Post by @selea@social.linux.pizza

@selea@social.linux.pizza

2026-07-19 10:11 UTC

I did a test in Romania, #meshtastic vs #meshcore and here is the quick summary: Over 250 Meshtastic nodes found, compared to 70 Meshcore nodes. BUT Meshtastic was basically dead, no one talked, or answered anything. I only got one message with the following - "test" Compare that to Meshcore, where I got hundreds of messages and people where fast to give me recommendations regarding restaurants and places worth to visit. The meshcore coverage was also great, with some repeaters on mountain tops (2000 meters high) that connected the bigger cities to each other. Connection to Bulgaria and Serbia was also working great. My TL;DR conclusion is that people set up a Meshtastic node, then get bored and forget about it, while people that wants more, and really gets into offgrid-mesh moves over to Meshcore #romania #mesh #offgrid

Replies (10)

@KasTasMykolas@river.group.lt 2026-07-19 15:35

@selea@social.linux.pizza well, there are also some philosophical differences between these two worlds. In general, MeshCore could be seen as a next iteration or rather an improvement over the Meshtastic ;)

Open ##3937126
@starvaldD@mastodon.social 2026-07-19 10:19

@selea@social.linux.pizza Meshtastic has the issue where it grew bigger than anyone expected now stuck with a system that doesn't scale. Even with Meshcore there has been a push to get ops to increase the time of adverts to stop bigger meshes getting overloaded.

Open ##5192768
@ROMSY@ravenation.club 2026-07-19 10:50

@selea@social.linux.pizza I am totally new to the whole Meshtastic / meshcore universe. so whenever you are on Germany and try to ping somebody maybe I receive the message and I will be sure to reply, since i dont even know how to find other "rooms" beside the longfast To talk To other beings.

Open ##5192771
@krahabors@toot.lv 2026-07-19 11:00

@selea@social.linux.pizza Similar experience here in Latvia - meshtastic network was good for sending "test" but meshcore has at least some conversations - for tech people in nordic countries each conversation is a miracle! Meshtastic just silently died in background. Meshcore coverage occasionally spans area from Finland to Germany even when there are no mountains here. ~250km link over the sea to Gdańsk is a pretty normal thing.

Open ##5192772
@selea@social.linux.pizza 2026-07-19 10:14

And on the flight back home, some of you maybe saw my spam from the air #meshcore

Open ##5225298
@galaxydinodragon@social.linux.pizza 2026-07-19 12:25

@selea@social.linux.pizza it might be something like: - meshcore repeaters probably give more range than meshtastic nodes (since repeaters are key in meshcore but aren't rly in meshtastic, so people probs place them in better places) - meshtastic is most likely more lower end nodes than a few big repeaters - amateur radio enthusiasts may already have repeaters for UHF and VHF, and meshcore's repeater basis is more similar to how ham radio works at those bands - idk if people do this for meshcore but on ham repeaters, people will put a much better antenna on to boost range so meshcore may just have more coverage through a combination of good position and gain As well as what you said, also anyone who wants to correct me on anything feel free :)

Open ##5225303
@raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie 2026-07-19 14:05

@selea@social.linux.pizza I'd been thinking about this. Thanks.

Open ##5225306
@simonas@wtf.lt 2026-08-04 10:26

@selea@social.linux.pizza What was the meshtastic network utilization (in %) ?

Open ##5225312
@simonas@wtf.lt 2026-08-04 14:32

@selea@social.linux.pizza ok, not much is less than 20%, everything above 25% is exponentially dangerous

Open ##5225314
@simonas@wtf.lt 2026-08-04 15:03

@selea@social.linux.pizza well, dangerous enough to create network congestions such that no message gets through. I think the protocol has seen some improvements, so I was just wondering if there were any numbers in sight

Open ##5225316