Our friend Jeanna recently asked me to help her get started with Meshtastic. She already owned some of the nicer devices, but couldn’t get them to work. As it turns out, one of them was defective and I think she would have been fine without me! But that little meetup did a couple of things:
- It forced me to dive back into my own abandoned Meshtastic journey, and learn more
- It ended up being a pretty impressive demo with my friend messaging with someone from Las Vegas, from inside a Los Angeles coffee house 😯
- I realized how many others are interested in Meshtastic but needed a little push like me, and/or didn’t know where to start
WTH is Meshtastic?
Meshtastic is one of two very popular mesh networking schemes running on top of LoRa (Long Range). In the US it’s in the 900MHz part of the radio spectrum. Having no experience anywhere near that part of the spectrum, this has all been very new and strange to me. Without an amateur radio license, a user is restricted to 1 watt of power in that frequency range by the FCC. That is very little power, especially when compared to a standard handheld two-way radio that puts out 3, 5, or more.
However, Meshtastic (and therefore LoRa) seems to punch above its weight, resulting in the occasional shocking moment. It reminds me of my first handheld (ham) radio not too many years ago. Learning about the limitations and strengths, researching and tinkering with the aspects that can be modified, and getting to know the community.
The community, by the way, reminds me of IRC (Internet Relay Chat) in its heyday- a Wild West composed of engineers, dirt bags, and everything in between, just civilized enough to keep it safe for work, but not free of R-rated nicknames. I think that’s a lot of fun. Much like in the amateur radio world, there are folks ranging from brand new and tinkering with a sub-$30 system, to folks generous enough to run high-power repeaters to benefit the community.
On that note, it’s worth mentioning that a licensed amateur radio operator can turn on an option giving access to more power in accordance with their FCC license, but also levying a few restrictions worth reading up on.
Gear: Portable Meshtastic Node
It is objectively good to have a friend with a 3D printer, and Chris (KI6CR) continues to be super helpful with prints like this awesome little case to make sense of my entry-level Heltec V3 and its friends. It's worth noting that this tiny screen is really just a novelty. You need another device to use it either via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. So, the build was:
- Board: Heltec V3 (order from heltec.org directly, or save some cash with the 3 pack on Amazon if you want multiples) [$20]
- Battery (Lithium Polymer): MakerFocus 2pcs 3.7V 3000mAh [2 for $15]
- Antenna: 915MHz antenna from Amazon [4 for $11]
- 3D Case: free for me, but ~$1.25 of filament according to ChatGPT [Thingiverse Link]
Total cost: $32 after the multi-pack discounts shown above
The Jank-a-Tron 3000™ Tree Node
Now the "rooftop node", or in this case tree node, cost considerably more to put together. If you know me, you know that we're renters with an huge tree in the backyard, and I hang a lot of radio stuff in the tree. More on that here if interested:
Mark Mutti
The prototype started off as a worryingly janky bundle of gaffer tape-connected pieces up in the tree, and the name Jank-a-Tron 3000™was born. So despite its quick evolution, the name remains. This project was worth it to me because without this node, I can't seem to get a Meshtastic signal out of the house for the life of me. As a ham radio guy used to more power: YIKES, that's a harsh reality.
So here's the build:
Gear List / Cost Breakdown:
- Enclosure: I went big to leave room for a future bi-directional amplifier [$22]
- Board: Heltec V3 [$20]
- Antenna: this is a no-brand antenna you can find a trillion sellers on Amazon, eBay, and misc. websites selling [$34]
- Filter: 915MHz band pass filter [$14]
- Charge Controller: Solar MPPT charge controller with USB out [$12]
- Battery: 10,000mAh Lithium Polymer hobby battery [$21]
- Solar Panel: [$16]
- Hardware: U-bolts from the hardware store. Cost not recalled but let's say: [$8]
- Misc:
- SMA Male to N Female adapting cable [$9]
- USB-C cable was laying around but one would be around: [$3]
- U.FL-1 to SMA Female Pigtail adapting cable [5 for $8]
- I had zip ties, and the arborist throwing bag/line laying around
Total cost: $178
With that, I really enjoyed putting this thing together but you may want to consider some turnkey outdoor nodes with solar built in for that price! The 10,000mAh is definitely over-the-top for the application, but I wanted to really be able to set it and forget it, even if the solar panel should be stolen by squirrels while I'm out of town. Eventually I’d like to make more use of the antenna‘s alleged 50W capability with an amplifier, and I’ll need some serious juice for that. The Heltec V3, by the way, draws power in the tens to hundreds of milliwatts, so that's one hell of a reserve for now.
So far the node seems to be helping out the area at least a tiny bit. I'll continue to evaluate its usefulness, and my enjoyment of Meshtastic (expanded on below):
/json/report endpoint (if you connect it to wi-fi)Conclusion: My Experience With Meshtastic
As of this writing on October 17th '25, Meshtastic is an intriguing toy in my toy box.
It has been equal parts impressive and disappointing, which has resulted in intrigue on-brand with the sadistic engineer inside of me.
The learning curve and possibilities for usefulness have been intriguing, and the financial bar low. I do see this maybe fitting into my emergency family communication plan, but there's more tinkering to do to see if it's a better fit than, say, GMRS repeaters.
NEXT: will an all-in-one portable node help me make more use of Meshtastic? I have one on the way and will keep you posted!
Member discussion: