NDTC Off-Grid Messaging Board

From Chris Bolton on the mailing list, 10 May 2026 14:31 UTC

The North Devon Technology Club now has an off-grid group messaging board that utilises the Meshcore LoRa low power radio network.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with this technology, it uses small inexpensive radio transceivers that operate on the licence free portions of the radio spectrum reserved for industrial, scientific, and medical purposes to provide an off-grid, low power long range (LoRa) communication network.  Suitable hardware can easily be powered by solar and does not require any connection to the internet or data networks to operate.
*Important: be sure any device you buy is for operation on 868Mhz which is the primary LoRa frequency in the UK compliant with Ofcom’s IR 2030 regulation for license-free operation*

There are 2 main platforms on which extensive LoRa communications networks have been established, they are Meshcore and Meshtastic.  The club's messaging board is on the Meshcore platform and broadcasts its presence on the network every 3 hours.  It appears on the public channel as the "NDTC Message Room" password = hello

The Meshcore network is becoming well established in N Devon and we're particularly well endowed with repeaters that extend the coverage of these low powered devices.

If you're interested in being part of this project the Meshcore website ( https://meshcore.co.uk/index.html ) provides all the information you need to get started with LoRa communications.  I'm still learning as I go and it would great to have you along on this journey

From Rowbs on the mailing list, 10 May 2026 15:38 UTC

I seen a post about this the other day and I'm out at High Bickington and would love to set one up to and join in. I will have a look at it and see what I need to buy and the price.

From Chris Bolton on the mailing list, 10 May 2026 16:21 UTC

Hi Carl,

If you go to the meshcore website and click on "set up your device" (even though you haven't got one yet) it will present you with a much wider selection of compatible devices than if you click on "get a device".

The Heltec V3 and V4 boards are amongst the widely available cheaper options, but you would need to 3d print a case or just ask on the group if you don't have a printer

From Thomas on the mailing list, 10 May 2026 22:03 UTC

Hi Chris,

This looks very interesting, how much of North Devon is covered by the Meshcore network?

I have been experimenting with Meshtastic nodes myself so I'm quite interested in this.

Thanks,
Thomas

From Chris Bolton on the mailing list, 10 May 2026 22:26 UTC

Hi Thomas,

Welcome to the group!  Looking at the Meshcore map ( https://meshcore.co.uk/map.html ) , it appears that North Devon is well served with repeaters so in theory we have RF good coverage.  In terms of activity I monitored quite a lot of messages on the public channel yesterday but less so today.  However, I have only been experimenting with my devices indoors with the stock mini antennas.  My next step is to get the Meshcore "message board (room) server" up into the attic with a proper antenna.  If you have a spare Meshtastic device it's an easy job to reflash it with the Meshcore firmware and give it a go👍Where are you based?

Best Regards

Chris

From Patrick Lidstone on the mailing list, 11 May 2026 15:26 UTC

A Meshcore to IRC bridge could be a fun project?

Patrick

From Neil on the mailing list, 13 May 2026 17:40 UTC

Knowing nothing about LoRa comms, MeshCore or Meshtastic and indeed never having dabbled in amateur radio at all, I started looking at Meshcore on Youtube to try to get some basic understanding of what is going on. The technology is very interesting, though I'm not sure I personally have a use case for it, but immediately I started to read about war having broken out between the original authors of MeshCore and someone who has tradmarked "MeshCore" and seems to be trying to make money off it. It looks like *meshcore.co.uk* (which is linked above), is controlled by the trademarker who is charging £8 for a Meshcore license. That seemed odd for what I thought would be open source software and therefore free. Meanwhile the original team that developed MeshCore can be found at meshcore.io ( https://meshcore.io/ ) and there is a blog entry at https://blog.meshcore.io/2026/04/23/the-split describing their point of view on what's going on.

All this may not matter for people who just want to use MeshCore but it might be worth looking at meshcore.io ( https://meshcore.io/ ) before parting with any money.

From Chris Bolton on the mailing list, 13 May 2026 18:05 UTC

Hi Neil,

Thanks for pointing this out👍I was only vaguely aware of this controversy and over the last few days set up all of my devices via *meshcore.co.uk*.  I think the licence fee is only applicable for certain hardware devices that have to be unlocked for use with Meshcore, but it's still worth bearing in mind.

I set up a Heltec V3 ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CX58J6P6 ) device today, which at £23 provides a low cost entry point into lora mesh comms if anyone fancies a dabble?

From Thomas on the mailing list, 14 May 2026 09:45 UTC

Hi Chris,

Thanks for sharing the map, it does look very well covered compared to Meshtastic and seems like it's more orientated towards a bigger shared network than Meshtastic is currently.

I currently have two fixed nodes currently for Meshtastic, but I use a private channel (all in South Molton) and I can get a pretty good range across the town with one in my attic and one in someone else's. I used a third battery powered one to walk around and see the kind of range I could get.

Regards,
Thomas

From Chris Bolton on the mailing list, 14 May 2026 12:48 UTC

Hi Thomas,

I dabbled with Meshtastic 12 months ago but found it all a bit chaotic and also LoRa APRS which I couldn't see the purpose of outside of balloon tracking😉  In the meantime Meshcore seems to have really taken off with enough repeaters in operation to make long distance communication over RF a reality.  This is an example of the routing that I'm seeing from the messages I'm receiving: