Meshcore Repeater Coordination¶

The mesh network in Roanoke has grown quickly in recent months, but some areas still need repeaters to help with coverage. Please avoid installing a repeater in areas where coverage is already good because too many repeaters will reduce available airtime and cause packet collisions.

If you need to add a repeater to the network, please review the following information so we can coordinate our repeater settings, especially the section about coordinating regions.

If you install a repeater, please check in to the discord channel from time to time... It may be necessary to contact you about settings or malfunctions in the future.

Local Repeater Settings¶

Please contact us if there are questions or corrections.

The sections below are the same sections you see in the meshcore app when configuring a repeater.

Public Info¶

Name: Please name your repeater after the mountain, neighborhood, or nearby landmark where it is located.

Radio Settings¶

Setting	Value	Note
Frequency	910.525 Mhz	(default)
Bandwidth	62.5 kHz	(default)
Spreading Factor	7	(default)
Coding Rate	5 or 8	Default is 5, use 8 to improve noise tolerance *

*Several other mesh networks recommend setting the coding rate to 8 for repeaters. I have noticed a slightly improved success rate when using CR8 in some situations.

Owner Info¶

Enter contact info, such an email address or call sign. This will be visible to guest logins.

Setting	Value	Note
Auto-Advert (Zero Hop)	62	helpful to track RSSI during weather
Auto-Advert (Flood)	71	24 hours minimum*

*Flooded Auto-adverts are detrimental to large mesh networks, please use as few as possible.

Position¶

Use the map to set exact or nearby position. This will help other operators determine where new repeaters are needed.

Guest Password¶

Keep the default password blank. This allows guests to lookup owner info and neighbors from the repeater.

Regions¶

If you are installing a repeater in the Roanoke County area, please install these regions in your repeater. This will allow you to also repeat messages scoped to these regions. Without these installed, you will only repeat unscoped messages. See this for some background on regions.

NOTE: Adding regions to a repeater will NOT block any incoming messages.

US Regions¶

Every repeater in the state of Virginia should install ALL of these regions.

Region	Notes
us	Anywhere in the US
us-east	Eastern US
us-southeast	Southern AND Eastern US
us-south	Southern US
us-va	State of VA

Virginia State Regions¶

Also Install ONE of these regions if your repeater is in this location.

Region	Notes
us-va-sw	Southwest VA, south and west of Lynchburg*
us-va-cva	Central Virginia, between Lynchburg and Richmond*

South-West Virginia Regions¶

Also Install ONE of these regions if your repeater is in this location. DO NOT install these on mountain-top repeaters.

Region	Notes
us-va-roa	Roanoke County VA area only, no mountain tops.*
us-va-nrv	VA New River Valley area only, no mountain tops.*
us-va-cov	Covington area only, no mountain tops.*
us-va-fra	Franklin county VA area only, no mountain tops.*

*It is important to only install regions assigned to your location. Avoid trying to 'extend' a smaller region outside of its assigned location, small regions need to stay small to keep the mesh working efficiently. Instead of extending a small region, use one of the larger regions for your channel. For example, channel #roanokeva should use the us-va-sw region.

Local Regions¶

ONLY Install ONE of these regions if your repeater is in this location. DO NOT install these on mountain-top repeaters.

Region	Notes
us-va-nrv-psk	Pulaski County Region, no mountain tops *

*It is important to only install regions assigned to your location. Avoid trying to 'extend' a smaller region outside of its assigned location, small regions need to stay small to keep the mesh working efficiently. Instead of extending a small region, use one of the larger regions for your channel. For example, channel #roanokeva should use the us-va-sw region.

Install Regions¶

Using the GUI¶

NOTE: If your repeater is using a recent firmware (1.16 or newer), it is much easier using the CLI method in the next section.

Regions can be added using repeater management under settings->manage regions. Select the regions for your area from the section above, and add them all with flood enabled. After adding all the regions, BE SURE TO CLICK SAVE. Your screen should look similar to this:

Using the CLI¶

When configuring the repeater, copy these lines using the copy button on the right, then paste them into the 'Command Line' tab on your repeater:

If you are outside Roanoke, replace the last region in the list with your region.

region def us us-south|us us-east us-southeast us-va us-va-sw us-va-roa

Don't forget to save!

region save

After entering regions, or typing 'regions' on the CLI tab, you should see something like this:

*^ F
 us F
  us-south F
  us-east F
   us-southeast F
    us-va F
     us-va-sw F
      us-va-roa F

NOTE: If you need to delete regions, its easier to do that from the settings->manage regions page. Delete them from the bottom first.

Command Line Only Options¶

Some repeater options are only available using the 'Command Line' tab in the meshcore app. Copy each line here and paste into the app, then press enter.

Set tx power to maximum. This setting applies to the radio before any hardware amplifier. NOTE: In some cases your signal will be cleaner and easier to receive if you set the tx power to just under 22, something like 20 or 18.

set tx 22

Set loop detection to strict. This should help prevent packets from looping back and being repeated a second time. Loop detection works best when people use 2-byte or 3-byte routing in their companion.

set loop.detect strict

This improves packet timing randomization so repeaters avoid transmitting simultaneously.

txdelay adds a small random delay before sending. This is important so that repeaters which receive the same packet don't attempt to retransmit at the same time.

set txdelay 1.5

set direct.txdelay 1.0

rxdelay adds a small delay after receiving a packet based on the signal strength of the packet. Just like txdelay, this helps prevent repeaters which receive the same packet from attempting to retransmit at the same time.