Meshtastic is great if you're willing to carry extra hardware. Everyone in your group needs a LoRa radio (which can range from $30-50 each), and you need to pair them, flash the firmware, configure channels, etc. For a SAR team or preppers who already own the gear, it's definitely a solid choice.
Red Grid Link was more so for those already carrying their phones and those that don't want to buy anything else. The trade-off is range for convenience. BLE gets you maybe ~50-100m in the open, ~20-60m in densely woooded areas. That's enough to keep tabs on a hunting party spread across a hillside or a hiking group. Absolutely not a replacement for a radio relay across a valley.
Different tools for different problems. If I need a 2km mesh range I'd set up Meshtastic too.
Thanks, yeah the ghost markers ended up being one of those features that came out of necessity. Once I accepted that the BLE range was never going to be amazing, the question became what happens when someone drops off? Felt wrong to just remove them from the map.
It's not long range by any stretch. The use case is more "my group split up on a trail and I want to know which fork they took" vs "track someone across a mountain." The ghost marker system helps here too. If someone walks out of range, their last known position and direction stays on your map, so you at least know where they're heading and how long ago they traveled that direction.
Haha fair point. In open terrain you get maybe 50-100m which I agree, not far. In practice it's more useful than it sounds though. You don't need miles of range when the point is "where did my buddy go 5 minutes ago." And if they walk out of range their last position and heading stick on your map as a ghost marker so you're not totally blind or left guessing.
Red Grid Link was more so for those already carrying their phones and those that don't want to buy anything else. The trade-off is range for convenience. BLE gets you maybe ~50-100m in the open, ~20-60m in densely woooded areas. That's enough to keep tabs on a hunting party spread across a hillside or a hiking group. Absolutely not a replacement for a radio relay across a valley.
Different tools for different problems. If I need a 2km mesh range I'd set up Meshtastic too.