OK, a buddy of mine has just thrown down the #Meshtastic gauntlet, possibly without realizing it.

The challenge: transmit messages between central Illinois and northern Virginia, without any non-LoRa backhauls.

His take is that Meshtastic is merely a proof-of-concept and something that can not be relied upon. He also said he doesn't see any real world use case. Maybe he's right, but either way, I want to blow his mind by getting a message to him. Even if we both need to be outside, I still think that'd change his mind about whether it can be useful.

I might be able to get some tower space here in Illinois, but we're going to need some high points in places like Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, Ohio and/or Virginia.

Who is down to help me do this or provide evidence to prove that it is not possible?

This has me all fired up now. I plan on joining the Meshtastic Discourse group to collaborate with people there and read up on what crazy rage tests people have done in my region of North America. Maybe the infrastructure is already partially in place? (I know it's not fully in place because I have done range testing where no mesh nodes received my transmission.)

#radio #LoRa #LFG #GrowNostr