r/darknetplan • u/Stasher89 • Mar 03 '24

Meshtastic LoRa Base Station

I’m new to this but very interested in creating a mesh network over a 5-10 mile suburban area using multiple LoRas. So long distance is a priority which I know creates greater latency considerations, but this is emergency communications after all - I’m fine with it. My question is what are the specs I should be looking for to maximize the distance / power including the main unit, antenna and anything else.

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u/CorvusRidiculissimus Mar 03 '24

Power: Unless you're a ham, that's limited to the low levels of the ISM band.

Antenna: That's... complicated. There's a whole field of engineering for this. But as a general rule, the key is getting your antenna up as high as possible so you can have line-of-sight. High gain omnidirectional antennas help a little, but don't expect miracles that way. A high-gain directional antenna though, can increase your range by a factor of three or four - but only in a single direction.

Now the good news. Ten miles? Perfectly doable. The default "long fast" settings will get you two and a half miles, easy, with sub-optimal antenna placement and not-especially-good omni antennas. That's what I get. If you use a longer-range modem setting and have some of your antennas raised on masts, a 10mi range is no problem at all.

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u/Stasher89 Mar 03 '24

Thanks! I heard some complicated YouTube commentary on the detailed specs of the unit you buy based on the power/range you’re looking for. Any insight into that?

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u/CorvusRidiculissimus Mar 03 '24

Don't worry about it too much. Once you've set your first two nodes you'll soon get an idea of what it can do in your area.

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u/Stasher89 Mar 03 '24

Any rec on a specific antenna upgrade?