DX Explorer and the Thinknode Meshcore M1 transceiver

There is a new video from DX Explorer about the Thinknode M1 LoRa transceiver. 

Where he lives Meshcore seems more common than Meshtastic. 

Range is always better if there are more stations in the mesh and there are well placed repeaters. As time progresses things will continue to get better. 

I have no idea which system is more popular in your area. I see that Amazon sell these.

Meshtatic, Meshcore and LoRa

It seems to me that very few radio amateurs now experiment. 

Most just want to talk or tick off more DXCC entities using modes like FT8. Most have no idea how their expensive black box works! Sadly, very few now embody the true spirit of amateur radio. 

In 20 years there will be little left of our hobby.

The new challenge seems to be LoRa, Meshcore or Meshtatic . This is licence free technology. It seems to be in its infancy, much like amateur radio was in the early days. I have not dabbled in this...... yet. 

The problem at the moment seems to be there are few nodes in rural areas. As this system relies on meshes, not the internet, the more users the better.

LoRa

Interest in licence-fee and internet free 868MHz mesh communications seems to be growing. 

People are looking for a means of communication that does not need the internet as a backbone. Some are motivated by cyber-attacks on the internet. Others want it to communicate locally. Some just want to experiment. 

In my view this is still immature much like the internet in the early 1990s.

As more and more people get active, things get better. 

Meshtatic and MeshCore - NOT amateur radio

Some people look for ways to communicate that do not depend on the internet. I have no experience of these which use licence free Lora to join up stations without the internet. 

In theory, if the network is big enough almost anyone should be able to message anyone. I have no idea how large these meshes are.

The aim is to have nationwide (or even international) networks that allow text messages to be exchanged in public or as a private message without the internet.  

It looks like apps are available for Android or iOS phones.

There is a map of Meshtatic nodes.

LORA DX

On Amateur Radio Weekly yesterday was a small yagi to extend the range of LORA systems. They were claiming a range of 40km, although I expect that was line-of-sight. LORA is a long range, licence free, data system using spread spread spectrum techniques.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoRa .

LoRa

LoRa modules are available from Amazon and I expect quite a few other sources. To my knowledge, two people locally have experimented with 868 MHz LoRa modules. I am not sure if this was for commercial reasons or just for fun. 

As far as I know, anyone  may use the licence free ISM bands (certainly in the UK) as long as the interface conditions are met. This often means low power and the acceptance of interference. At 868 MHz there are some odd duty cycle limits I think.

If you do not have an amateur radio licence, this may be a route to experiment.

LoRa devices at 863-870 MHz

 As far as I can gather, this band is licence exempt in the UK and may be of use to experimenters. I have not read the regulations wrt ERP etc.. 

It may be of use for short-range experiments over a few kilometers. I expect there are several RF modules available.