this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2026
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I built several nodes. I think it's most useful as an asset tracking tool, but the battery life isn't great. Like, I have a couple premade credit card sized nodes. It's pretty neat to ping them and get their gps. But, to be honest, your money for that application would probably be better spent on an iPhone and apples tags.
For communication: there are dubiously legal, cheap radios you can get off Amazon that would probably be 100% more useful.
I did enjoy it, though, and I still have some nodes. Also, it's illegal to send encrypted messages over mestastic.
Edit some mestastic nodes double as a low power gps with a screen. These may be useful on their own.
In the US at least, this is almost never true. It is only true for devices set up as licensed HAM radios. Normal Meshtastic devices fall under the transmit power threshold to be subject to 47 CFR 97.313(j)
Correct, you can turn up the output of your meshtastic node above 1W IF you are a licensed HAM operator and do not encrypt. But at 1W you can encrypt.