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579 points todsacerdoti | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.243s | 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OK but kind of outdated and incomplete.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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nunobrito ◴[] No.44287907[source]
Except under emergency situations, which are the cases we are talking here.
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detaro ◴[] No.44287923[source]
Things like this really benefit from experience and practice though. If an emergency is the first time you try to really use your radio, it's probably not going all that well.
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1. nunobrito ◴[] No.44288923[source]
That is indeed true. Practicing is important. To remember: APRS is available on other frequencies and methods, one does not need a radio license to receive text messages.

APRS is friendly enough to permit sending messages using normal internet and receiving messages from friends while on the outdoors. However, all of this requires practice and know-how.