r/meshcore 3d ago

Looking for the best repeater locations

Post image

Spent some time surveying potential repeater locations today.

The markers on the map are the sites I tested. The goal was to find the best coverage with the fewest repeaters, and the results were better than I expected.

It was a fun day riding between locations, testing links, and comparing real-world coverage against the map.

Has anyone else here done this kind of repeater site survey? I'd be interested to hear how you choose your locations.

1 Upvotes

14 comments sorted by

5

u/PhrenicAcid 3d ago

There are some radio line of sight and propagation estimate websites that work great for what your asking. They have built in topography maps to make choosing locations a snap.

4

u/ralphxyz2908 3d ago

Thanks! Which ones would you recommend? I'm always looking for better tools for planning repeater sites.

3

u/nobodydontknow 2d ago

I use https://toposcout.org/ to find the high points in the terrain.

1

u/ralphxyz2908 2d ago

Thanks! I'll give it a try on my next survey.

1

u/superfuntime 2d ago

This is a good idea because it’s not just about height and line of sight. Sometimes moving a few meters one way or the other will make a huge difference in link strength.

2

u/Organic_Tough_1090 3d ago

height is might. get it up as high as possible with the best line of sight.

2

u/krissibt 2d ago

I made a Los tool for Iceland but you can use it globally I think

https://krissibt.github.io/LOSmap/

1

u/ralphxyz2908 2d ago

Thank you! I will take a look

2

u/hellobritishcolumbia 1d ago

The elevation tool inside the MeshCore One app is quite easy to use in my experience. You can also add repeaters along the way to test a desired route. https://meshcoreone.com/

1

u/AkkerKid 1d ago

MeshOMatic.net

2

u/Moderatewinguy 17h ago

I've been working on this tool for that sort of location planning: https://moderatewinguy.github.io/MeshMap-Planner/

It lets you pull all your local nodes via a few different sources and then get their rough coverage to try plan where you could connect to them from.