The plain-English explanation — no radio jargon required.
NJ Mesh runs entirely on MeshCore, the open-source mesh radio protocol this whole network is built on — visit their site for the technical deep-dive.
MeshCore is a free, open-source radio protocol built for LoRa hardware — small, cheap radios that talk to each other directly, hopping messages from device to device until they reach their destination. No cell towers, no ISPs, no monthly bill.
Each device that joins — whether it's a handheld companion radio or a fixed repeater on a rooftop — extends the network a little further. The more people who join in New Jersey, the more places the mesh reaches.
NJ Mesh is a volunteer effort to build out a statewide backbone of repeaters — on rooftops, towers, and hilltops — so that anyone in NJ with a $30–100 radio can reach the network, even somewhere without cell signal.
We're not a company. There's no app subscription, no data plan, no ads. It's community infrastructure, plain and simple — and it grows every time someone buys or hosts a repeater.
When storms knock out cell towers and power, MeshCore keeps working. Deployable in minutes.
Hiking the Pine Barrens, boating the Shore, or just outside cell range — stay in touch with your group.
AES-256 encryption. No metadata trails, no third-party servers, no one reading your messages but you.
Every repeater is owned and run by a real person in NJ — not a corporation. You can meet the people who built it.
You don't need to understand any of this to use the mesh — but if you're curious, here's what actually happens.
Your companion radio packages it up, encrypts it, and transmits it over LoRa radio — no cell signal or WiFi involved.
Any repeater or device within radio range picks up the packet. The first time a message needs to reach someone, it "floods" — every repeater that hears it repeats it once.
Once a route to the recipient is discovered, MeshCore remembers it. Future messages between the same two people travel directly along that known path instead of flooding the whole mesh again.
Every repeater along the way forwards the encrypted packet without being able to read it. Only the intended recipient's private key can decrypt the message.
Bookmark this if the jargon on other pages ever loses you.
A personal radio that pairs with your phone over Bluetooth so you can send and receive messages — your "handset" on the mesh.
A fixed, unattended radio (usually mounted high up) that rebroadcasts messages to extend range. Doesn't pair with a phone — it just relays.
A store-and-forward bulletin board on the mesh. Post a message and anyone who checks in later — even hours after — can read it, like a message board that doesn't need everyone online at once.
A broadcast a device sends announcing itself — its name, public key, and optionally its location — so other nodes learn it exists.
A message-sending method where every repeater that hears it repeats it once. Used when no known route exists yet — reliable, but uses more airtime.
The specific route (path) a message takes across the mesh, made up of individual repeater-to-repeater relays (hops). Fewer hops generally means a faster, more reliable delivery.
A shared conversation space, like a group chat. The Public channel is open to everyone on the mesh; private channels need a shared key to join.
A unique cryptographic identifier for your device. It's how other nodes address messages specifically to you, and how encryption keeps your messages private.
Cell networks need towers, power, and a monthly bill — and all three can fail at once during an emergency. MeshCore radios talk directly to each other, so as long as your device has a charge, you're on the network. The tradeoff: it's text-first, not built for calls, video, or browsing.
Meshtastic is the other major open-source LoRa mesh project, and often runs on the same hardware. MeshCore uses a different routing approach (path-based rather than pure flood-and-forget) designed to scale better as a mesh gets large and dense. They aren't compatible with each other, but many boards can be flashed to run either one.
Our step-by-step guide gets a complete beginner on the mesh in about 10 minutes.
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