MeshCoreScanner vs Meshbell

MeshCoreScanner is a companion app for MeshCore BLE radio devices that maps LoRa mesh network coverage in real time. Connect to your MeshCore companion radio via Bluetooth Low Energy and start scanning for nearby repeaters as you move. The app automatically triggers discovery scans based on distance traveled or time intervals, logging every repeater response with signal strength, SNR, and GPS coordinates. KEY FEATURES • Live Coverage Mapping — Scan points and discovered repeaters are plotted on an OpenStreetMap-based map as you travel • Repeater Database — All discovered repeaters are cataloged with signal quality, node type, coordinates, and discovery history • Coverage Visualization — View per-repeater coverage areas based on aggregated scan data • Scan Sessions — Organize your scanning activity into sessions for easy comparison and management • Scan-to-Repeater Lines — Tap any scan point to see connections to all repeaters heard at that location • Background Scanning — Continues scanning while the app is in the background using GPS and BLE • Distance or Time Trigger — Configure scans to trigger every X meters or every X seconds • Data Management — Delete repeaters by age or distance, filter imports, manage sessions • GeoJSON Export — Share your coverage data for analysis in external tools • Fully Offline — All data is stored locally on your device, no account or internet connection required REQUIREMENTS • A MeshCore-compatible BLE companion radio device • iPhone with Bluetooth Low Energy support • Location permission for GPS-based scan mapping MeshCoreScanner is built for the MeshCore LoRa mesh networking community. Whether you're planning repeater placement, verifying coverage, or exploring network reach — this app gives you the data you need.

Meshbell is a neighborhood emergency-alert app built for the moment the network fails. Floods, fires, and outages take cell towers and home internet with them — exactly when a neighborhood most needs to talk to itself. Meshbell doesn't depend on either. WORKS WHEN THE NETWORK DOESN'T Meshbell carries small, signed emergency bulletins over a local long-range radio mesh (LoRa). A warning can enter the mesh anywhere and hop radio-to-radio across the neighborhood — no tower, no router, no account. Your phone receives it and checks it, offline. VERIFIED, NOT VIRAL Most apps show you a claim and let the styling imply it is true. Meshbell keeps two facts separate and visible: who is speaking, and whether it could be checked. An unconfirmed neighbor report is shown as exactly that. Only a message that clears a real cryptographic bar can ever carry an instruction — and even a relayed official alert is not treated as official unless it proves it. This is built into the app, not a policy it remembers to follow. FOLLOW THE PLACES YOU CARE ABOUT Add your home, or a family member's street. Meshbell tells you about hazards that touch a place you watch, on your lock screen if they are serious enough — and stays quiet about the rest. Official warnings come from the National Weather Service, and a neighborhood bridge can add FEMA IPAWS in the United States or MeteoAlarm across Europe, in the issuing service's own words. REACH NEIGHBORS WITHOUT A RADIO One prepared neighbor can bootstrap the block. Set up a small Wi-Fi bridge on a Raspberry Pi (the installer ships inside the app), and anyone nearby with just a browser can read the mesh — nothing to install, and a neighbor's signed report is still checked on their own device. BUILT FOR THE WORST HOUR No cell, no Wi-Fi, an old phone, a nearly dead battery — Meshbell still works, and it tells you plainly what it can and cannot do. When data is stale, it says so, with its age, rather than showing a confident blank. A PUBLIC GOOD, NOT A PRODUCT Meshbell is built as a nonprofit, in the spirit of Watch Duty: the core alerting is free and always will be. We will never sell your emergency or turn your neighborhood into a mailing list. Your keys and your watched places stay on your device. Meshbell is an early release and is not a substitute for official emergency services or alerts. Keep your existing emergency notifications turned on.