If you haven't been following MeshCore, it seems to be really hitting strides with adoption and growth. There are scaling issues [1] and overall the protocol has its limitations[2] , but its really interesting to play with and cheap, which is helping fuel adoption. Since devices are cheap and software is too, so given enough time, it is likely these issues can be sorted out (and it may not even look or smell like what we're working with now, as long as people can upgrade firmwares and software)
On the west coast of the US, there is a consortium of independent networks that are likely to merge (to some degree, TBD). https://www.wcmesh.com/
I'm in SoCal right now and while this network is impressive, the Cascade network is really really awesome (I was able to use it first hand last week!). https://cascadiamesh.org/
One of the challenges that remains unsolved is how local networks are forming around non-default-for-the-region settings and making those well know or obvious to new users.
Take away from the map from analyzer.letsmesh.com for today is that ohio is extremely overrepresented, why? This weekend is Hamvention!
Interesting links:
- https://analyzer.wcmesh.com/#/map (Local SoCal mesh
- https://www.localmesh.nl/en/ (Netherlands based network)
- [1] https://bostonme.sh/docs/MeshCore/meshcore-collisions/
- [2] https://nodakmesh.org/blog/2026-03-06-repeater-firmware-v1140
