From our own hand-built repeaters to portable companion radios — here's what to buy.
Building the backbone of the mesh starts here. We assemble, weatherproof, and range-test every repeater ourselves before it ships — tuned to NJ Mesh settings out of the box.
Why buy from us instead of a generic pre-made unit online? Quality control, plain and simple. We test range and weatherproofing on every single unit before it leaves our hands, and every purchase funds more community infrastructure — coverage you'll benefit from directly.
We offer several mounting builds depending on what your property allows or what you're trying to achieve — just tell us your situation and we'll figure out what fits.
Our standard build — maximum height and coverage for a house, garage, or dedicated mast.
A weatherproof build designed to be strapped or mounted up in a tree — great where a rooftop isn't an option, or for extending coverage into wooded areas.
A fully discreet build for HOA-restricted properties — mounted inside the attic with no visible antenna or hardware outside, at some tradeoff in range versus an outdoor mount.
Not sure which fits your property? Contact us and tell us about your situation — roof access, HOA rules, tree cover, whatever it is — and we'll recommend the right build.
These are the boards to buy if you want to build your own device, or want a handheld to carry on you.
Not just repeaters — we build and configure companion radios too. Pre-flashed with the latest MeshCore firmware and NJ Mesh settings, so you can pair it with your phone and start messaging the moment it arrives. No flashing, no fiddling with frequencies.
The current best all-around Heltec board for MeshCore. ESP32-S3 + SX1262 chipset, up to 27 dBm transmit power (roughly double the range of the older V3), built-in GPS, and 16MB flash with 2MB PSRAM for headroom.
Great as a home base station, MQTT gateway, or solar-powered outdoor repeater project if you want to DIY your own. Same footprint and pinout as the V3, so existing accessories still fit.
Note: ESP32-based, so battery life is shorter than nRF52 boards — best on mains, USB, or solar power rather than pure portable use.
An nRF52840-based module built around RAKwireless's stackable WisBlock system. Excellent power management makes it a favorite for both handhelds and battery/solar repeater builds — multiple days of runtime instead of one.
The modular WisBlock ecosystem also makes it easy to add GPS, e-ink displays, or extra sensors later without redesigning the whole build.
A tiny, low-power nRF52840 board — one of the smallest common options for building a pocket-sized companion. Great if size and battery life matter more than screen or button convenience; pair it with a small enclosure and you've got a genuinely pocketable node.
A ready-to-use enclosed handheld with a built-in e-ink display and buttons — no soldering or 3D-printed case required. A solid pick if you want something that looks and feels like a finished product straight out of the box.
A compact device with a built-in physical keyboard and screen — closer to a small messaging pager than a bare dev board. Handy if you want to type full messages without pulling out your phone.
A purpose-built solar-powered node with weatherproofing and solar charging already integrated — an easier starting point than bolting your own solar panel and battery onto a bare board if you're building an off-grid repeater from scratch.
A bare board is only the start. Here's everything else you'll need to piece together yourself — all of which we've already sorted out for you in an NJ Mesh repeater.
A 915 MHz antenna suited to your setup — a higher-gain outdoor antenna for repeaters, a smaller stubby antenna for handhelds.
USB power for an indoor unit, or a solar panel + battery pack combo for an outdoor repeater that needs to run unattended.
An IP67-rated weatherproof case if it's going outside, with a proper bulkhead connector so water can't get in around the antenna cable.
A bracket or mast clamp to get it up high, plus the cable and connectors to run the antenna feed to it.
Sourcing, testing, and weatherproofing all of this yourself takes real time — and if any piece is undersized or mismatched, range and reliability suffer. Every NJ Mesh repeater already has all of this handled and range-tested before it ships.
Not a companion, not a repeater — a store-and-forward message board for the mesh.
A Room Server holds onto messages so people don't need to be online at the same time to communicate. Post something to a room, and anyone who checks in later — even hours afterward — can read it. Think of it as a bulletin board bolted onto the mesh, useful for group coordination, community announcements, or leaving notes for someone who's out of range right now.
Room Servers run on the same hardware as a repeater and are usually set up alongside one, but they serve a different purpose — a repeater just relays traffic, a room server actually stores it.
The antenna matters as much as the board it's attached to — a mismatched antenna is one of the most common reasons for disappointing range.
For a fixed repeater, a higher-gain outdoor antenna mounted as high as possible (roofline, attic with sky view, or a mast) makes the single biggest difference to your coverage radius — more than any other single upgrade.
For something you're carrying, a compact "stubby" antenna trades some range for portability — reasonable, since a handheld companion isn't trying to cover a whole neighborhood on its own.