Meshcore: overcoming the issues

Yes, I'm still alive!

I've recently started experimenting with Meshtastic - this lasted less than a day - and straight thereafter onto the much better Meshcore 868MHz network.

Though I live in what is to many a 'remote' area, with not that many active radio people about, I was surprised to find two repeaters on Anglesey and a couple of client nodes over on the mainland. 

Having kicked-off using just the standard stub antenna, I decided to spend the £68 for a Paradar 8.5dBi antenna (1m-long collinear). This is nicely made, though I'm not entirely persuaded by the sealant on the end caps, which remains unset on receipt. A quick spin with the self-amalgamating tape is therefore advisable. The mild steel bracket supplied is also poor; it will rust to bits in no time, especially in a salty sea air environment like mine. You can currently save yourself about £10 on Paradar's direct-to-consumer site if you buy via E-bay; you get the self-same antenna and DHL delivery (from Germany).

The Heltec V3 was easy to flash and configure as a client, and the Meshcore app connected to it, straight away. It's important to remember that flashing requires you to use Microsoft Edge browser.

I didn't have quite the same easy experience with the V4, which I ordered via E-bay from China (which, as always, arrived in just a few days - quicker than most UK sellers can manage!)

The problem I had was largely one of ignorance. Firstly, the V4 I have needs its 'User' button (the top one) pressed on powering-up in order to put it into flashing mode. Once I understood that, flashing via the Meshcore online site was simple enough. 

Where I had a day of scratching my head was: why couldn't I connect to the flashed V4 immediately after this process, which used the exact-same serial (USB-C) connection, in order to configure it?

Turns out that it's a matter of rather clunky sequencing: you put the unit into flashing mode with the 'User' button, do the flashing, disconnect the V4, then reconnect it in the normal sense, such that it powers-up, goes through its 'Please wait' thing and then displays the repeater settings for a while. When the screen went blank, I clicked on 'Configure via USB' on the flasher site (I left the flashing page open and didn't touch it until the Heltec's screen was clear). I then got the configuration screen and I was able to sort everything out.

I used the following settings (you can find out what everyone in your particular area is using from the Meshcore nodes map):

Frequency: 869.618MHz
Bandwidth: 62.5kHz
Coding rate: 8
Spreading factor: 8

This immediately worked and was immediately seen by my client in the other room. I've yet to figure out GPS integration on the V4 board and I don't seem to be able to configure via the phone app, but that's just a matter of developing enough patience some other day!

Incidentally, using the Paradar antenna at the window, on 30/01/2026, I received a repeater in Greystones, south of Dublin, at 115km! No tropo, no line-of-sight. This was either an aircraft reflection or someone who had come across to Wales on the ferry, setting off a ping or two on Anglesey, having not changed their repeater settings. I will have to try and communicate with the owner to find out!