Starting from Zero: Your First Repeater Every community mesh started with one person who put up the first node. This page is for that person. The core insight A community mesh doesn't need to be large to be useful. A single well-placed repeater can cover a neighborhood, a rural township, or a county road corridor - and become the seed that grows a larger network. Start small, start working, and others will join. The minimum viable network You can have a functional, useful mesh with just: 1 fixed repeater in a good location 2 - 3 participants with portable nodes A well-placed repeater can cover a surprisingly large area. A rooftop-mounted repeater on the highest building in a small town can, under good line-of-sight conditions, reach much of the town and several miles of surrounding open farmland. Actual coverage varies widely with terrain, obstructions, antenna height, and the receiving nodes — hills, trees, and buildings can shrink it substantially, so treat "covers the whole municipality" as a best case to verify by testing, not a guarantee. Step 1: Pick your protocol Before deploying anything, decide which protocol your community will run: MeshCore Meshtastic Best if Joining an existing regional MeshCore network (CascadiaMesh, WCMesh, RegionMesh, NoDakMesh) or planning a larger community infrastructure Starting fresh with no nearby infrastructure; large global community; simpler initial setup Check first Is there existing MeshCore infrastructure in your area? (regionmesh.com — a third-party community site — and cascadiamesh.org; or map.meshcore.io) Are there existing Meshtastic nodes in your area? (meshmap.net — community map, opt-in MQTT nodes only) Key rule: Join the existing protocol in your area rather than fragmenting the community. Two separate protocols cannot interoperate. Step 2: Get your first repeater up The single highest-impact thing you can do is install one good, well-located, permanently-powered repeater. See the Hardware section for build guides. The minimum for a good first repeater: A device that can run 24/7 without attention (solar, mains, or long-life battery) Located at the highest accessible point in your area A quality external antenna (5 - 6 dBi vertical) mounted above obstructions. In the US 902-928 MHz ISM band the conducted power limit is 1 W (30 dBm); a 5-6 dBi gain antenna raises EIRP above the transmitter output, so be aware of the antenna-gain-to-EIRP relationship when choosing higher-gain antennas Flood advertisements enabled (so it announces itself across the network) A name that indicates location (e.g., MILL-HILL-SOUTH, TOWNNAME-WATER-TWR) Step 3: Tell people it exists A mesh nobody knows about has no community. Before anything else: tell people the repeater exists and how to connect. Post in local Facebook groups, Nextdoor, amateur radio clubs Add your repeater to the regional network map (contact your regional network admin) Put up a simple info page or join the regional Discord Reach out directly to local emergency management - they're often interested in off-grid communication options What to expect in year one Growth is rarely explosive. A realistic year-one trajectory for a rural or small-town mesh: Months 1 - 2: You + 1 - 3 curious early adopters, mostly testing Months 3 - 6: 5 - 15 active participants; a few more repeaters added by enthusiasts Month 6+: Real use cases emerge (emergency preparedness groups, ARES coordination, outdoor enthusiasts) The community builds around real use, not around technology. When people find a genuine reason to use it, they stick with it.