NEPAMesh
Meshtastic Enthusiasts in the Northeast Pennsylvania Area

Latest

05
Sep
A ThinkNode Meshtastic handheld node on a workbench, its screen showing 77% battery, 8 GPS satellites, 2% channel utilization, and the node name Meshtastic 3b90

The 900 MHz Band Fight: What's Actually Happening to Meshtastic's Spectrum

A spectrum grab and a bandwidth rule nobody had read collided on the 900 MHz band this year. Here's what's real, what's not, and what NEPAMesh is doing about it.
8 min read
31
Aug
A LILYGO T-Deck handheld Meshtastic device shown from front and back, with its QWERTY keyboard, screen, and exposed ESP32 circuit board visible.

August on the Mesh: The Node That Wasn't a Plane

MeshShadow's airborne flag caught a node reporting 11,924 meters this month. It wasn't a jet. It was a handheld GPS having a bad day.
5 min read
24
Aug
Two RNode LoRa radios next to a phone showing live Reticulum status output, all resting on a laptop keyboard

A Primer to NEPAMesh on Reticulum

How NEPAMesh's public Reticulum transport node came together, what it actually does, and how to point your own instance at it.
34 min read
24
Aug
NEPAMesh BBS welcome screen showing a green ASCII art radio tower and mesh node network on black background

The NEPAMesh BBS: A Complete Guide, Windows Install to Downloading Files

Installing Reticulum on Windows, connecting to NEPAMesh's own off-grid BBS with no password, and touring what's actually running on it.
7 min read
22
Aug
Terminal window showing a Python script establishing a Reticulum link to the NEPAMesh Off-Grid node and printing its rendered index page, listing the six most recent mirrored articles

NEPAMesh Off-Grid: NEPAMesh Articles on Reticulum and NomadNet

NEPAMesh's blog now has a second home on the Reticulum network: a NomadNet node called NEPAMesh Off-Grid. Here's how to reach it and what it actually offers today.
4 min read
15
Aug
M5Stack Cardputer with LoRa and GNSS radio module clipped onto the top edge, showing the full QWERTY keyboard and screen

M5Stack Cardputer Review: A Meshtastic Node Owner's Take

The Cardputer's pocketable form factor is a real strength, but the add-on LoRa module, poor charging documentation, and 6 to 8 hour battery life hold it back.
3 min read
13
Aug
A diagram of a mesh network topology, showing multiple nodes interconnected by redundant links rather than routing through one central hub.

Meshtastic vs. MeshCore vs. Reticulum: What Each One Actually Does

NEPAMesh has always been Meshtastic. Here's how MeshCore and our new Reticulum backbone compare, and how to get on all three.
11 min read
10
Aug
The NEPAMesh live map showing Meshtastic node markers scattered across the Wyoming Valley region of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

NEPAMesh's Four Dashboards, Explained: Map, View, Monitor, and Propagation

NEPAMesh runs four Meshtastic dashboards, and each one answers a different question. Here's a plain English walkthrough of what each shows and how to read it.
7 min read
07
Aug
The silhouette of a jet airliner seen head-on against a sunset sky, with its contrail glowing orange in the last light.

July Follow-Up: What's New in MeshShadow

A passenger jet exposed a bug in NEPAMesh's node count. Here is the fix, plus what else is new in MeshShadow this month: proactive router health warnings and a way to claim your own node before it goes dark.
7 min read
01
Aug
A self-supporting amateur radio tower with antennas mounted on a mountain ridge at over 4,000 feet elevation, similar to the ridge-top router sites NEPAMesh depends on for coverage.

July on the Mesh: A Coverage Drop, a Silent Router, and Numbers That Don't Agree

A cat knocked loose an antenna connection at BMBF, and we thought that solved it. It didn't. Two routers are still missing, and the mystery is still open.
5 min read