So I see no thread here, so I'm going to start it here

All discussion about Meshtastic and Meshcore, even Reticulum is welcome here

Hoping my parts arrive today to give me a build this weekend. Then have a play

@S0X I've also found Meshtastic to clog up and get unusable.
I think it'd be a nice comms for a camping party in poor signal locations, but for larger groups in cities, not so much.
Meshcore seems more streamlined from this point of view.

Whereabouts in London are you btw, can you share a partial post code or something? I'm in EN2, I wonder if geography would allow a yagi pointed in your direction.

Looking at the meshtastic/meshcore maps, there's no repeaters near me. I'm in the midlands though wondering if it's worth throwing up a unit on a pole at my Dads, as he's got elevated poles from amateur radio antennas.

The sites all seem geared to getting users and devices up and running on the mesh, but I'm struggling to see clear guidance on what's a good place to put a repeater/router? Appreciate it'd add an hop but would also (you'd think) give more reliable connectivity.

I need to get a client or two and have a play though I think.

Placing a repeater up high would be a great idea @Matt_2k34 - I think the old ham adage of "height is might" applies here, as well.

@Matt_2k34
if you look at https://meshrank.net/ and look at Repeater Rank, there's 826 meshcore repeaters that choose to be visible and countless more that choose to be hidden.

My closest visible meshcore repeater is N-Ise and South Rushden, I've managed to briefly get connected all the way to Cranford before so I know there should be a working relay in the area.

https://analyzer.letsmesh.net/ gives further information on meshcore locations.

https://meshtastic.liamcottle.net/ shows that pretty much the entire East Midlands dropped meshtastic and switch to meshcore.

Your top link is a maito fyi

Your top link is a maito fyi

how weird is that, and it still is on your reply you might want to edit that

https://analyzer.letsmesh.net/ gives further information on meshcore locations.

https://meshtastic.liamcottle.net/ shows that pretty much the entire East Midlands dropped meshtastic and switch to meshcore.

I'm on the east/wed mids border, so that kind of makes sense to what I've seen. A repeater in Coalville would be better than where I am as its higher, but there's quite a swing in geographical height in this area so it probably still makes some sense.

If I pick up something like a heltec or something with bluetooth, and throw it at a high point, Will I be able to see packet retransmit data locally from the device, or have to wait for it to update to one of the sites tracking them?

I'll have a proper dig around likely at the weekend / next week though.

meshtastic supported hardware

meshcore supported hardware

meshcore nightly builds which contain devices not listed above:

If I pick up something like a heltec or something with bluetooth, and throw it at a high point, Will I be able to see packet retransmit data locally from the device, or have to wait for it to update to one of the sites tracking them?

If you want to, go to https://meshrank.net/ click become an observer, and there is meshrank observer firmware for the heltec v3 to help accurately give a picture of how many repeaters there are locally.

nothing to stop you powering it via usb c and tethering it to your mobile and having a drive around etc.

meshcore has a tool to help detect repeaters

@S0X I think the Meshtastic network gets easily overwhelmed , this could be a factor, interference too, etc.
Sorry, I am not adept enough to give a better answer here.

It'd be lovely if I managed to get to some of you here on the forum.

A mesh thread!
Personally own three Heltecs, and a T-Deck that worked for a few hours then broke.

Find Meshcore to be really good where I live, Bedford/MK area.

Lots of like minded people, and often reach the Isle of Wight going south and sometimes Birmingham/Manchester going north.

Curated list of awesome meshcore links

I was looking at the Seeed Wio Tracker L1 Pro as my first attempt, but it looks like it is out-of-stock everywhere.

(As the reviews indicate that is less power hungry, and the larger antenna than the Heltec's is bound to help?)

I find the t1000e pretty reasonable for the price

A mesh thread!
Personally own three Heltecs, and a T-Deck that worked for a few hours then broke.

Find Meshcore to be really good where I live, Bedford/MK area.

Lots of like minded people, and often reach the Isle of Wight going south and sometimes Birmingham/Manchester going north.

Have you seen