Real-world guidance on communication, devices, offline maps, and preparing for places where cell service can't be relied on.
Off-grid communication means messaging and sharing location with your group when there's no cell service or internet. Why your phone still knows where it is but can't send it, the main methods - two-way radio, LoRa mesh, satellite messenger - and how a phone paired to a LoRa radio fits together.
goTenna has left the consumer market. A comparison of goTenna Mesh alternatives: LoRa mesh (Meshtastic, MeshCore and Nelos), satellite messengers and two-way radios - and who each one fits.
GPS still knows where you are, but Life360 and Find My need the internet to update. How to use a LoRa tracker with Nelos as a backup location layer for kids and pets on weak-signal outdoor trips, with a simple setup and safety notes.
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39 guides
Off-grid communication means messaging and sharing location with your group when there's no cell service or internet. Why your phone still knows where it is but can't send it, the main methods - two-way radio, LoRa mesh, satellite messenger - and how a phone paired to a LoRa radio fits together.
LoRa mesh and satellite messengers both work with no cell service, but they answer different questions. LoRa mesh keeps a group in touch with each other over their own radios; a satellite messenger reaches the outside world and can call for rescue. An honest comparison, with a table.
Both are radios you carry that work with no cell service - the difference is what they carry. Walkie-talkies do instant voice; a smartphone plus a LoRa mesh radio does text, location on a shared map, waypoints, and mesh relaying. When each one is the better choice, with a comparison table.
You bought a small LoRa radio and the box or an app mentions "MeshCore". This explains the three layers - LoRa is the radio technology, MeshCore is the mesh firmware and protocol that runs on compatible LoRa hardware, and an app like Nelos is what you see on your phone - plus what a MeshCore-compatible device is and why it matters.
Sonnet was a 2017 crowdfunded mesh device that turned phones into off-grid messengers, but you can't buy one new any more and shipped units are hard to use. An honest comparison of the directions you can move to: smartphone + LoRa mesh, satellite messengers, and two-way radios - and where Nelos fits.
Sonnet Labs of Toronto crowdfunded a phone-paired off-grid mesh device in 2017, far past its goal, promising delivery that November. An evidence-based timeline: the campaign, the delays, the certification problems, partial shipping, and the present-day status - with the gaps in the public record stated plainly.
You have or found a Sonnet device. Separating the layers: the hardware itself, the web app, modern OS compatibility, infrastructure dependency, mesh operation, and company support. Where current functionality can't be independently verified, this says so.
Sonnet used chirp spread spectrum modulation - the same family LoRa uses - but a proprietary protocol and a Wi-Fi connection. So this isn't two rival radio technologies. It's Sonnet's single-vendor integrated product versus today's open, multi-vendor LoRa mesh ecosystem, compared across architecture, hardware, phone connection, mesh, messaging, interoperability and availability.
You liked the Sonnet idea - a familiar phone interface, an external radio, and communication with no cellular infrastructure. This starts from that use case rather than from a product list, and explains how to achieve it today with a smartphone and LoRa mesh.
GOTOKY was a 2017 crowdfunded device from a Dutch company: a radio paired to a phone over Bluetooth for voice, text, an emergency beacon and location sharing off-grid. This explains the original concept, then compares today's options and where Nelos fits.
GOTOKY was a 2017 crowdfunded project from a Dutch company for an off-grid communication radio paired to a phone by Bluetooth. The public record is thin. This reconstructs what the evidence supports and is explicit about what can't be confirmed.
GPS gets its signal from satellites, not from cell towers, so your phone can usually still fix its position with no cell service and no internet. But knowing where you are is a different thing from sending that location to someone else - which is why location-sharing apps stop updating.
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