Mesh radios

QSAR has 4 mesh radios — small LoRa handhelds that form their own local radio network with no cell signal, no internet, and no infrastructure. Turn them on near each other and they link up automatically. On a search that means the team can text and see each other’s positions even where there’s no Starlink and no bars.

Each radio has a callsign as its name:

Callsign	Radio	Carries
Nalaquq 1	RAK WisMesh Pocket V2	Base / lead
Alpha Team	RAK WisMesh Pocket V2	Field team
Bravo Team	RAK WisMesh Pocket V2	Field team
Hasty Team	RAK WisMesh Pocket V2	Hasty team

Whatever name a radio is set to is the name the rest of the team sees on the map and in chat — same idea as the beacons. Keep the callsign matched to who’s carrying it.

Where this fits: the mesh is being built out (Phase 5). Right now the radios talk to each other locally. Getting their positions and texts onto the main TAK map (through the gateway and Starlink) is the next step — this page will grow as that lands.

Charging

• USB-C on each Pocket V2. A full charge lasts a long time (3600 mAh) — these are built to run for days, not hours.
• Charge before a callout; store them charged.

Pairing to your phone

The radio works on its own, but you drive it — reading the map, sending texts, changing the name — from the Meshtastic app on your phone over Bluetooth.

These steps are from an iPhone (iOS). The team is on iOS today; the Android app is laid out a little differently — Android steps + screenshots are a to-do (see the setup-doc task).

1. Install Meshtastic (iPhone: App Store · Android: Play Store).
2. Turn the radio on.
3. Open the app → add a device / new node → pick the radio from the Bluetooth list (it shows as Meshtastic_xxxx, where xxxx is the last four of that radio’s ID).
4. Enter the pairing code shown on that radio’s own screen. Each radio displays its own 6-digit code when pairing — they are not all the same, so read it off the device you’re connecting, not from memory.
5. Once connected you’ll see the radio’s screen name, battery, and the other radios in range under Nodes.

Setting the callsign: in the app, open the device settings and set the Long name to the callsign (e.g. Alpha Team) and a short 2–4 letter Short name. The long name is what everyone else sees.

Quick check it’s working: with two radios paired to two phones, send a text from one and confirm it arrives on the other, and confirm each shows the other under Nodes with a location. That’s the whole “is the mesh up” test.

For technicians — the private channel

All four radios share one private channel so their traffic is encrypted and off the public “LongFast” airwaves. The rule: the private channel must be the primary channel on every radio — one master radio is configured, then its channel is pushed to the others.

On the master radio (Nalaquq 1):

1. Radio Configuration → Channels → edit channel 0 (the primary): name it QSAR, keep Role Primary, generate a new 256-bit key, precise position on, MQTT uplink + downlink on. Save.
2. Delete/disable any other channels so the list is only QSAR (Primary).
3. Radio Configuration → LoRa: Region = US (915), preset LONG_FAST.

Push it to the other three:

1. On the master: Channels → Share (QR or URL).
2. On each other radio, open it and UNCHECK “Add channels” so it Replaces.

   This is the step that bites you. Left checked, “Add” appends QSAR as a secondary while LongFast stays primary — the radios end up on different slots and can’t talk. Unchecking it (Replace) makes QSAR the primary, matching the master. (Confirmed the hard way on the bench, 2026-07-24.)

3. The share link does not carry region/preset — set US + LONG_FAST by hand on each radio.

Verify: every radio shows QSAR as its channel, sees the others under Nodes, and a broadcast text on QSAR reaches them all. Keep that QR/key private — device-to-device only, never posted or committed.

For technicians — flashing the firmware

All four radios run the same Meshtastic firmware version so they stay compatible (a version mismatch across the fleet is a known source of breakage). As of 2026-07-24 the fleet is on 2.6.11.

The Pocket V2 is an nRF52 device, which flashes by the easy drag-and-drop method — no special software, you just copy a file onto a USB drive:

1. In Chrome or Edge (not Firefox/Safari), go to flasher.meshtastic.org.
2. Pick RAK WisMesh Pocket V2, choose the stable version, and download the .uf2 file it gives you.
3. With the radio plugged in over USB, double-click its reset button. A new USB drive appears on your computer (like plugging in a thumb drive).
4. Drag the .uf2 file onto that drive. It copies, then the drive ejects itself and the radio reboots on the new firmware.
5. Reconnect in the app and confirm the version.

Normal, not a failure: the copy often looks like it “hangs” near the end, or Windows says the drive disconnected. That’s because the radio reboots the instant it has the file — if the drive vanished and the radio came back up, the flash worked.

The gateway (RAK10720) and the two spare radios (the LW010-R Tag and the ThinkNode M2) are handled separately — the gateway in particular runs a special build and must not be reflashed with the generic image.