If you dont use the default LongFast meshtastic is really empty. I switched my node to MediumSlow, since it’s like 86% faster than LongFast. I knew there would not be any in my area, so I subscribed to the msh/US MQTT topic and theres still nobody else. I’m going to leave it like that for a while and see if I hear anything during any kind of band openings or catch any other MQTT nodes trying out that topic. And yes, both uplink and downlink are enabled. I do know that there are some nodes in the Bay Area on msh/US/mqtt-bayme-sh, but I am not near their.
Depends where you are, I guess. Where I live, we use MediumFast, though first I had to find this information, in order to switch from LongFast. Maybe there are some meshtastic groups in your area? (like in Matrix/Reddit/Facebook groups)
Am I wrong to think that while meshtastic is still in its infancy there are other applications aside from just chatting? For example there is the whole element where you can have devices send useful information to a script that is outside of the internet. For example location data, events, weather even things like ATAK.
Don’t get me wrong it’s great to chat with people but this isn’t meant to replace something like the internet
I started reading about Meshtastic yesterday, and got an urge to set up a node even if (according to some maps) no one is near me. But then I started wondering, if I could reach another node, what could I do with that connection? What is it used for? Is it more about technically being able to send messages without an ISP. Do people use this for any real application?
Most don’t upload their location to any of the node maps,l
I would use the default if you want to connect to other random nodes.
Changing it makes sense for private meshes, not for joining the public though.
Well, eventually some people are going to have to change, especially those in suburban or urban areas will probably need to go into at least medium or short range modes just due to the density of nodes. I live in a small city (~50k pops) and was just checking around to see if anybody else was in one of the faster modes. But at least as of yet, I don’t see anybody. So for now, long fast is fine, but there will come a day when it no longer will be.
Yeah I don’t think meshtastic is the right choice for dense areas, even on faster methods it will quickly get overloaded.
From what I understand, you can have several hundred nodes easily on the fast modes. That is definitely a quick overload compared to your traditional cell phone network. But there are not that many people with Meshtastic and not that many events where the super fast modes are even required. Even in large metropolitan areas, I’m only seeing upwards of 30 or 40 people on MeshMap, and obviously that’s not showing everybody because that’s opt-in, but that would still be well within the range of the fast modes.
There’s no one on long fast where I live
How high is your node?
I live on a hill, mostly above the city.
I’ve tried 3db and 5db antennas. Also walking around the city.
Verified my nodes work and can talk to each other.
Occasionally get an unknown node from a passing train or a message from a flight.
I think there’s just no users here tbh. South east England.
I think a lot of the UK has gone over to meshcore but at least personally I wouldn’t use it because the app is not open source and I refuse to use anything that’s not open source if I can at all avoid it. https://meshcore.co.uk/
Also, keep your antenna game down. That 3DBI is fine. And even the 5DBI is okay. But much higher than that. And you’ll start to see problems with elevation changes. Not wanting to let your nodes communicate.
