Meshtastic Long Lines Relay Tower Station

BE AWARE! Always have antenna connected before setting the frequency. Radio chip might get damaged when tx is active with no antenna. Keep coax cables as short as possible and use as few connectors as possible. Both are attenuating signal that is quite weak in the first place, so keep that in mind when going for the ultimate range. Good video!

Comments. 1) please don't set the node interval to 5 minutes, it's unnecessary and in newer firmware you can't go lower than an hour. When a node hears a packet from a node it doesn't know, it will send it's node info and request nodeinfo from that node. 2) please run the 2.3.X firmware it has many improvements for keeping channel utilisation under control, but also comes with one exciting benefit - which is a hopcount - but in order for everyone to benefit all nodes need to be on 2.3.X if you are on 2.2.X and everyone else is on 2.3.X they won't see the hop count if any packet passes through your relay.

That’s the best guide on flashing the firmware. Most guides rip through the motions so this was great. Thank you.

I love the “Long Lines” title! I’m a telephone enthusiant (phone nerd), and I think it’s awesome that you’re using the same name AT&T did. Keep up the awesome work.

LOL "Road Trip from Toronto' was me.

Awesome video, I would suggest connecting an antenna before flashing to ensure you do not damage the Helte

Instead of adding more LMR 400 as you mentioned, I'd consider reducing the length of what you already have there. The shorter the better, especially with that weak signal to begin with. Great video, thanks.

Good change that the modules are somewhat broken.. you NEVER can power on the modules without antenna!

Awesome video!

Great how to video. Happy Easter, God bless.

You may want to ponder the idea of a small vent hole in the bottom of that box to drain the condensation that will always form on the inside of the box. Humid air enters the box through barometric pressure then condenses. The water tight seals will retain the condensate on the inside of the box. I have experienced this in the past with satellite TV systems.

The GPS signal serial output can be split between the two or more modules! So it can be synced together for both time and location if you want!

I'm always fascinated by your videos. Thanks for feeding my nerd brain. Keep it up dude! ❤

Good and informative video! Keep in mind that if you fire up the heltecs (or any other meshtastic device) WITHOUT an antenna connected it might fry the radio circuit.

Nice stuff Peter! Funny that you start messing with these the same time I am. Interested to see some of the fun stuff you do with them!

Thanks, Peter 👍

great job!!

If you're creating a static node, you can just quickly option to allow GPS position from your Android device and it will stay with the node. So you don't need to have a physical GPS in the system. It will continue to broadcast its location

It's a shame the relay station will count as two hops. In busy areas, people often set max hops as low as 3 to avoid overloading the network. It's also advised not to set the beacon interval to a much lower value than the default in busy areas for the same reason.

Amazing!