MeshCore Radio for Social Networking and Disasters with zero Internet required
The Boland Amateur Radio Club (BARC) invited me to do this talk on 23 July 2026. HAMNET Emergency Communications provided the Zoom platform. The audience consisted of radio amateurs, citizens, and disaster management.
MeshCore is a newer type of license-free decentralised radio network that allows citizens, government agencies including nature reserves, disaster management agencies, and amateur radio operators to all talk together, whether in public channels, directly to each other, or even in private encrypted channels. This is WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal without the Internet.
The network is not only useful to make new friends across the city and stay in communication with neighbours, but more importantly it is a resilient network that will stay operation long after the Internet has ceased to work due to a disaster or lengthy power outages. This is achievable through solar-powered repeater nodes at high sites, and the fact that this network is not dependent on any central server or presence, and of course there is no approval or registration to use it.
My talk highlights the similarities and differences between MeshCore and Meshtastic networks, and the reasons why such a network is so important to have in place across cities and towns. I highlight two recent outages we've had in the Western Cape where towns lost their electricity supply due to adverse weather conditions, and had their normal communications cut off for up to a week. In this time HAMNET does assist with communications but only from key points. Having a broader MeshCore network available, allows citizens and disaster management agencies to stay in contact with each other for essential services and assistance.
The City of Cape Town and Western Cape Provincial Government, recognise the value of having fallback communications, and HAMNET already has emergency radio rooms at both sites, which are kept in operational readiness. We are aiming to have something like MeshCore also officially endorsed by the City and Province, so that citizens can equip themselves with these radios ahead of any potential disasters in the future.
We also have some wilderness areas in and around Cape Town which have no cellular phone coverage, such as the top of Table Mountain. These areas are also ideal to have such radio networks operational, as they are easy to deploy, and radio nodes cost around R500 each (whether bought by citizens/tourist, or even available to rent for the day).
The talk concludes with a comprehensive Q&A around various topics relating to MeshCore radio.
Watch at
https://links.gadgeteer.co.za/meshcoretalk
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