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Comment by abriosi | Hacker News Reader

Are there any commercially available devices like this?

There is meshtastic, which is open source and uses pretty cheap hardware:

https://meshtastic.letstalkthis.com/

That’s not what I would consider ‘commercially available’ - it’s a project with software and some hardware recommendations to build it yourself.

I’d pay decent money for an actual off-the-shelf, working set of these.

Same. this is what has kept me with the various analog family radio service devices. I just need p2p texting within one neighborhood. Anything on top is a bonus. But I don't have confidence in my building skills, and the GoTennas are too expensive. Anyone offer a meshtastic build out service? ;)

If it helps, the T-Beam (first link in hardware section) has meshtastic pre-installed. But yes, it's still sort of a kit since you need to solder the 4 pins for the display and bring your own 18650 battery (and 3D print a case if you like).

It's close, you can buy hardware commercially with it pre-installed. So you can just buy a working set of them.

But they aren't 100% finished hardware, no cases and such.

Yes, I forget what it’s called. It connects to your cellphone over bluetooth and then creates a mesh network with other people’s radio devices to text each other in the wilderness. Also, if one person has cell service it can route texts out through them.

It had a kickstarter and then later they shifted more to forest fire fighters and search and rescue. I will edit this comment if I remember what its called.

Its called goTenna

Here’s a few things you may be interested in https://www.tripsavvy.com/gadgets-for-backcountry-communicat...

Not exactly the same, but goTenna Mesh delivers similar functionality.

It connects to your phone via Bluetooth then transmits data via UHF to a mesh network of devices.

Alternatively, if you want to get global coverage, there's https://www.bivystick.com/bivy-stick-satellite-communicator/

Disclosure: I worked on an implementation of the Android-side Bluetooth stack for this. It's... decent.

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