The messages that get through when everything else goes quiet
Comchan is a volunteer group building out MeshCore across Central Texas, an encrypted messaging network that runs on long-range LoRa radio instead of the internet. Free to join, and it works where your phone shows no bars at all.
Free · open source · no account, no SIM, no subscription
Hill Country
Channel Messages
Gate's open, bring the trailer up the back road.
Copy. 20 out.
No bars out here and it still went through 👍
One app, on the phone already in your pocket, paired to a radio the size of a matchbox.
Off the grid on purpose
MeshCore was designed around one stubborn assumption: the infrastructure you normally depend on will not be there.
No internet. No carrier. No bill.
Every message hops radio-to-radio between nearby nodes until it reaches its destination. There is no tower to lease, no SIM to activate, and nothing to pay each month.
Encrypted before it leaves your phone
MeshCore encrypts end-to-end. The volunteers running repeaters, including us, forward your traffic without ever being able to read it.
Runs for days on a battery
LoRa radios sip power. A solar repeater on a water tower or a node in a truck console keeps working long after phones and Wi-Fi have gone dark.
Built for the places the map calls empty
Central Texas has a lot of ground between towers. These are the situations our members actually run into.
AgricultureCoverage that reaches past the last bar
Section-to-section, barn-to-house, tractor-to-tractor. Ranches and farms across the Hill Country sit in dead zones carriers have no reason to fill.
Read the walkthrough→
HealthcareCare coordination that survives the outage
Bed counts, transfers, and staffing calls keep moving between facilities when the fiber cut, the storm, or the outage takes the usual channels down.
Read the walkthrough→
Disaster reliefA channel that comes up before the towers do
Crews, shelters, and volunteers coordinate on day one, while the grid is still down and every cell site in the county is running on a dying generator.
Read the walkthrough→See the network, then plan the next node
We run two open tools for the region. Both are free to use and neither requires an account.
Nodes
142
Repeaters
31
Avg hops
2.4
Network Analyzer
Live telemetry
Live view of what the mesh is doing right now, nodes checking in, packets moving, signal quality, and repeater health across the region.
analyzer.comchan.net↗Mesh Explorer
Maps & RF planning
Visualize traffic on a topographical map, then plan new coverage with line-of-sight and terrain-profile tools before you climb anything.
explorer.comchan.net↗You can be on the network this weekend
No callsign, no exam, no application. Buy a small radio, flash the MeshCore firmware, and pair it. We'll walk you through the whole thing, and if you get stuck, someone in the group has already hit the same wall.
01
Pair a radio
A LoRa board, Heltec, RAK, T-Deck, Station G2, pairs to your phone over Bluetooth. Many run $25–$60.
02
Open MeshCore
Install the MeshCore app on iOS or Android. Your keys are generated on-device the first time you launch it.
03
You're on the mesh
Your node discovers neighbours and starts relaying. Every radio added makes the network reach further for everyone.
Where a mesh beats the alternatives
MeshCore isn't a replacement for your phone plan. It's the layer underneath it that keeps working when the plan doesn't.
| MeshCore | Cellular | Wi-Fi / apps | Satellite SOS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Works with no internet or cell service | ||||
| End-to-end encrypted by default | Varies | Varies | Varies | |
| No monthly fee | ||||
| No license required | ||||
| Runs days on battery / solar | ||||
| Community owned & operated | ||||
| Range per hop | 1–9 miles | 0.5–3 miles | ~150 ft | Global |
Range per hop varies enormously with terrain and antenna height. Real-world numbers for our region are on the network analyzer. The world record for longest LoRa hop is 830 miles which was accomplished by a researcher on a fishing boat off the coast of Sesimbra, Portugal in the North Atlantic. In Central Texas, with as many hills as we have a few miles is more typical, and a few dozen miles with a high repeater and good antennas.
Every node you add makes the map bigger
A mesh has no centre. A node on a hilltop, a water tower, or a second-storey window becomes a repeater for everyone within reach of it, and the people it connects become repeaters in turn.
Height beats power
Redundancy is free
Come build the network with us
We meet up, compare antennas, argue about mounting hardware, and put repeaters where the map has holes. Bring a radio or bring nothing, either is fine.
