Off-grid texting for the desert and beyond
Send messages with no cell towers, no subscription, no internet.
Small, cheap LoRa radios pass your texts from node to node across miles of Arizona. Learn how it works, pick a device, and join a mesh near you.
- 902–928 MHz
- US license-free band
- $13+
- cheapest node
- 331 km
- record ground link
How it works
Mesh radio in three steps
-
A small radio pairs with your phone
Your phone talks to a pocket LoRa node over Bluetooth. The node does the long-distance part.
-
Nodes relay to each other
Other nodes and hilltop repeaters pass your message along, hop by hop, over miles of line of sight.
-
Your friend gets the text
No towers and no data plan. It carries short texts only and can't reach 911, but it keeps working when the cell network doesn't.
Pick your path
What do you want mesh radio for?
Each path explains the setup and recommends a good, better and best device.
Hiking and off-grid travel
Share GPS and text your group in canyons and on back roads with no cell service and no monthly fee.
Start with RAK WisMesh TagEmergency preparedness
Keep family and neighbors in touch through monsoon storms, wildfires and outages that knock out cell service.
Start with Heltec MeshPocketEvents and festivals
Coordinate your group when thousands of phones overload the cell network at a festival, race or conference.
Start with Seeed SenseCAP Card Tracker T1000-ENeighborhood and city meshes
Help build a permanent off-grid network with solar repeaters on rooftops and hills that anyone can join.
Start with Seeed XIAO nRF52840 & Wio-SX1262 KitSensors and telemetry
Read weather, water tanks and remote sites over miles of LoRa with no Wi-Fi or cell service.
Start with Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V4Ham radio crossover
Licensed operators can use more power and amateur bands with Meshtastic's licensed mode, as long as encryption stays off.
Start with Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V4Two firmwares, same radios
Meshtastic or MeshCore?
Most devices can run either one, but the two networks can't talk to each other. Join the one your local group uses.
Meshtastic Meshtastic
- How it relays
- Any node can rebroadcast (managed flooding)
- Max hops
- 7 (default 3)
- US default
- LongFast · 250 kHz · SF11
- In Arizona
- Arizona Meshtastic Community (Phoenix to Tucson)
Good for groups on the move, events, tracking, and starting with no infrastructure.
MeshCore MeshCore
- How it relays
- Only repeaters relay; routes are learned and reused
- Max hops
- 64
- US preset
- 910.525 MHz · 62.5 kHz · SF7
- In Arizona
- AZCOREMSH statewide project
Good for city-wide networks built on fixed repeaters, and chat rooms that store messages.
Local
Mesh networks in Arizona
Start here, then browse 230 groups across the US and the world.
Guides
Get your first node on the air
Community