I don't have any problems with doing experimental stuff as a HAM. That's the biggest reason I am a HAM. In the US Meshtastic is based on LoRa under ISM regulations (47 CFR part 18) in the 900MHz band. The ISM band in EU and Africa (Region 1) is 433.05 to 433.79 MHz. The Meshtastic "Channel" translates to a frequency. I can't encrypt Amateur Radio traffic here in the United States. I prefer a much better link budget on 433-434MHz where LoRa is permitted, along with higher power -- legally. Read their documentation: https://meshtastic.org/docs/settings/channel
I retired from the smart meter business and we had LoRa field experience on a large scale. It works, obviously, but it doesn't always work as well as Semtech predicts. For one thing, real-world noise isn't always Gaussian and multipath can be a pain in the neck. In a non-ham environment, we had additional challenges such as long-term energy consumption on LoRa devices powered by small batteries and the rather slow effective bit rates for payloads. Beware that the noise floor at 434 (and at 868 in rest of world) is rising, year over year, as more unlicensed IoT devices come on stream. With those caveats, I wish you success.
Yes, the noise floor is rising with more and more wireless devices coming on line. I don't think that trend will slow in the near future. I can definitly see that no matter the modulation used, noise in the channel is going to be an issue. I believe that APRS will need to grow more noise immunity through forward error correction. Multipath in a different issue altogether. Perhaps if APRS could send the data, alternating between several channels that multipath could be remedied. With a reboot of APRS and not controlled by Bob Bruninga, the protocol can evolve and overcome some of the issues that the old AX11 based APRS faces. Thank you for your encouragement.
FYI Meshtastic firmwares support an amateur radio flag that disables encryption among other things, and the T-Beams, and RAKs both have 433 MHz flavors. Not sure if this is a new thing or not.
https://meshtastic.org/docs/software/python/cli/usage#ham-radio-support https://meshtastic.org/docs/faq#what-is-the-benefit-of-using-a-ham-license-with-meshtastic
Interesting. I clicked on your map and it displayed a wilderness area - hundreds of miles from my town in unpopulated bush Alaska. Is this the same map used to track ones location?.
My issue with APRS, is there is no error correction, at all. I used to run APRS, before my coax messed up here at the house and mobile. I also used to run standard packet radio back in the 1990's. The thing I liked about packet was there was error correction and ACK packets. APRS has not of that. If they bring that to APRS, I'd like it alot more.
I know this thread is a little long in the tooth, but I have been working on some LoRA hardware with a couple friends. We're not ready to start demo'ing anything yet, but here is a sneak peak at the hardware. Jason K4APR
LoRa APRS has been doing a very good job for us in Douglas county, Colorado. We have been using it for about 3 months and the results have been better than we anticipated. We primarily started it for use with our ARES group, as we like to have APRS tracking on our human resources in the field during weather spotting or events. As an alternative to using the "normal" APRS on 2 meters, we thought we would give LoRa APRS a try on 70 cm. So far, all of our iGates are at member's homes or offices, and since most members live in communities with HOA restrictions, antennas are limited to attics or spare rooms. No mountaintops or towers have been involved up to this point. Despite that restriction, the results have been very good. Just driving around the area while commuting to work or going about personal business, we have managed up to 42 miles (67.5 km) in coverage area. Most folks with trackers have added an amplifier to get to 10 Watts, but some are using the 100 mW output of the T-Beam board. So, does LoRa work well for APRS tracking purposes? Absolutely!
Great thread. Is there any up to date tutorials on getting started? Latest hardware and software? I found this video from a year ago: but I wonder if devices and development have gone well beyond. Paul, K0OKE
I used this one...very detailed step by step...but there are many others of course. Use the translation function in YT. Another one is this, but for an absolute beginner maybe too simple, not soooo much in detail: The hardware is in his link included. Take care that you have the 430 MHz version. 73 Andre
Thanks to everyone here. I am new to all of this although I have used 2 meter APRS for years. Even though I love that APRS, I have wondered if it could be improved. When I saw the Ham Radio Crash Course demo of Meshtastic, I wondered if a marriage between that capability would be possible, but I just wasn't sure if it would all be legal here in the US. I ordered a couple of boards (far easier to troubleshoot APRS if you have 2 transceivers) which arrived a few days ago. I am still reading and watching videos a lot. I have seen most of the videos cited here. Any suggestions offered would be appreciated. Mark, KE6BB
I got my LoRa APRS gateway up in Rochester, NY. So far, I've only seen packets from my own LoRa tracker
