Resources
What is Meshtastic?
Because I'm lazy and I suck at describing things, heres the Wikipedia article about Meshtastic:
Meshtastic is a decentralized wireless off-grid mesh networking LoRa protocol. The main goal of the project is enabling low-power, long-range communication over unlicensed radio bands. It is designed around exchanging text messages and data in off-grid environments, with potential applications in IoT projects where a decentralized communication system is needed without existing infrastructure.
Meshtastic uses LoRa peer to peer (P2P), a long-range radio protocol, to form a mesh network by rebroadcasting messages to extend communication reach. Each device can connect with a single phone, enabling messaging in off-grid areas, making it useful for not only messages, but also data transmissions.
Meshtastic was created by Kevin Hester in early 2020 as a solution for communication during hobbies where reliable internet access is unavailable. The project operates as a grassroots, community-driven endeavor with established local communities, maintaining a strong DIY ethos. The software is open source, with hundreds of contributors participating in its development.
Getting started
So you want to dive face first into the deep end huh? Awesome! The best place to get started is the official Meshtastic docs.
From there, go join the official Discord server (link is on their website). Theres all sorts of information on there and you can chat with the developers and ask others questions. You can also join the LoCo Discord as well and we can try to help out as best as we can.
Youtube is a great resource as well, with lots of videos about Meshtastic, LoRa hardware, etc.