I think I have a decent setup (heltec v3, 3000mah battery, aftermarket antenna) yet I struggle to make contact with anyone. I’m a little confused as I do receive messages on the general the Long-Fast channel but my messages never seem to send or be acknowledged. Am I doing something wrong or is this just the nature if radio comms?
Radio is pretty fickle, have you tried different locations? The higher the better, different materials block signal, antennas can always be better. It’s a real rabbit hole but i recommend it. Have you connected to MQTT, you should be able to find a local server and get an idea of who’s around you.
I have not connected to MQTT. I’ll have to look into that as I didn’t know where to start with it.
In the us there are MQTT servers for each state and many cities and regions. I haven’t been active in a while but my state also has a discord.