2.0 -//Pentabarf//Schedule//EN PUBLISH N3MDLZ@@cfp.hamvillage.org -N3MDLZ Meshtastic 101: Off-Grid Mesh Networking with LoRa en en 20260807T110000 20260807T113000 0.03000

Meshtastic 101: Off-Grid Mesh Networking with LoRa

Meshtastic is an open-source project that enables decentralized, off-grid communication networks using inexpensive LoRa radios and microcontrollers. By combining long-range low-power radio technology with modern mobile apps and mesh networking protocols, Meshtastic makes it possible to build resilient communication networks without relying on cellular or internet infrastructure. This presentation provides an introduction to the Meshtastic ecosystem and the technologies that power it. Topics include the fundamentals of mesh networking, the basics of LoRa radio communication, and how Meshtastic integrates radios, ESP32-based devices, and smartphones into a distributed messaging platform. The talk will also cover common hardware platforms used in Meshtastic deployments, including DIY nodes and commercially available devices, and demonstrate how easy it is to set up and join a network. Finally, we’ll explore real-world applications for Meshtastic, including event communications, off-grid coordination, disaster response, and experimental hacker networks. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how Meshtastic works and what they need to begin experimenting with mesh radio networks themselves. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Creator Talk https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/N3MDLZ/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Jon Marler (K4CHN) PUBLISH 7MVRHZ@@cfp.hamvillage.org -7MVRHZ Getting Started In Radio Direction Finding en en 20260807T120000 20260807T123000 0.03000

Getting Started In Radio Direction Finding

Radio Direction Finding (RDF) is one of the most practical and fun skills in amateur radio. This intro talk covers everything a beginner needs to know: low cost gear setups, building a simple Yagi antenna, and the techniques used to zero in on a transmitter. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Creator Talk https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/7MVRHZ/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Nate Moore PUBLISH STGJPE@@cfp.hamvillage.org -STGJPE Ham Radio Isn’t Magic: Preppers, Sad Hams, and Practical Off-Grid Communications en en 20260807T130000 20260807T140000 1.00000

Ham Radio Isn’t Magic: Preppers, Sad Hams, and Practical Off-Grid Communications

This talk approaches off-grid communications as a practical systems problem, informed by the author’s real-world operation of portable and off-grid radio systems rather than theory or gear marketing. Rather than teaching amateur radio as a hobby, it reframes off-grid communications using failure-mode analysis and systems design principles familiar to the security and hacking community. While the question “How do I talk 500 miles when the grid is down?” is a common starting point, the deeper issue is how communication systems behave when infrastructure is absent, degraded, or intentionally avoided — and why many well-intentioned plans fail in practice. The presentation is structured as a 101-level introduction for a technically curious audience. It assumes no prior amateur radio experience, but it does assume interest in understanding constraints, tradeoffs, and failure modes the same way hackers evaluate any other system operating outside ideal conditions. The talk opens by examining real examples from off-grid and preparedness communities, including common questions and the unhelpful responses they often attract. This framing establishes the core thesis: both “prepper fantasy” and “sad ham” gatekeeping optimize for the wrong constraints and lead to brittle designs that fail when conditions are imperfect. From there, the talk builds a mental model of off-grid radio communications grounded in physics and operational reality. Attendees are introduced to why radio performance is probabilistic rather than guaranteed, why a fixed distance like “500 miles” is a misleading requirement, and how factors such as propagation, noise floor, antenna efficiency, duty cycle, and coordination dominate outcomes more than transmitter power or radio model. Real failure modes are discussed, including HF voice links failing when expected to work, digital modes succeeding where voice does not, antenna quality overwhelming other variables, high-noise environments negating otherwise capable setups, and situations where increasing power does not meaningfully improve reliability. The scope then expands beyond emergencies to everyday off-grid use cases hackers actually encounter: group communications while hiking or camping without cell coverage, portable and battery-powered operation, short-range mesh and store-and-forward systems such as Meshtastic, and longer-range low-bandwidth HF messaging. Activities like Parks on the Air, Summits on the Air, and Field Day are presented not as hobbies, but as structured opportunities for exploration and experimentation — real-world environments for testing antennas, power systems, logistics, and coordination under off-grid constraints. Rather than focusing on specific products or modes, the talk emphasizes design principles that consistently work: simple plans over clever ones, redundancy across bands and modes, asynchronous messaging over real-time voice, and communication plans that account for human behavior as a primary constraint. Regulatory considerations are covered at a practical level to help attendees understand what is possible and appropriate without turning the talk into a licensing lecture. If appropriate for the venue, the talk may include a short demonstration or case study illustrating propagation variability or the effectiveness of low-bandwidth digital techniques compared to voice. Any demonstration will be designed with realistic fallback options and framed as illustrative rather than guaranteed. The goal of this talk is not to turn attendees into radio experts, but to give them a reusable framework for thinking about off-grid communications the way hackers think about resilient systems: define the actual problem, understand how and why things fail, and design solutions that work in imperfect, real-world environments. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Creator Talk https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/STGJPE/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Andrew Ohnstad - N3OCQ PUBLISH 3BC7DL@@cfp.hamvillage.org -3BC7DL Who Owns Your Shack? Open Source, Amateur Radio, and the Software We Can't Afford to Lose en en 20260807T143000 20260807T151000 0.04000

