Mike

Nanticoke, PA
Failed engineering student turned IT pro. Geek and amateur everything else. Tinkerer, ham radio op, heart attack survivor. Building mesh networks in Northeastern Pennsylvania since 2024, providing geek guidance since 2015 on thinkleet.net
03
Jun
Frequency spectrum display of a Meshtastic message on the medium-fast modem preset showing the LoRa chirp signal

LoRa Settings Explained: What Spreading Factor, Bandwidth, and Coding Rate Actually Do

Open the LoRa settings in the Meshtastic app and you'll find a screen full of options that look
7 min read
31
May
May on the Mesh: 321 Active Nodes, Two Airplanes, and LoRa at 20,000 Feet

May on the Mesh: 321 Active Nodes, Two Airplanes, and LoRa at 20,000 Feet

321 nodes active in the last 24 hours. That’s the number that matters. Also: two commercial flights joined the mesh over Pennsylvania at 18,000 feet and left position records in the database.
7 min read
29
May

My Meshtastic Node Isn't Working: A Troubleshooting Guide

Something isn't working. Maybe your node won't show up in the app. Maybe you're
8 min read
27
May
Roads washed out by floodwater, the kind of emergency where cell infrastructure fails and off-grid mesh radio fills the gap

When the Cell Towers Go Down: Using NEPAMesh for Emergency and Off-Grid Communication

In September 2021, the remnants of Hurricane Ida came through Luzerne County. Roads were underwater. Residents were stranded. People died.
8 min read
25
May
LILYGO T-Beam running Meshtastic in client mode on battery power

Meshtastic Node Roles: Why Most of You Should Be on CLIENT_MUTE

The role setting is probably the most misunderstood configuration option in Meshtastic. Most people leave it at the default, assume
6 min read
21
May
8x32 WS2812B LED matrix scrolling NEPAMesh messages in green

I Built a Glowing Sign That Scrolls the Mesh (Because I Had the Parts and a Free Saturday)

Boredom, spare parts, and the NEPAMesh MQTT broker. The result scrolls every mesh message across 256 WS2812B LEDs in real time. 3D printed case, open source firmware, full build guide on GitHub.
6 min read
20
May
Solar-powered Meshtastic node installed on a rooftop, running indefinitely off a small panel and battery

The Solar Node Build: Permanent, Off-Grid, and Surprisingly Boring to Maintain

Last January, a WisBlock-based node on our network went dark for about two weeks. Not because it failed, because two
10 min read
19
May
Aerial view of Blue Mountain and Kittatinny Ridge in Pennsylvania showing the ridge-and-valley terrain that defines RF propagation across NEPA

Node Placement in NEPA: Why Elevation Wins and How to Pick a Spot Before You Climb

The most common question after "what board should I buy" is "where should I put it."
8 min read
17
May
Meshtastic node being assembled in a weatherproof enclosure for outdoor deployment

Putting a Node Outside: Enclosures, Weatherproofing, and Not Destroying Your Hardware

So you built an antenna. Now you need to put it somewhere useful, which means outside, which means the elements
15 min read
16
May
NanoVNA pocket-sized vector network analyzer

Testing Your Antenna with a NanoVNA: What the Numbers Mean and What to Do About Them

How to calibrate a NanoVNA, connect your 915 MHz antenna, and read what the SWR graph is telling you. Covers homebrew and purchased antennas, what good looks like, and what to do when it isn't.
5 min read