Low-bandwidth / off-grid meshes
Cascadia Mesh
Volunteer collaboration building a MeshCore network across British Columbia, Washington and Oregon
Text & telemetry only active
Updated 29 Oct 2026
| Internet traffic | No. As with MeshCore generally, it carries low-rate messages, not internet traffic. |
|---|---|
| Node count | 3,757 "active mesh nodes" as stated on the project's site (undated; not independently verified) (as of 29 Oct 2026, source) |
| Geography | The Pacific Northwest: British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, with corridor projects along I-5 and Highways 99 and 91. |
| Regions | British Columbia, Canada, Washington, USA, Oregon, USA |
| Tech |
|
| Typical cost | Hardware only. We found no fees. |
| Bandwidth | LoRa-class and text-oriented, as for MeshCore. |
| Legal | US: 902-928 MHz licence-exempt (FCC Part 15). Canada's equivalent rules for British Columbia were not verified in our research. |
| Governance | Volunteer collaboration with local clubs; a Core Protocol Working Group is linked from the site. Formal legal entity not confirmed. |
| UK notes | Cascadia uses North American 902-928 MHz settings. Do not copy its radio settings in the UK, where LoRa meshes use the 868 MHz band. |
| Links |
What it is
Cascadia Mesh is a community collaboration that promotes a decentralised MeshCore network in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, "and beyond". It works with local clubs, and its site lists corridor projects along I-5 and Highways 99 and 91. A Core Protocol Working Group is linked from the site.
The network is mostly MeshCore on LoRa, using solar-powered repeaters. The site also mentions Meshtastic and Reticulum in the wider ecosystem. For how MeshCore routes messages, see the MeshCore page.
How to join
- Read the MeshCore resources list on the project's site.
- Check the map for repeaters near you.
- Join the project's Discord, linked from its homepage, and ask which settings and channels the local area uses. The site also lists an IRC channel, #meshcore, on Libera.Chat, and a contact email address on the homepage.
- Buy a LoRa board for 902-928 MHz, flash MeshCore and pair a companion app.
What it realistically gives you
Short text messages across a regional network, where repeaters give coverage. It does not carry internet traffic. MeshCore is a messaging system, and the sources we read describe no internet bridge. Cost is hardware only; we found no fees.
The site states "3,757 active mesh nodes", which it says is updated frequently on its map. The figure is undated, and the map is a JavaScript application we could not read. The map's analyser, at analyzer.cascadiamesh.org, sits behind a Cloudflare challenge and cannot be read by a script. We therefore show the number as the project's own claim, and we have no independent check. The MeshCore global map covers the same area geographically, but we did not cut a Cascadia figure from it.
Caveats
- The count is a claim, not a measurement. A figure labelled "active" may include repeaters that rarely advertise.
- Formal legal status of the collaboration is unconfirmed.
- The network covers the Pacific Northwest only.