Kansas City has a Mesh Network
(And we want to say, "Hi!")
— nodes active this month. — registered ever. — in Discord (— online now).
Power up a Meshtastic node and say hello. Someone in the mesh will hear you.
Just activated your first node and wondering what's next? Or you've heard about Meshtastic and wondering if anyone in Kansas City is on it?
We're here. Say hello.
We'll chat on air, but Meshtastic is best for short messages. The Discord is where the longer conversations happen.
The mesh, right now.
Counts refresh every 5 minutes from the KC MeshMonitor instance.
What people are running
Start with one. Most of us end up with three or four (it's weirdly fun).
Heltec V4
$40Most popular starter node. Compact and easy to set up.
RAK Wireless
$35Popular for solar nodes. No screen means lower power draw.
T-1000 E
$50Lightweight tracker. Built-in GPS and long battery life.
Lilygo T-Deck
$90Full keyboard and screen. Send messages without your phone.
When you need something deeper than Discord
Three places we send people often.
Meshtastic Official Site
The source of all truth. Docs, downloads, and official blog.
Meshtastic Subreddit
Bigger and rougher than the Discord. Worth a scroll when you want a question answered by 50 people instead of 5.
Meshtastic Site Planner
Drop a pin, set an antenna height, get a propagation map. The right tool for "would a node here actually reach downtown?"
Got a rooftop, a tower, or a high spot in the metro?
We're recruiting hosts for the KC Backbone Initiative — hosted nodes that fill the metro's east and west edges (Bonner Springs, Independence, Blue Springs) and close the I-70 hop chain out to existing outlier nodes in Manhattan and Columbia.
Got a drone? Let's fly a node.
KC Mesh is borrowing a tactic from Austin Mesh: once a week, anyone with a drone
coordinates a time and lifts a Meshtastic node a few hundred feet for a few minutes. A
second node on the ground (set to
client_mute
so it doesn't add to the routing burden) blasts a friendly invite to the
Discord into the mesh.
Why bother? Because a lot of people in KC bought a node, didn't see traffic on day one, and stuck it in a drawer. An altitude burst hits dozens of those silent nodes at once. Most won't see the message live — but they'll see it next time they power back up.
We haven't scheduled the first one yet — looking for a couple of drone pilots to lock in a cadence. If you've got a drone (Mavic, Mini, anything that'll get a node up safely) and want to be one of the first to try it, hop in the Discord and say so. We'll pick a Saturday.
I've got a drone — let's coordinateSee you out there
Whether you're saying hello on the mesh or asking questions in Discord — pick up a node, check the coverage map, make a contact.