fast instead of long fast - this makes sense since it's a dense area where messages probably won't have to propagate over long distances but the only way i could find this out was to find the MSP mesh website and read about it. so yeah, pro tip: google to see if there's a mesh network already set up near you and learn what settings you might need to change to join it. anyway, once i was over that hurdle everything just kind of worked. i'm not too far away from a router so i can message people as far away as elko, rogers, and even a couple nodes in wisconsin! »»» what's next ««« the next step for me is to set up a permanent node that provides some basic local info like weather, bus and train schedules, and maybe information about upcoming local events. something solar powered and with a battery backup is a must, as is wifi since i'll want to be able to remotely access the node and sync data from the internet. »»» resources ««« some resources i found helpful for getting started ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Cyberpony Express the high desert institute has assembled lots of good resources here explaining how to set up different kinds of nodes, what sort of hardware to look at, and more. MSP Mesh msp mesh has a really helpful page that includes all the settings you'll need to connect to the mesh as well as some good tips on how to be a good member of the network. the roles page in particular has some good advice for choosing a mode that won't degrade performance for other network users. WisMesh Pocket V2 i bought a WisMesh Pocket V2 to get started with meshtastic and it was very easy to set up and get on the network. you may be able to find one cheaper from other retailers, this is just a link to the manufacturer's site. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - written by peter beard on 2025-10-18, last updated 2025-10-18 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -