DenverMesh is a community group working to build a mesh network of solar-powered meshtastic radios in Denver, Colorado. This network acts like a city-wide text messaging system, allowing people to communicate publicly or privately with anyone on the network. All of this happens without any external infrastructure - no power, no cell phone towers, no internet.
How does it work?
We're working to set up solar-powered radio repeaters in Denver. These radios communicate on the 906.875 MHZ frequency using the LoRa protocol. The radios mesh using the open-source Meshtastic software. Users can connect to these repeaters by Bluetooth if they’re close enough or they can use their own handheld nodes which will also act as repeaters. The messages hop from node to node, extending the reach of the network and ensuring everyone receives every message.
Can you explain it like I'm 5?
Pretend you're sitting in class and want to send a note to everyone in the class. You write your note on a piece of paper and copy it three times. The message can be up to 228 characters - about as long as this paragraph so far. You hand those three pieces of paper to the three people around you. Then those three people re-write the message three times and hand it to the three people around them and so on. Now imagine a big gust of wind comes and blows away some of the messages. If even just a few people saw the note and keep copying and re-sending it, eventually everyone will get a copy of the note. This is like sending an unencrypted message to everyone on the network.
Now imagine you want to send a message to a single person or a select group of people but you don't want other people who see the note to be able to read it. You could write the note using a secret language. You could then hand a decoder key to your friend or to a group of friends and they could decode the message. The message still gets passed the same way - with every single person writing the message a few times and handing it to everyone - but only those people with the decoder key will be able to understand the message. This is like sending an encrypted direct message or encrypted group message.
Denver Mesh works the same way as this paper example, but instead of sending paper notes we're using digital text messages and sending it with radio waves. Our radios are solar powered and they don’t need any internet or cell phone coverage. This means they will work even if the power is out.
How I can join the group?
It's completely free and always will be. Please join our Mattermost Instance. It is secure and we respect your privacy. We recently passed 160 active members.
We would like to help connect the entire state of Colorado eventually. There are other smaller groups from greater Colorado that maintain channels on our Mattermost and also host their webpages with us. If you'd like to start a channel for your area, feel free to ask!
Please see our About section for more detailed information.