🛠 Get Connected: How to Join Flyover Mesh

Before you buy anything, you can start by joining the Discord and ask any questions you might have.

The best away to get help is to ask in the Discord #advice channel.

🔰 GETTING STARTED WITH MESHTASTIC (WICHITA EDITION)

Here’s how to get started: ⸻

📱 1. INSTALL THE MESHTASTIC APP You’ll use this app to connect your phone to your device and manage settings.

For iPhone: App Store Link 🔗

For Android: Google Play Link 🔗

⸻

Choosing your hardware

The community keeps a list of devices up to date, including recomendations and various features. Buying from the links on this site help support the community nodes.

📡 2. CHOOSE YOUR DEVICE

You’ll need a LoRa device (aka a “node”) to send messages on the mesh.

⸻

Setting up your hardware

💻 3. FLASH YOUR DEVICE (if needed)

Use the web flasher: https://flasher.meshtastic.org Use Chrome or Edge only (not Firefox)

• Plug in via USB (make sure you’re using a USB cable that can transfer data)
• Choose the correct serial port
• Hit “Flash”
  • Note: For some devices (RAK Wireless), you drag and drop the firmware like you’re adding it to a USB drive

Need help? Ask in Discord or wait for a flash party!

⸻

⚙️ 4. RECOMMENDED SETTINGS

Use these so your node can communicate with others in the Wichita network!

📻 Radio Config:

LoRa

• Region: US
• User Preset: On
• Modem: LongFast

Identity Settings (top left, pencil icon):

• Long Name: This is your choice! Make it something unique and memorable.
• Short Name: This is up to you, too!

Device

• Role: Client (or Client Mute)

Position

• GPS: ✅ Enabled (if supported by device)

Channels Primary

• Name: LongFast (just like that, no space)
• Pre-Shared Key: AQ==
  • then select “8 bit” or “Default”

🧩 Config -> Module Config -> MQTT:

• Enabled: ✅ Yes (helps meshmap.net, don’t change the defaults)
• Encryption Enabled: ❌ No
• Root topic: msh/US/KS/Wichita
• Map Reporting Enabled: ✅ yes

⸻

Try out your connections

There are many options!

• 🤖 Send a message on Long Fast, and then check the #mesh-map channel on Discord. If your measage appears there, then it’s been sent across the mesh.
• 🎙️ send the message $ping or $hello or $weather and Flyover Mesh Bot will respond to you if it gets your message
• 💬 The simplest way is to wait a momemnt, and see if your app says “Acknoledged” below your message. That’s the simplest way to see if your at least communicating with some other nodes.

Join the Mesh Net events

Each week, we have a scheduled time to send and receive messages. We call that a Mesh Net, which comes from ham radio communities. Sunday at 8pm.