The article explores the author's experimentation with sending voice notes over Meshtastic, which operates on low-bandwidth sub-GHz frequencies. Despite a conversation with developers highlighting the impracticality of such transmissions due to bandwidth constraints—around 5-20 bytes per second compared to the 8 kilobytes per second required for compressed audio—the author is intrigued by a mode called SHORT_TURBO that promises faster transmission. Concerns over network reliability and performance with limited bandwidth are central to the discussion, reflecting the challenges in pushing audio capacity within the existing infrastructure.
I was having a chat with a friend about how Meshtastic works. He casually asked, 'Well, why can't you send audio?' I explained that bandwidth simply isn't enough.
The devs pointed out that LoRa was designed for small, infrequent data packets - not streaming media. A standard Meshtastic configuration might only allow for 5-20 bytes per second.
I noticed something interesting in the Meshtastic docs - a mode preset for LoRa called SHORT_TURBO, described as 'Fastest, highest bandwidth, lowest airtime, shortest range.'
Imagine holding the frequency for 30-60 seconds just to send a voice message - it would bring the whole network down and make it unreliable.
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