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Comchan
Community

Comchan is a group of people, not a service

We're volunteers across Central Texas who think a communications network nobody owns is worth building. Bring a radio, bring a question, or bring nothing at all.

Start with a nodeSee the coverage map
Get in touch

Where the conversation happens

Most day-to-day help happens in chat. Meetups are where the antennas and the arguing about mounting hardware happen.

Discord

AustinMesh server

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Email

support@comchan.net

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Meetups

Posted on Discord

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GitHub

@ComchanNet

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Ways to help

Four things that make the network better

You do not need to be technical, and you do not need permission. Pick whichever of these you're in a position to do.

Run a node

The simplest contribution and the one that compounds. Every node in a new area is coverage that did not exist before, for everyone.

Host a repeater

Got height? A roof, a hill, a windmill, a tall building. We'll help you spec, build, and mount it, this is the highest-leverage thing anyone can do.

Help someone start

Answer a flashing question. Sit with someone at a meetup while they pair their first board. Most people quit at the same three obstacles.

Build and document

Firmware, tooling, maps, enclosure designs, or writing down what you learned so the next person doesn't have to rediscover it.

How we operate

Comchan has no membership, no dues, and no board. It is a group of people in Central Texas who run nodes and help each other run nodes. If you put up a repeater, it is yours, we will happily show it on the map, and you can take it down whenever you like.

We try to be useful to newcomers specifically. The gap between “this sounds interesting” and “I have a working node” is where almost everyone gives up, and closing that gap for one more person is worth more to the network than any amount of clever engineering.

A few ground rules

  • Be decent on the channels. They're shared, and they're small.
  • Mind the airtime. Chatty nodes crowd the spectrum for everyone. Restraint is a courtesy.
  • Don't promise what a mesh can't do. Especially when talking to farms, clinics, or emergency managers. Overselling this helps nobody.
  • Publish your node. An unmapped repeater is much less useful than a mapped one.

Meetups

Informal, regular, and worth coming to even if your node isn't working yet, especially if your node isn't working yet. Bring the board and whatever cable you have.

Times and dates are posted on the AustinMesh Discord. Join the server and you'll see the next one announced there.

Working with an organisation?

If you're at a farm co-op, clinic, county emergency management office, or volunteer response group and want to scope a pilot, get in touch. We'll tell you honestly whether a mesh fits your situation, including when it doesn't.

Read the use cases
Elsewhere in the mesh

Other MeshCore groups and tools

Comchan is one node in a much larger effort. These are the neighbouring communities and the tooling we lean on, joining more than one is normal and makes every network better.