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Michigan Mesh

Welcome to MichMesh — a community effort to bring free, off-grid mesh networking to Michigan.

Before you pick a mesh system, it helps to know what a mesh network actually is — because once you get this part, the differences between the systems on this site will make a lot more sense.

The Basic Idea​

Normally, your phone talks to a cell tower, and the cell tower talks to the internet. No tower, no signal. Mesh networking cuts the tower out entirely.

Instead, small radios ("nodes") talk directly to each other. If your node can't reach the person you're messaging, it doesn't give up — it hands the message to another node closer to them, which hands it to another, and so on until it arrives. Every node that helps pass a message along is doing one "hop."

Nodes and Repeaters​

  • Node — any device on the network. Could be in your pocket, mounted in your car, sitting on a windowsill. If it can send and receive, it's a node.
  • Repeater — a node placed somewhere high with a clear view of the area (a roof, a silo, a hilltop), whose main job is relaying other people's messages rather than being someone's personal radio. More repeaters in good spots = a bigger, more reliable network for everyone.

Range and Hops​

These radios can talk for miles, but they're not magic — hills, buildings, and thick woods block or weaken the signal just like they would for any other radio. Line of sight matters. That's why repeaters go up high: height beats raw transmit power almost every time.

Every hop adds a small delay and a small chance the message doesn't make it through. A message that takes 2 hops to arrive is faster and more reliable than one that needs 6. This is a big part of why where repeaters sit — and how many you need — matters so much.

How Your Message Actually Finds Its Way​

This is where mesh systems start to differ from each other, and it's worth understanding the two basic approaches before you compare them:

  • Flood routing — a node that hears a message just repeats it to everyone in range, and they repeat it to everyone in range, and so on, until it's gone about as far as it's allowed to. Nobody has to plan anything ahead of time; a handful of nodes with no setup can form a working network on the spot. The tradeoff: as more nodes join, all that repeating starts competing for the same airtime.
  • Directed routing — nodes build up an understanding of the network's shape and send messages along a specific known path instead of shouting to everyone. It's more efficient and scales better, but it works best once there's already some real structure in place — repeaters that are up, staying up, and covering the area.

Neither approach is "wrong" — they're built for different situations, which is exactly why the systems on this site make different tradeoffs depending on whether you're dropping into an area with nothing set up yet, or building toward permanent regional coverage.

Get Involved​

Please test the howtos and send yNos any updates or screenshots as things change.