Welcome to the Western Slope group of ColoradoMesh
We currently have members spanning the whole western slope including the areas:
- Salida
- Glenwood Springs
- Grand Junction
- Gunnison
- Delta
- Montrose
- Ridgway
- Ouray
- Telluride
- Durango
- Cortez
- Craig
Because of the long mountainous distances between node clusters, We are currently experimenting with setting up a private MQTT network. We aim to possibly bridge this network into the Front Range eventually, however we are only in the testing stages as of the Spring of 2026.
MQTT on the normal "msh/US/CO" in Meshtastic topic is a common method for node communication (using the internet) we are currently encouraging our members to use, because we don't see too much traffic from the MQTT server interrupting or flooding the RF efforts. However, this may change in the future.
Its important to remember that many towns on the western slope of Colorado are "islands" considering RF propagation, not only because of the Mountains & distances, but also the lack of members running node repeaters. We are here to help change this as the community grows.
There are several "Admins" that we have in the various areas listed above that are more than happy to help with node setup or even repeater placements. For instance, a Grand Junction member recently was able to install a repeater at a nice 80 ft tower location.
If you're interested in leading community efforts in your area of the Western Slope, and expand the mesh, Join the team on the Westerm Slope channel on our Discord! Our current admin for the channel is Andrew Himelstieb KFØUFO andrew@coloradomesh.org.
Any help, guidance, or questions are always welcome, and we have many members eager to help test equipment, signal coverage, or even coordinate & install nodes/repeaters.
There is an Epic event scheduled in June 2026 on the Western-Slope from Montrose to Telluride called The Ryan Larkin Invitational Adventure Race We will be using a Meshtastic network (utilizing the LoRa protocol @ ~900Mhz) to keep track of the 10 teams' progress over the course of the race. Any members of ColoradoMesh in the surrounding area are welcome to come help out and volunteer with Network communitcations, placing nodes, lending devices, testing the infrastructure and Radio propagation, etc.
This event is for an excellent cause! We hope to see you there!