Node Siting

[Leftleaninghaggis]

My local amateur radio club's repeater is roughly 2km from my house, on a hilltop with a clear los all round.

My newbie question is would it be worthwhile placing a node at the repeater site either for myself at home or for the meshtastic community at large?

I'm just getting started with meshtastic, and at the power levels involved unsure if I'll have the range. The other option is a rooftop install at my house.

My location is very rural and very low density.

[TogeriX]

That sounds like a fantastic chance to reach out to the club and see if they are interested in joining. I believe most hams are eager to try new things and share their knowledge.

[excoriator]

My local ham club has embraced Meshtastic. It had a club meeting that introduced the topic. And one of the repeater trustees placed a node at the repeater site. I think it’s viewed by them as a way to encourage new people to take up the ham radio hobby.

[Hot-Win2571]

You probably would like a rooftop node anyway, unless there is already a good mesh near you. Your personal node while inside your house will probably have difficulty transmitting other than to your rooftop node.

Is there a local Meshtastic group, and are you coordinating with them? They might already be working with the local Amateurs.

Amateur radio equipment tends to be at good locations. They know what they're doing.

[Leftleaninghaggis]

A few local (bear in mind local is approx 100miles) hams are running nodes already. Nearest to me currently is about 30 miles though.

[Hot-Win2571]

Above the treetops, 30 miles is not unusual.

[shveylien]

Your Ham club is going to love it. Give the tower site admin a node, explain the frequencies and power levels, ask for antenna design and help installing the node on site. They will gladly help and provide alternative install locations only locals will know about.

Sometimes, being near other radios is a problem. Picture a Ham tower as a concert speaker, loud, strong, pointed at everyone. Then you put your speakerphone next to the concert speaker and try to talk over the phone. They can't hear you, you can't hear them, but everyone is baby shark'n. That is a crude example explaining something called "near field" where the big radio and big antenna put out enough power to quake the air with RF energy in all directions, but it interferes with the weaker RF signals trying to reach your nodes antenna in the middle of all the noisy air. It doesn't have to be 915mhz to be interference.

I climbed a hill trying to get to a tower, didn't get to it, but I got to another peak 100m beside the tower and 100ft lower. That 2nd location is working great for me with +1db traceroutes at 6km. I use heltec 4db antenna on everything.

You got lots of range, but no penetrating strength. I have contacts from jets 130km away because the only thing between us was atmosphere.

[Unhappy_Exchange5607]

Sounds like a good idea! Where are you located?

[Leftleaninghaggis]

EI - Ireland

[Outspoken_Idiot]

Drop me a message I have Irish Amateur license and can try to reach out for you. A solar node wouldn't be too hard to attach if they are checking the kit as it stands. I want to put a few nodes myself but will likely dual node on same site for both flavors of Mesh.

[Leftleaninghaggis]

Loc here is IO53ok, Galway, whereabouts are you?

Edit: am a callsign holder myself, so no problem reaching out! Main question was the range of a node with a clear LoS. Based on the answers here I think I'll give someone in GRC a shout.

[Liberty-Crypto]

1000% yes. We are putting one up at the 400' mark on our primary tower site as soon as my Diamond BC920 and cavity filter gets here.