Who Owns Your Shack? Open Source, Amateur Radio, and the Software We Can't Afford to Lose

A 30–40 minute talk for Ham Radio Village at Defcon. Primary audience is licensed amateur radio operators, with a secondary audience of hackers and security-minded attendees unfamiliar with the hobby. The talk uses the post-mortem license failure pattern in amateur radio software as motivating context, builds an ownership/self-reliance argument, and presents open-packet as a working existence proof of the open-source alternative. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Creator Talk https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/3BC7DL/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Jeremy Banker - K0JLB PUBLISH GQRGS3@@cfp.hamvillage.org -GQRGS3 Advanced Topics in LoRa Meshes en en 20260807T153000 20260807T161800 0.04800

Advanced Topics in LoRa Meshes

This talk goes past the Meshtastic getting-started guides and into the advanced builds that push LoRa mesh networks to their limits: bridging MeshCore and Meshtastic so the two ecosystems can talk, rugged repeaters that survive the field, battery technology and enclosures for nodes that run for years, multi-channel concentrators, and high-altitude balloons that turn a handheld into a regional backbone. We'll also cover the human side, bridging separate mesh communities into one bigger network. Come for the range records, leave knowing how to build a network that outlives the grid. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Creator Talk https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/GQRGS3/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Eric Escobar PUBLISH MDRYD7@@cfp.hamvillage.org -MDRYD7 Digital Modes 101: The Weird, Wonderful World of Computer Radio en en 20260808T110000 20260808T113000 0.03000

Digital Modes 101: The Weird, Wonderful World of Computer Radio

Digital communication has become one of the fastest-growing areas of amateur radio. By combining traditional radio equipment with computers and software, operators can send text messages, telemetry, position data, and even digitally encoded voice across the airwaves. This presentation introduces the fundamentals of amateur radio digital modes and how they work. We’ll begin by explaining the difference between analog and digital signals and how computers convert data into audio that radios can transmit. The talk then explores several widely used digital modes, including FT8 and WSPR for weak-signal communication, JS8Call for keyboard-to-keyboard messaging, and APRS for real-time position tracking and messaging. We’ll also look at newer developments such as LoRa-based APRS experimentation and open-source digital voice technologies like FreeDV and M17. Finally, we’ll discuss practical ways to get started with digital radio using affordable hardware, including simple USB radio interfaces, beginner-friendly radios, and lightweight portable setups. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how digital radio works and several easy paths to begin experimenting with digital modes themselves. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Creator Talk https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/MDRYD7/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Jon Marler (K4CHN) PUBLISH SCZHWV@@cfp.hamvillage.org -SCZHWV So You Got Your License, Now What? en en 20260808T120000 20260808T123000 0.03000

So You Got Your License, Now What?

