MeshCore as a SOTA Tool

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MeshCore as a SOTA Tool – Costa Rica Integration Project

Hello everyone,

I would like to share a project we are currently developing in Costa Rica, exploring how MeshCore can serve as an additional communication and information tool for SOTA activators and chasers.

My callsign is TI3DSA, and I am part of the MeshCore Costa Rica project. We have been building a LoRa-based amateur radio network using MeshCore, with repeaters, gateways and services that allow radio amateurs to exchange short messages and access useful information even when conventional Internet connectivity is unavailable.

One of the integrations we are now working on is SOTA.

The idea

We have created a dedicated MeshCore channel:

#sota — Channel 4

The objective is to distribute relevant SOTA activity from Costa Rica over the MeshCore network.

The first implementation is intentionally read-only.

Our gateway will retrieve recent SOTAwatch spots, filter the results for the TI (Costa Rica) association, suppress duplicates, cache the information locally and convert relevant spots into short messages suitable for transmission over MeshCore.

The basic architecture is:

SOTAwatch → MeshCore CR Gateway → filter TI → local cache/deduplication → #sota → MeshCore LoRa network

For example, a SOTA spot could eventually appear on MeshCore in a compact form such as:

SOTA TI
TI3ABC/P · TI/XX-001
14.285 MHz · SSB

The messages are deliberately kept short because MeshCore is a low-bandwidth LoRa network.

API usage

For this first phase we intend to use SOTAwatch3 only (api2.sota.org.uk) for read-only access to recent spots.

The results will be filtered to the TI association.

We are implementing local caching and duplicate suppression so that we do not need to make unnecessary API requests or repeatedly transmit the same information over the radio network.

There will be:

  • No spotting

  • No posting

  • No writes of any kind

  • No use of the database API (api-db2) for this service

We have also submitted a request to join the API-consumers group before enabling automatic API polling.

MeshCore commands

In addition to the #sota channel, we are developing direct-message commands for the MeshCore Costa Rica bot.

The planned commands include:

SOTA SPOTS — recent SOTA activity
SOTA TI — activity related to Costa Rica
SOTA — information about a specific summit
SOTA CERCA — eventually, SOTA information relevant to the user’s location
SOTA AYUDA — help and available commands

The intention is that an amateur carrying a small MeshCore device could obtain useful SOTA information through the LoRa mesh without needing to interact directly with a web browser.

Future possibility: AutoSpot

A second phase we would like to investigate is AutoSpot from MeshCore.

An activator in the field could potentially send a short command from a MeshCore device, for example:

SOTA SPOT [COMMENT]

The MeshCore Costa Rica gateway could then forward the request through an appropriate SOTA-supported mechanism.

We already have an APRS integration in our gateway, so APRS2SOTA is one of the possibilities we are investigating.

However, this functionality is not being enabled at this stage. We want to understand and follow the appropriate SOTA procedures before allowing any automated spotting or write operation.

Why MeshCore + SOTA?

The part that interests us most is what happens when an activator is in an area with limited or no cellular coverage.

A small LoRa device connected to the MeshCore network may be able to reach a repeater or gateway several hops away.

This creates an interesting possibility:

SOTA activator → MeshCore LoRa → MeshCore repeater(s) → gateway → SOTA services

And in the opposite direction:

SOTA activity → gateway → MeshCore → remote radio amateurs

MeshCore would not replace SOTAwatch, APRS or existing SOTA tools. The goal is to provide another amateur-radio transport path, particularly useful in portable and infrastructure-limited situations.

Current status

At the moment we have:

  • A dedicated #sota MeshCore channel

  • Costa Rica association filtering (TI)

  • Local channel integration in the MeshCore CR gateway

  • SOTA support in our bot architecture

  • Local caching and duplicate suppression planned

  • A web dashboard capable of displaying #sota traffic

  • Read-only operation as the first phase

  • Automatic API polling intentionally disabled while we complete the API-consumer approval process

We would be very interested in feedback from SOTA activators, chasers and developers.

In particular, we would appreciate suggestions about how MeshCore could be useful to SOTA operators in the field, and what information would be most valuable to provide through a low-bandwidth mesh network.

This is a non-commercial amateur radio project, and our intention is to develop it carefully and in cooperation with the SOTA community.

More about the project, https://meshcorecr.info

73,

Danny Serrano – TI3DSA
MeshCore Costa Rica

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