MeshCore Terms
A practical glossary for people who want to understand the words that show up again and again in MeshCore conversations.
A good page to bookmark
You do not need an engineering background to get started with MeshCore, but you will run into terms that can feel overly technical at first. This page breaks down the most useful ones in clear, everyday language so you can get your bearings faster.
Devices and roles
These are the terms you will see most often when people talk about hardware and what it does on the network.
Node
Any device taking part in the mesh network. That might be the radio in your own kit or a fixed repeater serving a wider area.
Companion
The small radio device you use alongside your phone or computer to read messages and send your own.
Repeater
A node set up mainly to help carry messages onward through the network so coverage can extend beyond a single point.
Room server
An extra role some communities use for shared rooms, group conversations, or other organised message flows.
Antenna
The part that sends and receives the radio signal. Antenna quality and placement have a huge effect on useful range.
BLE
Bluetooth Low Energy. This is the short-range wireless link between your companion radio and your phone.
Network and messaging
These terms are about how messages travel and how the network is organised.
Mesh
A network where devices can help pass traffic along rather than depending on a single central router or tower.
Hop
One step from one node to the next. If a message crosses several devices before arriving, each step counts as a hop.
Scope
The group, region, or limit within which a message is intended to spread.
Region
An agreed area or structure used to keep message flow and repeater behaviour more organised.
Direct message
A private message sent to one specific recipient instead of a whole room or wider audience.
ACK
Short for acknowledgement. It is the confirmation that a message has reached the other side.
TTL
Time to Live. In practice, this sets the maximum number of hops a message is allowed to make.
Radio and signal quality
These words help explain what is happening on the air and why one setup performs better than another.
LoRa
The radio technology used by MeshCore to move short messages over long distances while using relatively little power.
915 MHz
The LoRa frequency range commonly used in the United States. Hardware and settings should match the band used in your country.
Airtime
The amount of radio time taken up by one message while it is being transmitted.
Duty cycle
The legal or practical limit on how much of the time a device is allowed to transmit in a given band or setup.
Preset
A ready-made set of radio settings chosen to match a specific network, region, or community setup.
RSSI
Received Signal Strength Indicator. It gives you an idea of how strong the incoming signal is.
SNR
Signal-to-noise ratio. It helps show how clear and usable a signal is compared with the background noise.
Security and software
These terms show up when people talk about updates, firmware, and message protection.
Firmware
The software running directly on the device itself. MeshCore is firmware that turns a compatible board into a mesh radio node.
Flashing
Installing firmware or replacing it with a new version on a supported device.
OTA
Over the Air. An update delivered wirelessly instead of by connecting the device with a cable.
End-to-end encryption
A form of encryption in which only the sender and intended recipient can read the message content.
Public key
The shareable key other people use when they want to encrypt something for your device.
Private key
The secret key held by your device and used to unlock messages meant for you.
One simple way to think about it
On RegionMesh we try to keep the language practical: companions are for reading and sending messages, repeaters are there to help move traffic further through the mesh.
Ready for the next step?
If the terms make more sense now, the best follow-up pages are devices, MeshCore setup, and repeater guidance.