Meshtastic, MeshCore & Reticulum
At a glance
All three appear in the field here. They are not interchangeable firmware on one identity; they are different projects with different apps, defaults, and communities.
| Meshtastic | MeshCore | Reticulum | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary use here | Day-to-day LoRa chat/mesh, MQTT map, range tests | Parallel LoRa mesh experiments | Crypto-forward networking / longer-horizon experiments |
| Rough role | “Default people mesh” | “Alternate mesh stack” | “Different problem class” |
| Hardware | nRF52 / ESP32 LoRa boards (T-Echo, RAK, T-Beam, …) | Stack-supported LoRa nodes (see upstream) | Host + radio/interfaces as documented by RNS |
| Ham callsign required? | No | No | No |
| Upstream | meshtastic.org | MeshCore project docs | reticulum.network |
When I pick which
- Meshtastic — Interop with neighbors, public LongFast-style experiments, phone apps, range CSV tooling, MQTT into regional maps. Most of the station config, solar build, and coverage notes on this site are Meshtastic-first today.
- MeshCore — Running alongside Meshtastic to learn behavior, coverage, and tooling differences in the same terrain. Station details will grow on the Station page as notes harden.
- Reticulum — Not a drop-in Meshtastic replacement. Used when the goal is RNS-style addressing, transports, and applications rather than a Meshtastic channel preset. Keep expectations separate from “LoRa chat mesh.”
What not to expect on this site
- Full install manuals (use upstream).
- Empty “overview / setup / use cases” placeholders for Reticulum — content lands in Station or a future focused page when there is something real to publish.
- A claim that any of these are Part 97 amateur mesh.