NWI Mesh Net
A community-built Meshtastic mesh spanning Lake, Porter, and LaPorte counties. No cell towers. No subscriptions. Always on.
Buy a node
T-Beam, Heltec, or SenseCAP
Flash firmware
flasher.meshtastic.org
Pair to phone
Meshtastic iOS / Android
Set region US_915
Core config guide
Place it up high
Height = range
Off-grid texting for your community.
NWIMesh – Meshtastic Quick Start & FAQ (Northwest Indiana) New to Meshtastic or LoRa mesh networking in Northwest Indiana? This page is the primary getting-started guide for NWIMesh. It combines the 15-minute quick start with a detailed FAQ covering hardware,…
Long range
Record line-of-sight tests exceed 200 miles. Typical urban/suburban hops: 1–10+ miles.
Mesh routing
Messages hop node-to-node automatically. No central router needed — the mesh self-heals.
Encrypted
End-to-end encrypted channels for private groups. Public mesh traffic uses shared keys.
No license needed
Operates on the unlicensed US-915 MHz ISM band. Open to everyone — no ham license required.
Solar-ready
Infrastructure nodes run on solar + battery. The mesh stays up when the grid goes down.
Everything you need to get on the mesh.
Step-by-step guides for flashing firmware, setting channels, configuring MQTT, and optimizing your node for the NWI mesh.
All guidesNWI Mesh Net is supported by the amateur radio community. Our infrastructure is sponsored by Porter County ARC and ODARC. Interested in supporting the mesh? Join the Discord to get involved.
Ready to join the mesh?
Get a node, flash the firmware, and you're on air. No license, no subscription, no infrastructure needed.