Hello, radio...

If you're here, you may have heard something about Meshtastic or MeshCore, or more generically about off-grid radio mesh communications. And you might be wondering how to get started on it if you're in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area.

When I got started with mesh a few years back, there weren't many other people out there using it. At least not enough of us to establish a viable mesh network. And when we did get together in numbers, sometimes those mesh networks would crash and burn spectacularly under the load.

As the movement grew we learned a few things along the way. Not the least of which:

1. Infrastructure matters. Having one or more well-placed repeater sites can drastically improve the mesh experience for many people.
2. Coordination matters. If everyone is off using their own settings, not talking to their neighbors about how they want their radios to work together, things never really get off the ground.
3. Humans matter most. Early mesh efforts got too carried away with the technical capabilities, sharing sensor telemetry and GPS position details back and forth in the background. But as meshes grow, there's precious little radio bandwidth left to reliably pass messages from person to person.

RDUMesh is taking an opinionated approach to providing mesh services in the Triangle.

• We will build out core infrastructure that helps community members to reliably connect over radio to one another, and across communities in the region.
• We will coordinate with other local community groups to make sure we are helping and not hurting their communication needs. We will also coordinate with mesh groups beyond the Triangle to make sure that as their meshes mature, we can peacefully co-exist.
• We will put front and center the needs of real people and the communities they live in and serve. This is all for nothing if we aren't helping people to reliably connect with their neighbors.

Things are just getting started. The web site is brand new today (January 18, 2026). The 501(c)(3) paperwork is still underway.

But we're already working side by side with Triangle Mutual Aid, as well as NCMesh. TMA is already mobilizing in parallel around the critical need for off-grid communications infrastructure, and we see a tremendous opportunity to work closely with them as a first class example of why RDUMesh is needed.