Why do we need a MeshCore network?
While there are other methods of communications when emergencies hit, most aren’t available to the general public without training and a license. A MeshCore network is a community driven and supported network that is used for secure individual or group chat communications when standard communications are down.
For many of us using MeshCore, it’s a preferred communication method for secure and stable communication once the network is established in an area.
So, why don’t we just use Meshtastic since it’s been around longer?
The short answer is, it doesn’t scale well. It works great for small groups of people, but as more folks are added, the network gets overwhelmed and can’t keep up with the traffic. Although, this seems to be less of an issue as Meshtastic continues to make improvements. MeshCore handles larger amounts of traffic better due to how it handles the communications. There are plenty of youtube videos and articles that compare MeshCore and Meshtastic. The long answer is, many in the community have both.
How much coverage does Lexington currently have?
MeshCore relies on repeaters for coverage and We’re still ramping up. so if you get involved now, we ask that you BYOR (Bring Your Own Repeater), so you can help grow the infrastructure, it’s not hard, nor very expensive and we are happy to help get you started if you need some help.
If you’d rather not setup a repeater, that’s fine too. The network will expand over time, but with your help it will more quickly. Here’s where we currently have repeaters in the area, not all are able to talk to each other yet, and we have plans to add more.
Our short term goal is to get a few connections from Man O War to downtown which will help us get more communication around town.
To see a live connection, take a look at MeshCore Analyzer.
What network settings is Lexington using?
Lexington us using the standard US settings:
Frequency: 910.525MHz
Bandwidth: 62.5kHz
Spreading Factor (SF): 7
Coding Rate (CR): 5 (however, you can set to 8 for a bit more stability. This is slower and will be less of an issue as more repeaters get added).
We have a couple of channels to get you started:
The LexKY Chat Channel is for more localized chat in the Lexington and Surrounding Areas.
LexKY Test is for communication testing to do range tests on repeaters and standard communication tests.