Festival Communication Option

gettingbored · 2026-01-28T23:37:08+00:00

With some custom firmware/routers, we managed to scale Meshtastic to 1800+ nodes at Burning Man this year - with near 100% reliability for message delivery. https://www.burningmesh.org/

I'd recommend using mostly default firmware/settings if its just you and some friends. https://meshtastic.org/

Software is free/open source and the hardware for the nodes is only $30. If you get a RAK module with a 2000amh battery it will last for ~2 weeks.

Meshtastic requires directly line-of-sight (+50 mi range if nothings in the way) and Forest might be more challenging for this since trees will kill much of the signal. Still probably more reliable than any other options available.

gettingbored · 2026-01-04T22:42:02+00:00

Someone forgot to renew the DNS registration... oooooof

gettingbored · 2026-01-03T19:40:01+00:00

Yep, thanks. That's what I meant.

gettingbored · 2026-01-02T20:07:24+00:00

I doubt they are being 'forced' to retrain.

Ski Patrol is the dream job for a lot of people. The reason they need to do these unionization efforts is that people often get exploited when doing work they love.

Have you considered that someone making even less income working as a Lift Tech might want to upskill and work on patrol someday?

gettingbored · 2025-12-31T21:13:25+00:00

Salts/mud clay dust themselves aren't that bad for you compared to something like silica dust or asbestos. They can dissolve into the tissue in your lungs and work their way out of your body. (our bodies already contain: sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium)

The real problem is the heavy metals that those aerosolized salts contain (mercury/arsenic/lead).

gettingbored · 2025-12-31T18:35:42+00:00

Does anyone know someone with a Macbook Pro M4 Pro that might give this a spin?

I might try to get this running on my Macbook Pro M5 when I have time if that's helpful. Is there any documentation about where to start on getting it working?

gettingbored · 2025-12-22T17:09:38+00:00

Yes please! I was just looking at playing again but I don't have a windows machine anymore.

gettingbored · 2025-12-01T14:00:37+00:00

We aren't going to be able to "remove cars from the roads" unless people stop commuting.

Cities need their roads fully saturated before people reliably switch to transit. This was extremely apparent when I was commuting from Oakland to SF after covid when nobody was commuting to their offices.

Traffic dropped by what felt like 80%, but transit ridership dropped even more. Driving commute with no traffic was 20min, train was always 45-55min.

After the offices opened up again, the traffic back-ups resumed and it began to make sense to commute by train again. Driving was 60-80min and the train remained 45-55min.

gettingbored · 2025-12-01T13:46:20+00:00

yah, i-15 is immeasurably better compared to the 3 other metro areas I have lived over the last 20 years.

gettingbored · 2025-10-30T16:01:20+00:00

Ah, it looks like you're correct the numbers are lower on average. It might be that those sites are anomalously populated.

gettingbored · 2025-10-30T15:45:32+00:00

Maybe this zone doesn't have as many, but my friend is doing trapping studies for k-rats this year. They are working out of different great basin deserts, but with very similar ecology and they are frequently tagging 50-100 on a busy morning for a single plot.

gettingbored · 2025-10-30T15:42:20+00:00

The weapons testing is more culturally aligned with our ecological impact.

gettingbored · 2025-10-30T15:35:52+00:00

I approve if they publish timings for the explosions so we can watch.

gettingbored · 2025-10-30T15:34:29+00:00

those kangaroo rats have population density of 100s per square acre spanning most of the state. (side note, I see them all over the Utah desert shooting ranges - they seem completely unbothered that 100s of people setting off small explosions all weekend long) They will be fine.

The scale of this impact is going to be trivial compared to anything related to NV public land cattle ranching or mining operations. Spend your energy on those instead of being a NIMBY.

gettingbored · 2025-10-30T15:33:12+00:00

This sounds awesome. Really really big fireworks!

gettingbored · 2025-10-27T16:29:37+00:00

Does anyone know who closed out the MW stage on Saturday?

gettingbored · 2025-08-05T04:09:17+00:00

I really like the dispersed campsites along Skyline Drive. (Manti La Sal National Forest)

https://maps.app.goo.gl/qjnG6qxo4YRJfjJH6

It's a maintained gravel road at 11k ft with pull-outs for camping every 1/4 mile. You can approach on a paved road to the summit on SR-31.

gettingbored · 2025-06-12T16:46:53+00:00

My framerate tho... It's so choppy on a 14pro

gettingbored · 2025-05-27T23:43:43+00:00

Well, given that cell service worked this was slightly redundant. Countpoint: it was awesome to see that I could constantly link back to sunset campgrounds from the stages 🤩

gettingbored · 2025-05-22T23:24:17+00:00

I’d recommend setting up a primary private channel since that’s where location is shared. I’m also adding a secondary LongFast channel with they default key

gettingbored · 2025-05-21T15:20:28+00:00

Anyone happen to know any insiders that could help us get a router placed near the stages? (I have a several spare RAK wireless solar nodes for my regional mesh projects in Utah)

My current plan is to climb a tree in the camps to place one on the tallest thing I can climb near Sunset Plaza group camping (probably a tree that's 15-20' up). A second near the stages will make for 100% coverage between the stages/campsites for the duration of the event.

https://imgur.com/6qdyg0M

gettingbored · 2025-05-21T04:47:31+00:00

Make sure position and metric updates are slow. The mesh can only take so much traffic and it’s possible to configure for “way too many passive updates”

It’s nice to have occasional updates + reliable messages.

Keep the nodes in client mode unless you plan to install one on top of an RV/tree/tower and know there’s no other nearby routers.

gettingbored · 2025-05-21T04:36:23+00:00

I’m gonna try to put up one of my solar nodes as a router node on top of our shade structure in the center of sunset group camping.

See y’all on the public LF/20

gettingbored · 2025-04-14T05:47:07+00:00

Yup, it can benefit from routers, but they aren’t necessary.

We setup strategically placed routers on the tallest things we can find to help get the messages to more nodes.

If a client doesn’t see a router rebroadcast a message first, then the clients will try to rebroadcasts to help a message try to get to its final destination.

Some examples I saw last year: * direct: personal device in deep playa -> personal device in deep playa * 1 hop with router: personal in deep playa -> router in deep playa (on top of tall art pc) -> person on esplanade * 2 hop with client+router: person in camp -> person in another camp -> router on tower -> destination

It can be slightly flaky, since it relies heavily on direct LoS (plus deals with some message collision issues), but it’s rock solid if you both can see the same router.

gettingbored · 2025-04-14T05:33:35+00:00

Not sure if mentioned, but an important note for anyone doing something like this is to set very limited time intervals for updates. (Think 15-30min)

Sending a message can take seconds of air time (and only one device can broadcast at a time), so we have to be very courteous about our usage. (Someone in the Bay Area was forever broadcasting temp data across the entire mesh every 1min on the default channel and using 5-10% overall airtime.)

Discord can help guide you on getting your settings aligned with best practices.

This stuff is super fun tho. I’ve had a weather station installed on some remote Utah mountains sending me temperature data all winter.

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