🌀 Mesh Dispatch: Community Engagement, March Meetup & February Recap

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the February meetup — and welcome to the new subscribers. This month marked a real shift as we moved from winter planning into hands‑on spring deployment prep, with the LoRa Strategy Working Group now officially formed and early field designs taking shape.

Here’s a quick look at February’s highlights and what’s ahead for March 4th.

🌲 February Recap: From Ideas to Action

February’s session focused on the practical realities of regional deployment. Alex shared lessons from real‑world solar tree node installs — what tends to fail, what consistently works, and how to design for canopy‑level reliability. We also dug into power budgeting, antenna choices, and safe rigging techniques, capped off with a look at the Rattlesnake Node and the compressed‑air line launcher.

After the break, we shifted into an interactive PACE Planning workshop, mapping real communication pathways and identifying gaps. The group proposed clearer SOPs, redundant contact staging, and the creation of an #emergency MeshCore room as a shared fallback.

We closed the night by formally launching the LoRa Strategy Working Group, which will present its first coordinated deployment proposal at the March meetup.

📄 Read the full recap

🧭 March Meetup: Mutual Aid + LoRa Deployment Plan

Our next gathering is on Wednesday, March 4th, again at the UU Church in Concord. This month brings together the social and technical foundations of our work:

• What Is Mutual Aid? — A grounding introduction to the mutual aid framework and how it shapes CRM’s approach to decentralized communication
• LoRa Working Group: Initial Deployment Proposal — The first public draft of our coordinated regional LoRa plan
• Working Session — Feedback, priorities, and next steps for spring deployment

👉 Event details & RSVP

If you’re interested in field deployments, documentation, hardware experimentation, or community outreach, this is a great moment to plug in.

🤝 Help Us Connect With Local Mutual Aid & Community Groups

As we prepare for March’s discussion on mutual aid, we’re working to build stronger relationships with organizations across the Capital Region who share an interest in community resilience, emergency preparedness, or decentralized communication.

If you know a mutual aid group, neighborhood network, CERT team, or community organization that might be interested:

• Forward this newsletter
• Share the March meetup link
• Or introduce us directly at info@capitalmesh.net

Personal connections help us reach the people who would benefit most from — and contribute most to — this work.

💬 Stay Connected

Thanks to everyone who has shared ideas, contributed to working groups, or helped shape the direction of the project. Your input is directly influencing our spring deployment plans and the next phase of our organizational evolution.

—Sam @ Capital Region Mesh

💬 Questions?
Email info@capitalmesh.net to share feedback or ask questions directly.
(If you reply to this newsletter, we’ll gently redirect you to the right inbox.)

📚 Blog posts & updates:
capitalmesh.net/blog

🌐 Project site:
capitalmesh.net

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