The short version
A mesh network is a set of small radios that pass messages to each other. When a resident sends a text, the nearest radio hears it and repeats it. The next radio repeats it again, and so on, until it reaches everyone on the channel. No single radio has to reach across the whole town, and no cell tower or internet connection sits in the middle.
The pieces
Solar relay sites
Each relay is a weatherproof radio with its own solar panel and battery, mounted on a host home, a business or a high point like a water tower or grain elevator. Relays run day and night, through outages, without anyone touching them. In Minnesota’s November we see batteries holding above 90 percent.
Resident devices
Residents connect three ways:
- A phone app. The free Meshtastic app pairs a phone with a small radio over Bluetooth. The phone needs a charge, not cell service.
- A handheld radio with its own keyboard and screen, for people who don’t want to rely on a phone.
- A countertop console with big buttons, for older residents or anyone who wants a simple “I’m OK” and “Need help” at home.
The hub and city dashboard
A hub radio connected to a small computer listens to the whole network. It powers a dashboard that city staff can open on any laptop or phone: every site, its battery and signal, a live map, and the message history. The hub sends alerts when a site goes quiet, a battery runs low, or someone sends “Need help.” It can also broadcast National Weather Service warnings to the town channel.
Channels
We set up a public town channel that anyone with a compatible radio can read and post to, and an encrypted channel for city staff and responders. Town-wide channels are not private, and we tell residents so.
The radio side
The radios run Meshtastic, open-source firmware used by thousands of communities worldwide. They use LoRa, a long-range, low-power radio method, on the license-free 902–928 MHz band under FCC Part 15, at under one watt. No license is needed.
LoRa trades speed for range. A message is a short text, around 200 characters, not photos or voice. That’s the point: short texts get through when nothing else does.
What decides coverage
Height matters most. A radio on a rooftop reaches much farther than one in a window, and a radio on a water tower can cover a whole small town by itself. Trees, hills and metal buildings shorten range. That’s why every project starts with a coverage drive: we drive your streets with test radios and measure where the signal actually reaches before we pick sites.
How we set it up
- Coverage drive. We map where signal reaches from candidate high points.
- Site plan. We pick relay sites and recruit host homes.
- Install. We mount every relay and the hub and test each link.
- Launch. We train staff and hold a sign-up night for residents.
- Monitor. We watch every site and handle repairs.
See pricing or how it played out in Kasson and Mantorville.