Video Summary
The presentation, hosted by the Boerland Amateur Radio Club and facilitated by Hamnet (the emergency communications division of the South African Radio League), examines the rapid growth and practical application of MeshCore and Meshtastic networks in South Africa. Hamnet’s involvement is driven by the need for resilient, license-free communication systems that can bridge disaster management teams with the public when traditional infrastructure fails during storms, load shedding, or other emergencies. The network has expanded quickly in Cape Town, reaching over 120 nodes in just three months, with active participation from both licensed radio amateurs and unlicensed citizens.
Both platforms utilize affordable LoRa hardware on license-free frequencies (primarily 868 MHz and 433 MHz in South Africa) to enable encrypted direct messaging, public channels, private groups, and IoT telemetry. While no operating license is required, all users must comply with ACARSA regulations, which cap transmission power at 27 dBm (500 mW) and enforce a strict 10% hourly duty cycle. These limits are necessary to prevent interference with industrial telemetry, smart meters, and alarm systems that share the same spectrum.
The two networks differ significantly in architecture and efficiency. Meshtastic relies on managed flood routing, broadcasting messages across all repeaters up to a maximum of seven hops. This ensures wide initial reach but generates higher background noise and drains batteries faster due to frequent autonomous location beaconing. MeshCore, conversely, uses learned path routing that remembers optimal routes, minimizing broadcasts and supporting up to 64 hops. This creates a quieter network, extends companion node battery life, and allows virtually unlimited virtual channels. MeshCore also features room servers, which act as offline digital bulletin boards capable of storing messages for users who log in later—a valuable capability for disaster coordination and asynchronous communication.
Each platform excels in different operational scenarios. MeshCore is optimized for dense urban environments and city-wide infrastructure, offering predictable routing without channel saturation, making it ideal for neighborhood networks, community alerts, and disaster management fallback systems. Meshtastic remains stronger for tactical, ad-hoc deployments, search and rescue operations, and real-time team tracking in remote or mountainous terrain, supported by mature visualization software. While a MeshCore SAR app exists to provide similar tracking and template-based alerting, it is still undergoing field testing.
Proper configuration is essential for interoperability and compliance. In South Africa, users should select an ITU Region 1 preset (such as EU/UK Narrow), which automatically sets the center frequency to 869.618 MHz, bandwidth to 62.5 kHz, and spread factor to 8. The CRC error correction should be set to 8 for improved noise resilience, and the duty cycle must be manually adjusted from the default 50% down to the legal 10%. Repeater placement on high sites with integrated solar panels and battery backups is highly recommended to ensure continuity during power outages. Users are encouraged to slightly offset their node locations for privacy and to utilize tools like MeshMapper to visualize network coverage, signal strength, and repeater performance.
Successful deployment requires community coordination and respect for property rights; installing repeaters on municipal or private structures requires explicit permission from owners. To prevent radio desensitization, Meshtastic and MeshCore antennas should not be mounted horizontally adjacent to each other; vertical stacking with at least one to 1.5 meters of separation is preferred, or horizontal placement with a minimum of two to three meters between them. The preference for 868 MHz over 433 MHz in Cape Town was driven by the higher legally permitted transmission power (500 mW versus 100 mW), which compensates for the lower frequency's reduced penetration. Looking ahead, Hamnet plans to formally engage disaster management authorities and encourage broader community participation through regional Discord channels and suburb-based groups. Reticulum is also highlighted as a promising future protocol that supports multi-path routing across LoRa, internet, and HF radio, though it remains in an exploratory research phase. New users are advised to actively announce their presence on public channels and test equipment from elevated locations to ensure line-of-sight connectivity.
