WarDriving Vashon, Attempt #1

Wardriving (and Warbiking!) is a thing (see Wikipedia: Wardriving), but so far focuses on locating Wi-Fi hot spots. Spencer used the term to discuss searching for MeshCore repeaters around the island. HAM operators have long experience with creating radio coverage maps, and the MeshCore app even has line of sight mapping capabilities.

Basic Approach

Not that I recommend it, but yesterday I mounted a simple but well rated car roof antenna & drove from my QTH (house) down to Sunrise Ridge and back. I periodically sent messages & just noted the number of repeats. I sent out 27 messages and saw 6 of those were repeated. But @cooper got 14 of the messages, and @WS-Alan saw 13 of the messages - so both got messages my app didn’t show as being repeated: they apparently were transmitted, but I didn’t receive the bounce back notification. Hmmm.

Wardriving

I quickly decided I need an automated way to send out messages (using a #WarDriver or other random channel name as a filter so no one would get spammed), and record the results. I started looking for Raspberry Pi hats, as I presumed their sophistication (over Arduino micro-controllers) would allow doing this. Then I recalled that Spencer had mentioned there are apps for this. Search, I quickly came up with this nice locally produced video:

That method sent the resulting data to be centrally mapped at mesh-map.pages.dev but that has been discontinued.

PugetMesh Member MeshExplorer Project

PugetMesh leads to a member project, MeshExplorer.

“MeshExplorer is a web-based visualization tool for exploring and monitoring mesh networks. It provides real-time mapping of network nodes, message tracking, and statistical analysis for MeshCore and Meshtastic networks.” (source: MeshExplorer Info modal)

It in turn recommends map.w0z.is as a destination for data collection images, but that currently seems empty or defunct.

Another option to explore

There is also a neat MeshCore coverage map for Fargo, ND at coverage.ndme.sh.

Update: Check out post12 for a much nicer, convenient system!