How to Use ATAK with Meshtastic

But be warned, you have to create an account there. It's not hard, and it's free, but not many people are super excited about creating an account on a government website, so it's up to you.

(Scroll down and click "Binary APK Releases". From there you can find a few download links)
Paul Mandal's work on this plugin has been outstanding, and very much appreciated!

ESRI Clarity Imagery File

DTED Elevation Data, Global:

If you would like to support us, we're on Patreon!

We also have a Monero tip jar for one-time anonymous donations:
49ZLHKcryXGgrmWjmZuvFU4H4SQU3tCXojaY5meVk8g88MRWdWAYFi8cQ5kwxHfPwrivyVZ1vRCWHbs7GTznPXWoPpEm74c

DISCLAIMER: This content is purely educational and does not advocate for violating any laws. Do not violate any laws or regulations. This is not legal advice. Consult with your attorney.

Our Reading List!

The War Kitchen Channel!

Our Website (Requires Tor Browser):
And if THAT one doesn't work, here's the full text of the URL, just add "HTTP://" to the beginning:

When this video eventually gets taken down, you will be able to find it on our Odysee page! Odysee is a great platform because it has no ads, and no data goes through any sketchy servers because it has no servers. Odysee used to be known as LBRY, but was sold to Odysee. Our content has been automatically ported over to the new site.

Our other podcast episodes are here:

And if you'd like to support us, check out our merch store here!

[thatwierdkiduknow]

Socal_offgrid would have made you buy one of his "classes" to learn this. God bless S2_underground and fuck charging for critical information.

[NeverMetTheGuy]

I don't even know what you're talking about most of the time at this point, but I'm still watching, listening, and learning. You're doing God's work, bro.

[Meshtastic]

ATAK and Meshtastic forever! Thanks for this great video!

[joeyperez]

As a ham radio guy with a bunch of static and mobile gear, I have to say : this idea is
outstanding for those in my tribe that can't afford ham radio gear, and don't have time or desire to learn, mostly our better halves. Be blessed little bro, with much wisdom and goodness.

[VenomU]

As a side note on solar charging of your relay nodes. A single 18650 bat of +- 1500 mAh will provide +- 3 days of power (with moderate use). If your operational needs only encompass a day or two. No need to add solar. However, if you're setting up semi-permanent nodes around your city/operational area solar is a must. Just so you don't have to visit each node to replace batteries. Fortunately, a lot of the leg work has already been done on the meshtastic forum. There are a bunch of cheep/easy solutions to make your relay nodes "hands off" once installed. Just remember RF propagation is heavily dependent on 2 factors. #1 Antenna performance #2 Line of sight obstructions. So place your nodes as high up as you can. And place extra nodes in areas with line-of-sight obstructions. (Buildings ECT)

[paulmandal]

Thank you for making this video and bringing more attention to ATAK and Meshtastic.


One important note on Bluetooth: Meshtastic devices can connect to a phone via a USB OTG cable, Meshtastic and the ATAK plugin both support this type of connection so you can eliminate the need for Bluetooth if necessary.



I'm really happy to see all the interest from SAR people, I'm an experienced hiker but anyone can have an emergency in the backcountry and need rescue. We appreciate you and the lifesaving work that you do.

[antong]

Because of events in the past 2 years and leading up to the past few days, I've been binge-watching this channel to help prepare myself for a SHTF scenario. I want to thank you for all the knowledge and insight your channel provides.

[llllllD]

A thing I'll note about the radio direction finding point:
With many communications protocols (including mesh networks), there are sometimes some unencrypted fields in the packet headers. Sometimes these unencrypted fields can include device addresses (similar to IP and/or MAC addresses in TCP/IP).
This means that with a direction finding apparatus and a packet sniffer you could correlate device addresses to physical locations. By correlating timing of messages you might be able to find out even more.
Haven't looked too much into the meshtastic protocol so not sure if this vulnerability exists in this particular instance.
Just something to consider.

[AlanMcYou]

That "low probability of intercept" becomes much higher when the power goes out. Most of the "cover" will lose power. That leaves the battery powered meshtastic nodes much more visible.

[MichaelBurko]

Great video! Would be great to see you setting up actual lora board from scratch, installing/setting up Meshtastic and putting it in a case.

[talesfromthelab]

Greetings from Germany, Meshtastic (and other) mesh networks are popping up here more and more. I wonder why ;)
Also one very interesting aspect of ESP32 based meshtastic devices is that you can easily add additional sensors like IR/radar movement detection, gas or sound sensors, which makes it even more versatile.

[VladTheSkewerer]

You should try setting up custom secondary channels with PSK on your meshtastic radios and setting the plugin to use that. If you're using the default channel, that data is technically sniffable to any other meshtastic radios with the default channel setup. Unfortunately messaging in a channel outside of the primary is not supported in the android meshtastic app, but I have a feature request in for that.

It's useful to leave the default primary channel and communicate in a private secondary channel, because your private traffic can relay off other meshtastic nodes without being readable.

Also, static relay nodes should not contain the configuration for your private channel, in case they get stolen. That PSK/Channel Config should only exist on nodes within direct over site of your team.

[mathewfitzpatrick]

This channel instantly became one of my favorites.

[DZDBW]

You can use drones with it as well now. Thats a huge upgrade. Combine that with Beartooth Mk2s or Meshtastic, now youve got instant eyes for those on your network.

[phillipalbert]

I wanted to share my ATAK-Civ experience spending numerous hours over the last 12 months.
This solution works!

Previous attempts:

Atak with Gotenna Mesh. No Atak plug-in. Fail. You can purchase pro version but very expensive.
Atak with Baofeng Radios using Hammer Plugin (Slow vox) with speaker-mic interface cable. Unreliable, fail.
Atak with Meshtastic (Your solution with Paul’s Atak forwarder plugin). Works Perfectly!

So far this is the only & best solution I have found for civilian use to date.The data speed for transmitting data such as texts, coordinates, markers & pictures is almost instantaneous! Save yourself a lot of time and frustration with this solution.

Thank you all for making this work!!!

[CallofWar]

Very nice video. Thanks a bunch for this critical info. Ultimately, having a robust comm plan requires a diversity of equipment and a well thought out plan of execution. Put in the work, reap the rewards

[pulex]

Thank you for the very good explanation & tutorial. We are using Meshtastic/ATAK in Airsoft. Needed an option to communicate on fields without LTE/TAK server. Works fine!

[Vrilltrooper-of-sillymaxxia]

its also pretty good for subterranean comms, mesh networking means that you can talk to a base station through multiple relays

[tophattommy]

This is what I've been looking for! Specifically for our SAR teams! THANK

[arshadmohammed]

This is cool! Seems like it could be pretty useful in coordinating SAR operations. Can't tell you how many times in my country hikers get lost and search teams comprising of just civilians are sent out.