Getting connected
Find a local mesh
Maps and directories for checking whether a Wi-Fi community network, Meshtastic, MeshCore or Reticulum mesh already covers your area, with a Coventry and West Midlands case study.
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Time
- 20 min
- Cost
- Free
Updated 29 Oct 2026
The question to answer before buying a radio is simple: is anyone near me already running one? A mesh node with no neighbours does nothing. This guide lists the public maps and directories, what each one counts, and how to read them honestly.
Maps and directories
| Network | Where to look | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Meshtastic | meshmap.net | Nodes with a position that were heard on the public MQTT broker in the last 24 hours. Nodes that do not uplink to MQTT, or have no position, are absent. |
| MeshCore | map.meshcore.io | Nodes uploaded by users' apps: repeaters, companions, room servers and sensors. Includes stale entries. |
| Reticulum | rmap.world | Auto-discovered Reticulum nodes and services. Most entries are services (NomadNet, propagation nodes), not radios. |
| NYC Mesh | map.nycmesh.net | Installed locations (building level), with status maintained by volunteers. |
| Freifunk | freifunk.net and the community directory at api.freifunk.net | A machine-readable list of communities. Each community runs its own map. |
| Guifi.net | landing.guifi.net | Foundation landing page. We could not verify a working public map or join URL. |
| AREDN | worldmap.arednmesh.org | Amateur radio data nodes. |
Scale, as of 2026-10-29
These are counts we computed from the public data behind the maps on 2026-10-29. Definitions differ, so do not compare rows.
| Map | Count | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| meshmap.net (Meshtastic) | 9,619 | Positioned nodes heard on public MQTT in the last 24 hours. Many nodes publish a blurred position. |
| map.meshcore.io (MeshCore) | 69,134 | Every record ever uploaded, including stale entries. 22,173 had advertised in the last 7 days. |
| rmap.world (Reticulum) | 7,801 | All entries; 1,108 are interfaces and only 686 carry coordinates. |
| NYC Mesh | 1,222 | Locations listed as active (1,416 records in total). Status is hand-maintained. |
| Freifunk | 41,169 | Sum of self-reported node counts across communities. Around 16,100 come from communities that updated in the last 30 days. |
| AREDN | 2,330 | Nodes seen in the last 24 hours (2,550 in 7 days). |
Guifi.net's last published figure that we could find is more than 37,000 active nodes as of December 2021 (via Wikipedia). We treat it as dated.
Wi-Fi community meshes
These networks exist in particular places. We found Freifunk communities in Germany (358 directory entries), Switzerland (10), Austria (3), Luxembourg (1) and France (1), and none in the UK. NYC Mesh covers New York City, and Guifi.net is concentrated in Catalonia and the Valencian Community. We found no UK Wi-Fi community mesh in our research. See join a community Wi-Fi mesh.
UK resources
| Resource | What it is |
|---|---|
| Mesh Hub UK | Community tools, maps and live network information for Meshtastic and MeshCore users across the UK. Has a Discord (meshhub.uk/discord), an events page, and a neutral finder map at meshhub.uk/which-mesh.html whose data refreshes every 12 hours and which says it cannot show every node. |
| Meshtastic: local groups | Meshtastic's official page lists two UK entries: Mesh Hub UK and New Welsh Mesh. The website domain listed for New Welsh Mesh had lapsed as of 29 October 2026, so we do not link it. |
| LocalMesh | A volunteer-run UK network built on MeshCore. Its site claims 800+ repeaters and 50+ active participants, undated and unsourced on the page. It has /join/, /map/ and /community/ sections. |
| MeshCore UK site | A vendor-style site with a flasher, user map, coverage map and a shop. Its relationship to the MeshCore project at meshcore.io is unconfirmed. |
| ScotMesh and Welsh MeshCore | Pages exist at meshcore.scotmesh.net and meshcore.wales. We did not fully verify them. |
The Meshtastic official Discord (discord.gg/meshtastic) and the MeshCore Discord (meshcore.gg) are listed on those projects' own sites. The official Meshtastic docs list no UK-specific Discord.
Case study: Coventry and the West Midlands
We looked for a Coventry-specific mesh group in October 2026 and could not verify one. No Coventry or Warwickshire page turned up in two separate searches, and LocalMesh's page for the city names no group. The only evidence we have is the MeshCore map.
| Area (definition) | Records ever | Seen in last 7 days | Seen in last 30 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK and Ireland (rectangle: lat 49.8 to 60.9, lon -8.7 to 1.8) | 4,695 | 1,258 (1,201 repeaters) | 1,815 |
| West Midlands (rectangle: lat 52.2 to 52.75, lon -2.4 to -1.3) | not recounted | 25 | 39 |
| Coventry, 25 km radius circle around 52.41, -1.51 (the homepage counter's definition) | not recounted | 17 | not recounted |
| Coventry, tight city box (rectangle: lat 52.35 to 52.47, lon -1.65 to -1.40) | not recounted | 3 | 6 (5 repeaters, 1 companion) |
All from map.meshcore.io on 2026-10-29, after a guarded recount that excluded entries with future-dated timestamps (the map contains some dated as far ahead as 2041, from bad device clocks). The areas are different shapes and were measured in separate passes, so they do not nest neatly. The UK rectangle also takes in parts of Ireland and the Isle of Man, a sliver of northern France, and excludes the Channel Islands. The map is self-uploaded, with duplicates and test nodes, so use these as order-of-magnitude figures.
On Meshtastic, meshmap.net showed 5 positioned nodes in a rectangular Coventry-area box (about 50 km across, not a 25 km circle) on the same day (0 heard in the last hour), against 230 in the UK-and-Ireland rectangle. Position blurring means some nodes may fall outside the box.
Our reading: Coventry has a real but small MeshCore presence (roughly 5 live repeaters in the city itself, more in the wider area), and coverage is partial. The best next step is to join the MeshCore or Mesh Hub UK Discord and ask. If you know of a Coventry or West Midlands group we have missed, we will list a contact route on the About page; until then, the communities above are the best place to share local knowledge.
How to read a map
- Zoom to your postcode area and look at repeaters (MeshCore) or routers and fixed nodes, not just handheld clients.
- Check the timestamp: has anything been heard recently?
- Note elevation. A repeater on a hill matters far more than ten indoor nodes.
- Ask in the project's Discord before buying anything. People know about nodes that never reach the map.
- Remember that a node on the map is a possible path, not a guaranteed one. Obstructions matter; see antenna placement.
If your area looks empty, zero-hardware start lets you learn first. When you are ready, see which mesh is right for you, the hardware buyer's guide, flash Meshtastic and flash MeshCore. The network directory summarises each network.