{"id":12,"date":"2025-10-09T21:42:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T21:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kb.w8par.org\/?p=12"},"modified":"2025-12-02T17:21:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T17:21:19","slug":"meshtastic-setup-hints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kb.w8par.org\/?p=12","title":{"rendered":"Meshtastic Setup Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udef0\ufe0f Standard Meshtastic Setup and Naming Convention<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>To keep our Meshtastic network organized, efficient, and easy to identify, we\u2019re adopting a standard setup and naming convention for all nodes operating within the W8PAR network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"general-setup-guidelines\">\ud83d\udd27 General Setup Guidelines<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Flash the latest stable&nbsp;<strong>Meshtastic&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/flasher.meshtastic.org\/\">firmware<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;on your device<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>LoRa Config -&gt; Region<\/strong>: US (915 MHz)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>LoRa Config -&gt; Preset<\/strong>:&nbsp;<strong>Long Range &#8211; Fast<\/strong>&nbsp;for balanced range and data rate<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>LoRa Config -&gt; Hop Limit<\/strong>: 3<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>User -&gt; Is Licensed<\/strong>: Yes<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Device -&gt; Role<\/strong>:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Client or <strong>Client Mute for handheld\/mobile nodes<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Client for tower or fixed installations<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"additional-suggestions\">\ud83d\udca1 Additional Suggestions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>For tower or fixed installations:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Device -&gt; Broadcast Interval:<\/strong> Set to one three hours<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Device -&gt; Position:<\/strong>&nbsp;(disable all but elevation) to fixed, broadcast six hours<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Device -&gt; User<\/strong>: Set the&nbsp;<strong>Unmessagable flag<\/strong>:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>As of 2.6.11 this can only be set in roles&nbsp;<strong>Router<\/strong>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<strong>Repeater<\/strong>. So to enable this, but have your role as Client, set your role to Router and save (and wait for reboot), and then change your role back to Client and save. The flag is persistent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Mobile Config -&gt; Telemetry:<\/strong>: Enable power telemetry once an hour as required<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"node-naming-convention\">\ud83c\udff7\ufe0f Node Naming Convention<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Use&nbsp;<strong>ALL CAPITALS<\/strong>&nbsp;for short names to make nodes easy to recognize across the mesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table has-small-font-size\"><table><tbody><tr><th>Type<\/th><th class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Example<\/th><th class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Description<\/th><\/tr><tr><td><strong>QTH<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">QTH<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Stationary node at your home or main tower site<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>HT<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">HT01<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Handheld or portable node (e.g., Heltec)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>MB<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">MB01<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Mobile unit installed in a vehicle.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Tower Site (non-QTH)<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">39, RH, etc.<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Use site-specific identifiers (e.g., 39 for the 147.39 tower, RH for Red Hill)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This makes it easy to tell if a node is a home base, mobile, or tower-based relay just from the short name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"channel-configuration\">\ud83d\udce1 Channel Configuration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Below is the current list of recommended channels for our regional network.<br>Each serves a distinct group or function while maintaining interoperability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Note<\/strong>: the Key Size is&nbsp;<strong>Empty<\/strong>&nbsp;for all channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table has-small-font-size\"><table><tbody><tr><th>Channel #<\/th><th class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Name<\/th><th class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Description<\/th><\/tr><tr><td>0<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\"><strong>Primary Channel<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Default channel used for general mesh communication<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>1<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\"><strong>W8PAR<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Main Parkersburg Amateur Radio Club network channel<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\"><strong>WC8EC<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Wood County Emergency communications group<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>3<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\"><strong>W8HH<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Marietta Amateur Radio Club network channel<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>4<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\"><strong>AREDN<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Integration for AREDN-linked nodes<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\ud83d\udef0\ufe0f Standard Meshtastic Setup and Naming Convention To keep our Meshtastic network organized, efficient, and easy to identify, we\u2019re adopting a standard setup and naming convention for all nodes operating within the W8PAR network. \ud83d\udd27 General Setup Guidelines \ud83d\udca1 Additional Suggestions \ud83c\udff7\ufe0f Node Naming Convention Use&nbsp;ALL CAPITALS&nbsp;for short names to make nodes easy to recognize [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meshtastic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kb.w8par.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kb.w8par.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kb.w8par.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kb.w8par.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kb.w8par.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/kb.w8par.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":352,"href":"https:\/\/kb.w8par.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions\/352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kb.w8par.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kb.w8par.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kb.w8par.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}