Part of our Mesh Networking guide.
Meshtastic, AREDN, and APRS all get grouped together under the loose banner of ham radio mesh networking, and people often assume they’re competing options for the same job. They’re not. Each one solves a different problem, and picking the wrong one leads to a lot of frustration.
Meshtastic: low-bandwidth text messaging
Meshtastic is built for small text messages and basic location sharing over LoRa, with no license required in most configurations. It’s cheap, battery-friendly, and easy to deploy, but it moves very little data. Think short messages and position pings, not files or voice.
AREDN: a real IP network over ham radio
AREDN builds an actual high-speed IP mesh network over amateur radio frequencies, using repurposed WiFi hardware flashed with AREDN firmware. This requires a ham license and gets you real bandwidth, capable of VoIP, video, and full network services like a local intranet during an outage. It needs line of sight between nodes and more setup effort than Meshtastic, but the capability gap is enormous. I cover the reality of this in AREDN Mesh Networking.
APRS: position and short-packet data over ham radio
APRS is older, licensed, and built around broadcasting position, status, and short text over VHF, with digipeaters relaying packets across a wide area and gateways bridging to the internet. It’s excellent for tracking and situational awareness across a region, but it’s not a private messaging system or a general-purpose data network the way AREDN is. I cover the full picture in APRS Explained.
Picking the right one for the job
- Need cheap, license-free short messaging and basic location sharing for a small group: Meshtastic
- Need real bandwidth for voice, video, or network services during an outage, and you’re licensed: AREDN
- Need wide-area position tracking and status broadcasting across a region: APRS
Plenty of serious operators run more than one of these for different purposes rather than picking a single winner. Understand what each is actually built for before you build your plan around it.
Ready to dig deeper into one of these? See Setting Up Your First Meshtastic Node, AREDN Mesh Networking, or APRS Explained.
For the full picture on modes and getting on the air, see my Getting On The Air: Modes, Operations, and Making Contacts pillar page.