We have MeshCore in Brisbane and South East Queensland, and the mesh is growing fast. The network currently reaches down to the border with NSW, and covers Gold Coast, Kooralbyn, our as far east as Toowoomba, and North to Kilcoy, Noosa and even Gympie.
Repeaters are visible to everyone on MeshCore, and are the building-blocks of making the mesh work.
Companions don't automatically share their contact details unless you “advert” them; they don't repeat messages.
You may also find “rooms”, which are essentially like a little BBS on the mesh; the benefit of those are that messages are not sent to the whole mesh.
An ideal MeshCore setup is a companion (probably in your house), and a repeater (ideally on the roof or somewhere close by) so that your messages have a good chance of getting out, and so that you build the mesh. Accordingly, you might choose something like a cheap Heltec v3 for your companion, and a bigger, more powerful device for your repeater.
In most cases, you can re-use the same hardware as you might use for other mesh technologies; or buy a new device from around $35 from places like AliExpress. (Go for the 915MHz versions).
Here's the official Meshcore web flasher at the official Meshcore website. Use our recommended settings.
If you have a repeater that is also in range of your wifi, then you can flash it with this patched firmware, which also enables an MQTT connection to the EastMesh live map, and also gives a helpful and handy statistics page on your home network.
If you want to make your companion work with your home wifi via TCP, this page patches the official firmware with your wifi settings.
This allows you to use your MeshCore companion wherever you are in the house; and, if you use Tailscale or a similar VPN, anywhere in the world - as long as you have an internet connection.