The Network Only Grows If You Help Build It
WNY MeshCore is not maintained by a company or a paid team. Every repeater, guide, and answered question comes from a volunteer who decided to step up.
Right now there are coverage gaps, unanswered Discord questions, and buildings across WNY with rooftop access nobody has asked for yet. That changes when people get involved.
Pick a Role
You don't have to do everything. Pick the one that fits your time and skills and do that well.
Discord Help Desk
CommunityNew people join the WNY MeshCore Discord every week and leave because nobody answered their question. You can fix that.
The Discord Help Desk is the front door of WNY MeshCore. When someone shows up confused about firmware, radio settings, or why their node isn't connecting, you're who they meet first. One good answer from a knowledgeable volunteer keeps a new participant in the community instead of losing them to frustration.
What you'll do
- →Monitor the Discord for new member questions
- →Direct people to the right guides and resources
- →Explain MeshCore concepts in plain language
- →Spot recurring questions and flag them for the guides team
- →Help keep the community welcoming and on-topic
Skills that help
- +Patience
- +Familiarity with MeshCore or Meshtastic
- +Clear written communication
Builder
HardwareCoverage gaps don't close themselves. Builders are the people who put repeaters in the air and keep them there.
Builders design, assemble, and deploy community repeaters — often at high-elevation locations like rooftops, towers, and hilltops. They also create documented build guides that let others replicate successful designs. If you're comfortable with hardware, soldering, or enclosure work, this role directly extends the reach of the network.
What you'll do
- →Build and deploy community repeaters at key infrastructure locations
- →Document your builds so others can reproduce them
- →Work with the Outreach team to place repeaters at secured sites
- →Maintain and troubleshoot existing repeaters
- →Evaluate and test new hardware options for the community
Skills that help
- +Electronics or hardware experience
- +Comfort working at heights or on rooftops
- +Soldering, enclosure work, or antenna installation
Outreach
AccessThere are buildings all over WNY with rooftop access that would transform our coverage. Someone has to make the call.
The Outreach role is about finding and securing locations for repeaters — talking to building managers, businesses, churches, water towers, and anyone else with elevated real estate. This requires professionalism, persistence, and the ability to explain what we're doing and why it benefits the community. To keep efforts coordinated and avoid overlap, volunteers get access to a private tracking tool once they're onboarded.
What you'll do
- →Identify high-elevation buildings and structures in coverage gap areas
- →Contact property owners and managers to request rooftop or tower access
- →Represent WNY MeshCore clearly and professionally when talking to building owners and managers
- →Log your outreach in the team's shared coordination tracker (access granted after onboarding)
- →Hand off secured locations to the Builder team for deployment
Skills that help
- +Comfortable making cold calls or sending cold emails
- +Professional communication and follow-through
- +Local knowledge of WNY buildings and property contacts
Tester / Coverage Mapper
FieldWe can't fix coverage gaps we don't know about. Testers go out with nodes and come back with answers.
Coverage Mappers drive with a vehicle node to identify where the network reaches and where it doesn't, using MeshMapper to log coverage data automatically. Your reports help the Builder and Outreach teams decide where to focus next. You'll need a decent vehicle node — a GPS-capable board with an externally mounted antenna — but beyond that you just need to drive routes and let the tool do the work.
What you'll do
- →Set up a vehicle node with GPS and an externally mounted antenna
- →Drive known or suspected dead zones while MeshMapper logs coverage automatically
- →Identify areas where link quality drops and note terrain or obstructions
- →Report findings back to the community with routes and signal data
- →Help the Builder and Outreach teams prioritize where repeaters will have the most impact
Skills that help
- +Comfortable setting up a mobile/vehicle MeshCore node
- +Familiarity with MeshMapper or willingness to learn it
- +Methodical — able to drive consistent routes and report findings clearly
Not sure where you fit?
That's fine — reach out anyway. Tell us a bit about yourself and your interest in the mesh, and we'll find the right fit together. The network needs all kinds of people.
Reach OutEvery message that gets through is because someone helped build this
In an emergency, off-grid situation, or just a corner of WNY with no cell service, a working mesh network matters. You can be part of why it exists.