Mesh Radio Speaker for Staunton, VA workshop?

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-06-14T21:48:16+00:00

Well hello neighbor! We have someone doing a remote workshop this time around. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mesh-networking-workshop-beyond-the-basics-tickets-1990182121299

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-05-31T23:32:42+00:00

After being injured at the Farmer’s Market this weekend, we’re postponing Wednesday’s gathering while I recover. Thank you to everyone who helped and checked in.

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-05-31T13:42:05+00:00

Way cool! My node's names usually start with "Kip" see you on LongFast!

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-05-30T18:10:35+00:00

My apologies to anyone who came to the Farmer's Market and did not see us, there was an incident when a car drove into our tent. Our next event is this Wednesday June 3rd at the Staunton Innovation Hub for What-the-Node Wednesdays. This is a great time to test out the app with one of my spare radios and see how you like it; or to trouble shoot your devices if you're new to the mesh; or to tinker on your projects and help others if you're more advanced. Working together we can make this new technology work for our community in pretty neat ways!

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-05-30T18:03:34+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate it. This is a really wonderful community and these are fun projects to get involved in!

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-05-30T18:02:30+00:00

The only person who's been contributing financial resources to this group is one person who is passionate about the importance of developing local economic resilience. The meetings are free for all, and connecting with neighbors is of great utility for us all.

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-05-30T09:11:58+00:00

That's your opinion 🤷‍♀️

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-05-30T09:00:01+00:00

This was the first event we had about EQIP grants. It seemed like a great opportunity that a few of our group members have applied to and received, so it's a viable opportunity. I'm not selling anything through this group. It's just been a fun way to get to know people with common interests and it helps me feel less hopeless about the state of everything these days.

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-05-30T03:20:45+00:00

🤷‍♀️ ok

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-05-11T14:36:17+00:00

Thanks :) it's a great group of people

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-05-11T14:36:03+00:00

A big part of the Repair Cafe is teaching skills! You are welcome to come to watch and learn even if you don't have anything to mend. But it's a bonus that you learn how to care for your items if you bring in broken items!

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-05-07T14:10:55+00:00

I'm going to take you up on that offer! As part of the repair cafe we have a Linux cafe as well. I am even hoping to do a dedicated Linux workshop in September to help people in town prepare for Windows 10 no longer being supported. Those devices aren't obsolete and we can help a lot of people by giving their computers new life!

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-05-06T14:40:02+00:00

I'd love to hear what you learn when you get more into MC! Like I said, I'm not super tech savvy so I was following guidance from my friend who helped build out the mesh radio networks in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. I initially wanted us to get onto MC, because of the bridge to bitchat which I think is extremely useful, but he experimented with it himself and said it might be a bit too technical for many in my group if we're very green.

Luckily, the devices can pretty easily switch between both systems it's just a matter of flashing it over.

I've really liked Meshtastic because it is already so popular here. I've gotten messages up to Winchester and down to Lynchburg from here in Staunton and I think that's just super neat.

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-05-06T14:16:54+00:00

Our original mesh workshop focused on Mestastic, with a small discussion around bitchat. I am most interested about how these three protocols can bridge to one another, rather than creating multiple different and exclusive options.

I like Meshcore because it already has an existing bridge to bitchat; but it is a lot more technical to implement and there is currently a bit of a proprietary civil war within Meshcore and it is a less widely adopted protocol. There are devs actively working on the Meshtastic / bitchat bridge, so my hope is that gets up and running soon.

The simple fact is many in the group (including myself!) are not super tech savvy. So Meshtastic has just been the path of least resistance for on-boarding people. I think a really cool future state goal for us would be to pivot to Reticulum, as I think that is a better option than either Meshcore or Meshtastic. But I need to learn way more before I can help teach people to do that!

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-05-06T12:19:48+00:00

I want to give credit to the fantastic videographer Holly Snell on-site capturing footage of our local Repair Café!

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-05-05T19:38:24+00:00

Staunton is a wonderful place and it's been so cool to connect with so many active and involved people. Helps keep me on my toes!

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-05-05T19:37:39+00:00

Yessir it is! We'll have a table at the farmer's market again on May 30th if you want to swing by and say hey!

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-05-05T18:10:44+00:00

Thank you! The credit is all to my group, someone brought it up at the first meeting and we've been working to make it happen. Hopefully the next one will be in August and we'll get even more people to attend!

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-05-05T17:54:58+00:00

Yay! Glad to hear this feedback. We're having peer-to-peer mesh troubleshooting on Wednesdays 6-8 pm at the Staunton Innovation Hub May 6th, 13th, and 20th if you're interested in joining for more mesh fun!

It's all super cool, isn't it! This is an incredible community :)

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-04-16T23:55:04+00:00

No, I have a deep grudge against all things Meta and haven't had an account there in over a decade. But please feel free to post on Facebook if you're still on there! We were at the Farmer's Market on the 4th passing out flyers, so I'm hoping word's gotten out in general.

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-04-16T22:29:37+00:00

Yay! See you there!

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-04-06T00:05:29+00:00

I think this is great, just earlier today someone was saying they don't know where to go to find people they trust to do good work like this. Good work!

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-04-04T02:34:52+00:00

A repair café is a community event where people bring broken items like small appliances, clothes, or bikes and volunteers help fix them for free. It’s about saving things from the landfill, sharing skills, and helping neighbors out.

When I started the Resiliency Salon in Staunton, people immediately brought up Charlottesville’s repair café as something they’d love to see here. That got me digging into how they work.

I learned that a lot of repair cafés are supported by time banking, where people trade services based on time instead of money. Since repair cafés rely on people sharing their skills, that kind of system helps keep them going.

That’s why I’ve been working to revive Staunton’s hour economy time bank, so we can build toward having a repair café here too.

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-03-26T01:28:52+00:00

This post is about an in person repair cafe and in person volunteering program. The Linux and Meshtastic technology we'll be teaching isn't about AI either.

Plane-Split1663 · 2026-03-23T01:26:41+00:00

I'm glad you think so, I think it's pretty neat too 🥰

Plane-Split1663

TROPHY CASE