BSidesPDX-2025

When traditional infrastructure fails, as it often does in the PNW, we may lose power, water, and even accessible roads. How do you plan to check in with your friends, family, share resources, and help others? In this talk, we’ll cover what options are available for long-distance remote communications between individuals: FRS, GMRS, CB, Amateur Radio, as well as Meshtastic. For the second half of the talk, we'll dive in deeper on Meshtastic: how it compares in terms of capabilities, legality, range, and ease of integration, as well as edge cases. By the end of the presentation, participants will be equipped with actionable knowledge to select affordable communication tools for their needs, ensuring they remain connected when it matters most.

Learn how to configure, use, and abuse long-range, cheap communication devices through Meshtastic, without a license! Talk to friends, control remote devices, gather remote sensor data - all at low power use, low cost, with encryption.

This workshop is designed for experience levels ranging from 0/5 to 2/5:

• Beginner: never touched Meshtastic
• Intermediate: installed Meshtastic, played with the app, messaged people

Specifically, we’ll cover:

• Hardware involved, mild theory
• Configuration and set-up
• Messaging and interacting with others
• Working with telemetry and sensors
• Basic walkthrough of controlling remote devices
• Show and tell of several projects that use Meshtastic
• How to keep advancing after the workshop

For the price of admission ($50), you’ll receive hardware you’ll be working with at the workshop, that you will keep:

• Heltec v3
• 4000mAh battery
• Temperature/humidity/barometric pressure sensor
• GPS sensor
• A custom case to house all of the above
• An ultrasonic distance sensor
• Stickers

⚠️ Important:
Workshops require registration via this link: https://square.link/u/LYlZ89gC
(Registration will open at 12:00 Noon PDT, on Friday, October 10th)