Real facts about meshtastic and LoRa Boards.

 Meshtastic is an amazing open source project for a great low data rate RF messaging system.  It uses LORA radios for the communication and are low power and "long range".   The project it's self is Solid and has made HUGE advances in the past year.   They have solid phone apps and a great web interface.

The problem lies with the hardware and boards most people recommend.   There is a whole LOT of misinformation around the capabilities of the boards commonly used.    TTGO boards are the most popular and unfortunately the absolute worst choice, and sadly nobody calls this out.    You see claims of 3+ days of battery life and 100Km range.   Both are extreme bullshit or out of context claims.    First a T-Beam  device from TTGO will NEVER get you more than 8 hours of battery life with a standard 18650 battery.   it's just power hungry hardware, and turning the GPS off only extends battery life a small amount.  the only board that is worth buying is the RAK Wireless products based on WizBlock.  These do deliver decent battery life and are made MASSIVELY better in nearly every way.   So a real world recommendation,  do NOT buy TTGO or Haltec boards.  they suck and are just toys for playing.   if you want working radios that have good battery life.   RAK wireless is the only real choice. do not waste your money on the TTGO or Haltec junk.  But even the RAK stuff has a lot of misinformation.  claims of 1week battery on a tiny battery are all bullshit as well.  My tests on RAK boards that do not have anything but the carrier board and the radios + the buzzer add on board.  I get 1 week solid out of a 3000mah Lipo battery. (Latest meshtastic as of 5/10/24)   so those claiming a week from a tiny 600mah or 1200mah battery are really making up these claims.   After tests my meshtastic RAK boards are getting from 7-8 days from that 30000mah battery on a quiet network that really rarely has the bluetooth connected.  if you are connected a lot and transmitting a lot expect only about 4-5 days of battery life.  This is real world  measured multiple times and averaged.  The LiliGo boards the longest I ever got was 24 hours from a massive 7500mah battery.

The second lie is range.  you are NOT getting any of the claimed distances in the real world unless your world is flying a balloon in giant open fields.   Real world is 2Km MAX and half that in woods/city.  People claiming more are intentionally not telling you the truth that they are doing testing on top of poles in open fields.   Sadly none of the community tempers these  outlandish claims and let them perpetuate.   It's not real, you will NOT get those ranges in real life.     expect 1-2 Km MAX range, anyone saying otherwise is misleading you.  Just keep in mind real range and plan accordingly.

But this is where Meshtastic can solve this.  you can make "repeaters" or "relays" that are solar powered (Again with RAK Wireless boards) and a rechargeable battery and solar panel that you can spread around the area you want to cover and extend the range with every single node you add.    adding only 4 of these nodes in cheap plastic enclosures you can easily make/buy and mount on the tops of buildings, or in trees, etc...  you extend the coverage of your setup by that 1-2 Km.  keep going and you can with only a few of these cover a decent chunk of your town or your private property,  campground, etc...   

You can create a network of Meshtastic devices and make a very nice emergency communications system, but you need a bunch of radios.  you are NOT doing it with 2 or 3 of them, and certainly not going to get the outrageous claims of range you will find all over the forums, because the people making those claims are doing it in unrealistic situations that nobody ever has in the real world.

Also do not think that commercial products like goTenna have more range.  They also lie a LOT about range.  I have been unable to get more than 1KM with goTenna radios  in real world operation.   My set of 4 were returned for a refund after a single weekend of using them at a state park. 

One last thing,   the antennas that come with any of these boards are utter crap. RAK antennas sold separately do work but are pricey.  Be very careful buying antennas from amazon as nearly all the sellers are selling junk that are not even tuned for the LORA bands.   the Meshtastic Discord has a great antenna thread with known working and tested antenna listings.

Update: Heltec has a board people are claiming is a lot better with power.   The Wireless stick lite.  I am testing two of these to see if they actually have fixed their power hungry problems (I doubt it as they are still ESP32) but will report back here after testing a couple for a few weeks.    After testing them I am getting a solid 26 hours on a 3000mah lipo battery.  This is significantly better than any T-Beam board.  No display and no GPS.  both you really never need as the phone you have to use with it has both of those.  Remember you only ever Need a GPS on board if you are attaching the device to a Dog/Horse/Vehicle that you want to track.  All personal devices can just use the GPS data the phones already have.