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579 points todsacerdoti | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0.657s | source
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nunobrito ◴[] No.44287588[source]
OK but kind of outdated and incomplete. Meshcore is largely competing with Meshtastic nowadays: https://meshcore.co.uk/

To remember: LoRa only permits small text messages. Don't even think about images, voice nor binary files (I mean it).

Another option is APRS using satellite connections through a cheap chinese walkie-talkie (Quangsheng UV-K5) for 20 euros to send text messages.

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ChrisMarshallNY ◴[] No.44287701[source]
Huh. Hadn’t heard of Meshcore before. Thanks for that. It sounds more organized than Meshtastic. Seems more polished, but also a bit more opaque (from my cursory examination). That may just be, because it’s not had as much time to get established. It has all the open credentials.

From her article:

> Their answer was both depressing and freeing: “You can’t. All you can do is be prepared with tools and a plan for when the crisis arrives. That’s when the organization will listen.”

That is so sad, but also, so true.

I was fortunate to have worked for a company that is over 100 years old, and that had weathered a couple of wars, depression, recession, market disruption, etc.

They were about as open to disaster planning as anyone, but they could also be head-in-the-sand knuckleheads. The biggest thing was the company had a fiscal and cultural conservative bent; quite unusual in the tech industry, these days.

Anyone that has managed a DR system, knows how difficult it is to get support. Disaster Recovery is expensive, resource-intensive, and difficult to test. It is also stuff people don’t want to think about. Sort of like insurance.

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nunobrito ◴[] No.44287801[source]
My suggestion as someone preparing for this kind of stuff since quite a while:

+ Quangsheng UV-K5 + Android phone with 3.5 mm audio jack + APRSdroid installed

Forget about LoRa, that is basically a toy. It is far more useful to have a functioning walkie talkie capable of talking with satellites and other stations at 50 kilometers of range.

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MaKey ◴[] No.44287849[source]
You need a ham radio license to send data on APRS frequencies.
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1. dahrkael ◴[] No.44287986[source]
i always wondered if in case of natural disaster/war the state does really have the time and resources to chase unlicensed use of radio frequencies
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2. detaro ◴[] No.44287991[source]
it doesn't, but if you only start learning and using your equipment once disaster has hit you are a bit late (and possibly getting in the way of others trying to use radios properly).
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3. nunobrito ◴[] No.44289941[source]
Yes, that is the case. By the time you learn and get more equipment, you might as well get a proper radio license too. If you are interested on the topic, it is worth doing (in my opinion)