FAQ

MeshCore FAQ 🙋

Quick answers to the questions that come up most often. If yours is not here, ask on Discord.

Do I need a radio licence to use meshcore?

No. MeshCore uses licence-exempt LoRa frequencies (868 MHz in the UK). Anyone can carry a companion node and use the app. No amateur radio licence required.

What is the range?

It depends heavily on where you are and whether there is a repeater nearby. A companion node in the open might reach a couple of kilometres to a nearby repeater. A well-sited repeater on a hill can cover tens of kilometres. In a city with buildings in the way, range is shorter.

Currently our distance record across water is 160km from Galloway to Dublin.

Our record across land is 120km from Angus down to SOuth Lanark.

Why can’t I hear anyone?

A few things to check, in order:

Scope is wrong. The most common cause. Go to Experimental Settings in the app and confirm Default Scope Region is set to sco. Then check the channel scope too — see Scopes.
No repeater nearby. Use Tools → Repeater Scanner in the MeshCore app to scan for nearby ScotMesh repeaters, then wait for the scan to complete and confirm that local repeaters are being discovered.
Wrong radio preset. Make sure your device is flashed with the UK / EU Narrow preset. A device on the wrong channel or spreading factor will not hear anything.
Device not transmitting. Try #test with scope sco — you should at least see your own message go out.

If you have checked all of the above and still hear nothing, ask on Discord.

What is the difference between a channel and a scope?

A channel is a named group chat — #scotland, #glasgow, #test. It is just a label for people.
A scope is a region code that repeaters use to decide whether to carry your message — sco, gla, edi.

You can send a message on #glasgow with the scope set to sco and it will go Scotland-wide. Or you can set the scope to gla and it will only travel through Glasgow-area repeaters. The channel name does not change that — the scope does. See Scopes for the full explanation.

Why is the `*` wildcard not allowed?

The * wildcard tells repeaters to forward everything to everyone. On a well-grown network that floods the airtime with traffic that most people do not need. ScotMesh uses deliberate region scopes instead — set sco for Scotland-wide, gla for Glasgow, and so on — so traffic only travels where it is actually useful.

In late March / early April 2026, the ScotMesh MC network officially formed when West Coast repeaters successfully linked with East Coast repeaters. This gave us around two weeks of reliable country-wide messaging across Scotland, proving that the network could work well as a connected Scottish mesh.The situation changed when our Galloway repeater linked us into Ireland and, through that path, to the remainder of the wider UK mesh. While wider interconnection may sound positive, in practice it created a major problem for ScotMesh. The network was suddenly exposed to a very high level of uncontrolled flood traffic, estimated at around 24,000 flood packets per day, plus around 600 public messages being present. Much of this traffic was unnecessary for Scottish users and included political arguments, off-topic content, and various abusive or inappropriate remarks.
This level of uncontrolled traffic had a damaging effect on ScotMesh. It increased congestion, reduced the reliability of useful local messaging, and made the network harder to manage. This was the reason ScotMesh moved towards a clearer regional framework, allowing Scotland to remain connected where appropriate while keeping routine traffic scoped, relevant, and manageable. This is also the reason why are unlikely to ever allow wildcard flooding again.

There is one exception: * is used as a root parent in repeater configuration commands (for example region put sco *). That is a region tree concept, not wildcard forwarding. See Regions for the detail.

Can I use ScotMesh without a repeater nearby?

Yes, but your range is very limited. Two companion nodes in line of sight can talk directly. If there is no repeater between you and another user, messages will only reach as far as direct radio range allows — often just a few hundred metres in built-up areas.

If you want to extend coverage in your area, the best thing to do is put up a repeater. See Repeater Quick Setup.

What device should I buy?

The MeshCore Flasher lists devices that can be flashed with MeshCore firmware — that is a good starting point for what is currently supported. Popular choices include boards from Heltec, LilyGo, and RAK, but the community’s preferences do shift as new hardware comes out.

The best thing to do is ask on Discord — someone will point you at whatever is working well right now.

How do I know if my device is working?

Send a message on #test with scope sco. If you can see the message appear in the app after sending, the device is transmitting. If someone else on the network responds, you have confirmed two-way comms.

Use Tools → Repeater Scanner in the MeshCore app to scan for nearby ScotMesh repeaters, then wait for the scan to complete and confirm that local repeaters are being discovered.

Do I need to set scope for every channel separately?

Not necessarily. If you set a default scope of sco in Experimental Settings, that applies to any channel that does not have its own scope override. You only need to set a per-channel scope when you want something different — for example gla on #glasgow to keep traffic local, or ioi on #ireland for the Island of Ireland path. See Scopes for the full detail.

What is the Island of Ireland (`ioi`) scope?

ScotMesh and the Irish MeshCore community have a peering agreement. Repeaters on both sides carry the ioi scope so that traffic can move between the two networks in a controlled way — without flooding everything. You can join #ireland and set scope to ioi to talk on that path. See Channels for more.

Something else not answered here?

Jump on Discord — the community is friendly and happy to help.