Mesh devices require very little energy to receive (“RX”) signal and then translate the signal into useable data.
Transmitting (“TX”) signal, however, requires much more energy to accomplish. Hand-held (“pocket”) Meshtastic devices typically transmit with about 0.25 watts of power. For reference, other communication mediums like WiFi can often broadcast at a full 1 or 2 watts (and the signal frequency can penetrate walls and floors much more easily than ours 913mhz signal) and the cell towers that broadcast to your mobile phone are going to be broadcasting with anywhere from 100 to 1,000 times that power.
It’s very common when activating your first Meshtastic device that you will quickly see a lot of activity – Nodes popping up in the list, chatter on the public channel, etc…. but whenever you send a message you get the sad Cloud-With-A-Slash icon (or the iOS “Max transmissions reached” status)… what’s the deal? If I can hear them, why can’t they hear me?
That’s just the nature of the beast. In order to successfully transmit to the mesh from a pocket node, it will need to be within relatively close range of another node capable of hearing the message from where it was sent, which is often indoors. That’s the big step… the barrier that we all must cross. But that’s why it’s a mesh. There are nodes all over the place in advantageous locations and altitudes that are eagerly listening for your node so that they can repeat your messages to the other nodes that they can communicate with.
The most reliable and helpful way to successfully propagate your messages from indoors at home is to install an outdoor node somewhere nearby, typically immediately outside of the place you live or work, as high as you can safely get it and reliably access it for maintenance.
There are several ready-made Meshtastic devices made specifically for this purpose. Often they are solar powered, and generally aesthetically similar to something like a cable or internet junction box or water meter box.
Here is a short list of MSPMesh-recommended pre-assembled “HQ” nodes from reputable sellers (please avoid eBay and Amazon at first!)
We ALWAYS RECOMMEND that you consult with the helpful community on our Discord server before spending any money on a device and ecosystem that has a very steep learning curve.