My Husband is a major supporter and contributor to Meshtastic.
In light of the LA fires this is a way to maintain communications without resorting to fixed infrastructure that is subject to disruption and destruction.
We use it when traveling the back country because, in spite of StarLink, this is better for real time “blue force” style communications with cheap infrastructure and it “just works”
Please watch to the end and support a really important open source emergency communications system available to everyone.
I have no idea. I just track the movements of folks when we are out with our side by sides (We have a Polaris Rzr) in the backcountry and it’s helped us know when someone had a mechanical problem and stopped and we could all get back to help without any cell or other comms needed. The group we go out with all carries a subset of the gear needed to rescue or repair in the fields so we all need to know when someone needs help in case we are the ones with the stuff needed for that particular problem.
However, my husband has a wide variety of devices because he is a developer. There are low power devices, solar powered, and many, many more. DIY and Rockland where you buy it and it just works, He says go to the Meshtastic web site and decide what your use case is and look.
Sorry I can’t be of much more help. I’m in the “It just works” category
