Nice!

Honestly the Amazon antenna will probably do perfectly fine, I might go that way for simplicity sake… maybe I’ll build an antenna too and do some a/b comparisons.

The 90 degree angle doesn’t hurt performance inherently, it only hurts it because it puts the antenna right next to the body of the radio, blocking some of the signal, and detuning the antenna slightly as well. So you’re still better off putting it vertical 👍

Also in case you didn’t know, those antennas are vertically polarized. That means when the tip is pointing up to the sky, the signal is coming out the sides going off towards the horizon. That’s the best way to get a signal out/in. Holding it sideways will create null points from the tip and base of the antenna, and also send half your signal into space and the other half in the ground 😁

Looks sweet. I might end with something like that eventually, but honestly I really like the idea of using my phone and just linking the mesh device to it. Reminds me of the old goTenna before they sold out.

Do you have somewhere high you could mount a repeater/router node to? Like the chimney of your house or something? Would make it even easier to connect with people, at least from home.

I’m planning on putting a few up, one at my house and each of my buddies houses.

Seems like most people are saying there’s way more nodes than the map shows. It’s not a guarantee though. I say give it a try!

Good to know, looking forward to it!

That’s way different! Good to hear!

Thanks! You mean I should get some of those sma adapters and some of those little stick antennas? Or something even bigger? Recommendations?

I’m a ham and I’ve got a nanovna, I could try making a ground plane antenna for 915mhz.

My plan is to put a repeater/router up on my tower 30ft up, as well as on a couple of my friends roofs, hopefully making a stable emergency channel between us. I’m between my buddies, 13 miles between the furthest ends, I’m almost in the middle.

Well, also no. I mean, I do, and so do many of my friends. But many people rely on all seasons. It’s… Not the best plan. But a lot of people do it.

This is us basically. Though we’re pretty busy, so we usually try to cook 2 maybe 3 meals a week, and eat the leftovers on the days in between.

Don’t get me wrong, we cook good stuff, we just purposely make a lot. I’m not going through all that effort for one tiny meal, unless it makes sense to do so, like we won’t be home for meal times or something so it would go bad.

But we keep some premix stuff around, and I have a few fast but not so healthy scratch recipes I can whip up in a jiffy. That’s usually us on Tuesday nights.

I’ve got one where I literally just throw rice, chix broth, frozen precooked (by me) chicken, frozen mixed veggies, and garlic/other spices into a rice cooker. That way I can just slap it together, jump in the shower, and eat quick before leaving again. Sometimes life is just that way.

Tell me more.

I’d like to make these pancakes you describe. I’m assuming you melt the butter first before mixing it in? Roughly how much milk is a good starting point?

I used to make Bisquick pancakes all the time, and recently changed to a name brand just add water kind because I tried it for camping once and realized it tastes just as good as the Bisquick, or good enough. I’m assuming that’s because Bisquick pancakes are also not actually that good, based on others in this thread.

I like convenience, but I also like good food. I’m gonna make both and do a blind taste test with the wife.