Documentation

• 1: Overview
• 2: Getting Started
• 3: Coming from Meshtastic
• 4: Contributing to this site

1 - Overview

What is Tri-Cities Mesh?

Tri-Cities Mesh is a community-run, off-grid messaging network for Kingsport, Johnson City, and Bristol. It runs on MeshCore, open-source firmware for small, low-power LoRa radios. Messages hop from radio to radio across miles of terrain, without cell towers, internet, or subscriptions.

People use it for hiking and outdoor trips, community events, emergency preparedness, and learning about radio.

How it works

Radios on a MeshCore network each have a role:

• Companions are personal radios that pair with the MeshCore app on a phone or computer. They send and receive messages but don’t relay other people’s traffic.
• Repeaters are always-on radios at high spots. They relay messages and form the backbone of the network.
• Room servers are small bulletin boards on the mesh. They hold posts for people who were offline.

Because only repeaters relay traffic, the network stays quiet and reliable even as more people join.

Why it matters

• Resilient. It works when the power, cell service, or internet is down.
• Community-powered. Each repeater someone hosts extends coverage for everyone.
• Affordable. A radio costs about $20–40 and there are no fees.
• Educational. It’s a hands-on way to learn about RF, antennas, and networking.

MeshCore is built for short text messages, not voice, photos, or streaming.

What’s next?

• Getting Started: set up your first radio.
• Coming from Meshtastic: what changed and why.
• Infrastructure: featured repeaters around the region.
• Live map: see who’s on the air.

2 - Getting Started

This guide takes you from no radio to chatting on the Tri-Cities mesh. Most people finish in under an hour.

1. Get a radio

You need a LoRa radio that MeshCore supports, for the US 915 MHz band. Some good options:

The MeshCore flasher lists every supported device. If a radio isn’t on the list, check before you buy.

2. Flash MeshCore

1. Open flasher.meshcore.io in Chrome or Edge on a computer.
2. Plug the radio in over USB and choose your device.
3. Choose the firmware type:
   • Companion (Bluetooth) to use your phone. This is the right choice for most people.
   • Companion (USB) to use a computer.
   • Repeater or Room Server if the radio will be a fixed, always-on site. See Running a repeater.
4. Click flash and wait for it to finish.

3. Install the app

The MeshCore app runs on:

• iPhone / iPad on the App Store
• Android on Google Play
• Web in Chrome at app.meshcore.nz

Pair the app with your radio over Bluetooth, or over USB for the web and desktop app.

4. Use the Tri-Cities radio settings

The Tri-Cities mesh uses the standard USA/Canada (Recommended) preset. In the app, open your radio’s settings and pick that preset. To set it by hand, use these values:

Frequency, bandwidth, and spreading factor must match the rest of the mesh, or you won’t hear anyone. Radios configured over USB serial can use this command:

set radio 910.525,62.5,7,5

While you’re in settings:

• Name: something people will recognize, such as your callsign or first name plus town.
• Location: optional. Share it if you want to show up on the map. Use an approximate position if you’d rather not be exact.

5. Say hello

1. Send an advert. This announces your radio to the mesh so others can find you.
2. Open the Public channel and say hi. Tell people roughly where you are.
3. Check your contacts list. Repeaters and other users show up there as their adverts reach you.
4. To message someone directly, open their contact. Direct messages are end-to-end encrypted.

If you don’t hear anything, you’re probably out of range of a repeater for now. Try somewhere higher, near a window, or outdoors, and ask in our Discord for the nearest repeater.

Running a repeater

Repeaters are what make the mesh work. If you have a high spot with power and you’re willing to leave a radio on 24/7, a repeater is the best thing you can add.

• Location beats everything. Height and a clear view toward town matter more than radio power.
• Power. USB, PoE, or solar with a battery. Solar setups need enough battery to get through a few cloudy days.
• Weatherproofing. Use an outdoor enclosure, sealed cable glands, and a properly mounted external antenna.
• Setup. Flash the Repeater firmware, then configure it over USB with the MeshCore config tool. Set the US preset and a name, and set an admin password. After that you can manage it remotely from the app.
• Tell us about it. Submit your node so we can track coverage and feature it.

Not sure where to start? Email contact@tricitiesmesh.net. We’re happy to help pick a site and gear.

Learn more

• MeshCore documentation
• MeshCore FAQ
• Our community: Discord and Facebook for local help

3 - Coming from Meshtastic

Tri-Cities Mesh started on Meshtastic. In 2026 the community moved to MeshCore. This page covers what’s different and how to switch.

Why we switched

Meshtastic is a great project and got a lot of us into LoRa mesh. As the local network grew, we wanted a design that scales better over our hills and valleys:

• Repeaters do the relaying. In Meshtastic, nearly every radio rebroadcasts what it hears, which crowds the airwaves as the mesh grows. In MeshCore, only dedicated repeaters relay. Phones and handheld companions don’t.
• Direct messages find a route. The first message to someone is flooded, and after that MeshCore sends DMs along a known path, so they don’t hit the whole mesh each time.
• Room servers. Built-in bulletin boards keep messages for people who were offline.
• Easy remote management. You can check on and configure repeaters from the app over the air.

What changes for you

The two networks can’t talk to each other, so a Meshtastic radio won’t see MeshCore traffic and MeshCore radios won’t see Meshtastic traffic.

Reflashing your radio

Most common Meshtastic hardware, including Heltec V3, RAK4631, T-Beam, T-Echo, and Seeed trackers, runs MeshCore too.

1. Write down anything you want to keep from your Meshtastic settings, such as the name and channel keys.
2. Open the MeshCore flasher, pick your device, and choose Companion, or Repeater if it’s a fixed site.
3. Follow Getting Started from step 3.

4 - Contributing to this site

This site is open source and lives on GitHub. It’s built with Hugo and the Docsy theme. Pages are written in Markdown.

Small fixes

Spotted a typo or something out of date? Use the Edit this page link on any docs page. GitHub will walk you through forking the repo and opening a pull request.

Bigger changes

1. Fork the repo and create a branch.
2. Run the site locally with npm install and then hugo server. See the README for details.
3. Content lives in content/en/. Node pages are in content/en/nodes/<NAME>/index.md.
4. Open a pull request. Every change is reviewed before it goes live.

Reporting a problem

Not sure how to fix it yourself? Open an issue or email contact@tricitiesmesh.net.