Comments by "Bond25" (@Bond2025) on "Setting Up MESHTASTIC Off Grid Communications!" video.

  1. No one uses KM in the UK, we are still in Miles and Miles per Hour, we also use GBP or £ as currency, not Dollars or $ as people from the UK often start quoting incorrectly.
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  2. It's not the same thing, you need to consider they are only around 100mWatts RF output. On 868MHz that doesn't go far in a built up area, it needs to be high up or using a really good aerial, or both. Walkie talkies can be 5Watts RF and work down nearer 440MHz. RF at different frequencies works very different in different locations. My favourite band in 4M or 70MHz for base to mobile coverage, nothing beats it! DABradio should have used that band.
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  3. Don't see the point, it was like when my local substation broke and the whole area was without power. Massive groups of people took to the streets with torches walking up and down. Very very odd behaviour. Everyone will just be asking what happened and block the network completely.
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  4. So did I - but mine was a week ago, they are in UK Customs right now!
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  5. That should be a dynamic feature of the software and other equipment should build up a list. Don't forget Radio Amateurs have had the Packet Radio network since 1988 using TNCs over radios. LoRA software could be developed a lot as most of the errors were made with amateurs and fixed.
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  6. It makes NO difference unless the glass has some metallic coating or you put it near a metal frame. On glass it makes no difference to RF.
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  7. Test the antenna on a radio with SWR meter! If it works on 2m it will work on 70cm as they are directly related. If it doesn't work on 70cm then it can not be a reputable retailer.
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  8. They can be around 100mWatts. Enough to get in to a bigger RF amp.
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  9. The loss on the coax is too great, most of the signal will be lost unless you have LMR400 or Heliax. You could get a plastic box and put the PCB in , then use a very short piece of coax and a long USB lead to power it. You would be better off getting a 2inch wide piece of plastic pipe, sticking the board and a 868MHz aerial inside at the top under an end cap, then running a thick USB cable down to power it, or use a thick power lead joined on to a USB plug. Forget the discone, it's not a very good design of antenna. You are better using a dedicated 868MHz antenna. If you are high enough, look at the plans for a Slim Jim and scaled them for 868MHz, make it from a piece of copper wire and connect it to a pigtail and use this inside the pipe with the circuit board. This gives a much better local coverage than those fake "high gain" colinears on sale. I used a SJ on 1090MHz and it was only about 18cm long and 1cm wide. Get experimenting. With LoRa there is no advantage with high gain aerials as they have a much higher angle of radiation, so useless for local blanket coverage compared to the Slim Jim.
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  10. Almost the same, they were a PDA with a walkie talkie function and could send data and work in a mesh system. Not sure of the frequencies they used now. I was wondering if a patent had died off. I remember some models of mobile phones also had a PTT feature to talk to others locally.
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  11. RF circuits should be in a metal and grounded enclosure. I intend to line one of the Bender cases with a stick on foil and grounding it. I will also use an adapter to add some filtering to the end of my USB power lead before it is plugged in.
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