Lol, I also have my GMRS license. It’s all good!
KB3QEM
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My name is Peter, part of an 8 person hunting group in rough, heavily wooded Virginia mountain terrain. The hope is that via auotolocate goTenna Mesh will keep us from bumping into each other and permit text communications. Anybody on this forum using it for similar reasons? Thanks.
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Peter,
Been a long time since I hunted squirrels in Indiana with my Dad. I would think the big thing to keep in mind is to watch those ridge lines. They are where you might be to get a good signal on your goTenna down into the next valley. You could put a temporary stationary relay node on the high point(s) and let it aid signals up from the valleys that might be blocked.
The offline map part of the app will help you with topographic elevation lines on the maps so you can locate sites to do that or to just climb up to when needed to reach out. Your party may also want to become familiar with turning n the auto-pinging and locating features. With those on and set to update every 10 minutes, situational awareness will be much improved. Then send a message when you move through a group chat. That will make things safer in the woods where you can see our target sometimes, but not be sure where the bullet needs to go to maximize safety.
I’ll take this moment to note that I’m not new here, but just updated my user name as did my old postings. No longer that “bbrq10…” guy whose handle even I had to cut and paste to remember, I am now the easier to grasp MikeL, still stuck in Urbana after 40 years, but enjoying it even more with goTenna and the UMESH network.
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Hi All!
My name is Joe. I’m a ham operator with call sign VA3POR, and I live to the west of Toronto, Canada. I live in Brampton, Ontario and I am an active member of the Peel Amateur Radio Club. I’m active with ARES, so when I saw goTenna as a way of mesh communications with no license, I thought this will be a great way to bridge municipal partners without ham licenses to send out the “Bat signal” should comms be a problem. I’ll be testing away at the two units that I ordered (just got them and in the midst of setting up) and plan to have some fun along the way!
Cheers (and 73 to all the fellow hams)
Joe de VA3POR
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9413 0947 2997 62 a Solar DR @ 6000 ft above dayton NV. Relays out past Six Mile Canyon… Its not in relay mode so you should be able to ping it.
My email is callsign @ arrl
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Cartography student. Marine technician. Web developer.
I like to experiment in the fields of science, art, and visualization of nature phenomena.
Currently collaborating in several fields with the Aerocene Foundation.
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Hello all, I’m Richard S. Live and work in the Greater New York City area, Brooklyn born and raised, I’m here to evaluate this new tech. Probable uses will be in the wilderness of the Northeast, national parks, and AT. Our crew is planning the 100-mile wilderness hike soon, I’m planning that and many more adventures, hopefully spectacular successes, but failures are good too, otherwise how will I learn, and the stories of failures are almost always better than the successes.
Also, as I work for The Salvation Army, this will see use in Emergency Disaster Services, during any natural/man-made disasters as we serve with first-responders.
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Lireck… Hello to my new community of friends.I live in a land where communications of any kind can be difficult due to vast distances and this device is great as long as more become aware of it’s existance. I’m doing my bit to let it become a known thing.
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Hello everyone, my name is Nelson M. Rosario. I’m an attorney in Chicago, and a bit of a blockchain/cryptocurrency nut, so naturally I love what these goTenna devices enable.
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Hi Naomi, fellow boricua here. I’m in Chicago, but have family on the Island. Do you know if people are using these on the Island? The next hurricane season is gonna be here sooner rather than later, and I’d hate for everyone to go through the comms mess again.
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Hi Nelson. When you look at the GoTenna map of where nodes are setup, there is evidence of some use on the island. However, my family and friends are not using them.
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Greetings! Over my 51 years on this planet I have been an avid cyclist, hiker/backpacker, traveler, photographer, part-time philosopher, and much more. I discovered GoTenna and was fascinated by the concept as I think we are far too reliant on public and vulnerable sources of power and communications. The concept of “crowd sourcing” a communications network really captured my imagination. I just bought my first two GoTenna’s to experiment with and will likely buy a few more, for my son and daughter and also an extra to set up as a relay.
We will also be going on a cruise next year and I will be interested to see how well the GoTennas perform aboard ship.
Jim
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Ted here - I’ve been watching Gotenna since the beginning, interested in the concept, but concerned about the mission. I’ve been a radio hobbyist and professional for over 50 years, so very familiar with the concepts, technology, theory, etc.
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I’m Ian, I’ve been interested in GoTenna since last year and I’ve been lurking here for a little while. It all started when some friends and I made a bad decision and ended up lost in the middle of the desert. Long story short, we all survived but I didn’t want to be caught with my pants full of sand again. I’ve been thinking about buying for a few months and the current sale is a good reason for me to buy a pair and plan a camping trip.
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Hi everyone,
I just heard about goTenna and was blown away by the what a fantastic idea and product this is! It’s been a while since I’ve been so hyped up about a product before!
I’ve just purchased four antennas. I want to test this product with my son at school. He’s 9 years old but I don’t want to give him a live cell phone (Trust me, I’ve seen his friends with live phones and they use it to surf and get into trouble with it.). I want it for when he leaves school to check in with us, on a phone that is off the grid, (The school is a block away.) if he wants a play date and to check in when he will leave the play date.
I also want to use it for when we go to amusement parks or camping. I have a few old cell phones that I can use a GPS locators and make a four way mesh with my little family. Really excited to utilize this technology and help add to the mesh community!
Thanks goTenna for making this all possible!
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I’m Danielle. I’m an undergrad student who is currently in a research internship with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder Colorado for the summer. We are trying to be able to connect deployed LTE networks that are isolated with no backhaul communication. This is for first responders who are either in a remote area where there is no infrastructure, or where some sort of event has destroyed or rendered the existing infrastructure useless. I am not quite at the MOAN level but we are looking at trying to use the goTenna Mesh with Raspberry Pi’s. I saw a thread on here, where we can put Android on the Raspberry Pi with the Google Play store so we can use the goTenna that way, but I’d like to try to still use a Linux distribution to create the mesh network.
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Hi, I am Maria, I live in the Pioneer Valley in Western MA. I am going on a trip to Monhegan Island in Maine next Friday and learning all these sophisticated tools (I am 73 years old). I must get PRO service and have contacted GoTenna support on Friday, no reply so far. Does anyone know how to get that?
Talked about GoTenna to a friend in Norway, she goes to the Artic for the summer and has no cell coverage there, I suggested GoTenna but when I looked on the map I alway saw Bergen, yet I was told GoTenna works everywhere… does it mean it shows up on the map anywhere someone is using GoTenna?
Thank you!
Maria
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Hi. Maria. The goTenna Plus service can be activated right in the app when you connect the goTenna to your phone and is free for 30 days.
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I think Maria is talking about goTenna Pro:
https://www.gotenna.com/pages/gotenna-pro-homepage
Pro is generally something you’d have to be a part of a government agency to purchase, perhaps a few scientists have access, too. But it’s generally not available to civilians due to its use of freqs and encryption that civilians don’t have access to.
I’m just lurking. Interested in goTenna for all of the reasons to have one, but I’m also an advocate of mesh networking as an alternative to BIG cable. I only wished that these devices were cable enough to eliminate the need for Comcast, Time Warner, Verizon, etc. It doesn’t appear that we’re at the point where mesh networking is capable of that…yet.
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