Getting your ham radio license is the easy part. Figuring out what to do next? That's where most people get stuck. This talk is a practical, opinionated guide to the best rabbit holes in amateur radio: satellites, APRS, HF operating, digital modes, antenna experimentation, POTA, and the beautiful chaos of Field Day. Whether you got your ticket last week or you've been meaning to upgrade for years, this is an opinionated romp through the hobby. We'll cover the stuff no one tells you after the exam: what the bands actually feel like, why FT8 will make you productive and vaguely empty inside, how much you can accomplish with $50 of wire and a willingness to climb things, and why learning to solder is basically a superpower. We'll also talk about getting off the couch comms for events and contests like POTA and ARRL Field Day are the most chaotic fun you can have with a radio legally. It's easy to listen, but things get more interesting when you start transmitting. Ham radio is one of the last hobbies that rewards you for actually understanding how it works. This talk is the map. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Creator Talk https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/SCZHWV/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Danny Quist PUBLISH 9NG7QE@@cfp.hamvillage.org -9NG7QE Why Signals Still Matter: Amateur Radio in the Age of Cell Phones en en 20260808T130000 20260808T133000 0.03000

Why Signals Still Matter: Amateur Radio in the Age of Cell Phones

Topics covered: Why ham still matters, the philosophy of ham radio, cool stuff we're doing in the hobby with a focus on digital modes, how it's the original hacking hobby. Extended info on software defined radio, GnuRadio. Talk about how it's basically old school analog internet, and that everything we do on the modern internet network is possible on ham radio. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Creator Talk https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/9NG7QE/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Nate Moore PUBLISH JNXS3Q@@cfp.hamvillage.org -JNXS3Q Ham Radio - Licensed to Experiment en en 20260808T143000 20260808T150000 0.03000

Ham Radio - Licensed to Experiment

The most common question we hear in the village is, "What can I do now that I'm licensed?" N0OPS and W0BDP attempt the guide new hams into incorporating ham radio into their current hobbies or pursuing new interests. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Creator Talk https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/JNXS3Q/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Dan W0BDP Norte PUBLISH CTMAYM@@cfp.hamvillage.org -CTMAYM Meshtastic Beasts and Where to Find Them en en 20260808T150000 20260808T155000 0.05000

Meshtastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Meshtastic is an open-source LoRa mesh used off-grid by preppers, hikers, event organizers, and amateur radio operators, and increasingly for protest logistics, disaster response, and other high-stakes comms, usually where people assume their traffic is private and their neighbors are who they claim to be. Those two assumptions are the subject of this talk. A shared channel key buys confidentiality for everyone who holds it and nothing else: not message integrity, not sender identity, not header privacy, not availability. The default key ships with every node, so for much of the mesh the wall is not there at all. **None of this is a flaw.** It is the threat model of a protocol built for simple, low-power text between people who already trust each other, and the talk treats it that way. To make that concrete, we hunt four beasts, each shown live. The **Impersonator** forges messages and node identities the mesh accepts as real, through AES-CTR ciphertext forgery and firmware-level source-ID spoofing. The **Eavesdropper** reads who is talking, when, and the shape of the network from cleartext headers with no key, and their location too on any channel still running the default key. The **Saboteur** breaks delivery for a chosen target by dropping its packets, rewriting hop limits, or decrypting, modifying, and re-encrypting traffic in transit. The **Swarm** exhausts the node database, only about a hundred slots on the boards we run, with ghost nodes and poisons the public map through the MQTT bridge. The active attacks run on a custom firmware fork whose features toggle at runtime and default to safe, with an on-device KILL ALL that resets everything to safe, so the live demos stay penned in our own isolated mesh. For the HAMs there is a sharper cut: licensed mode sets your callsign and transmits in the clear, and a callsign maps through public FCC records to a name and often an address, so a by-the-book node beacons your legal identity and rough location to a village full of people who can direction-find it. **The point is not the regulation, it is the consequence.** We also tell an honest story about how fast this came together: two developers who do not write firmware for a living built the firmware fork, a Python toolkit, and custom device-UI panels in **about 16 working days** (well, _evenings_) with heavy AI assistance. The one part that did not yield was the hardware, a radio regression that took old-fashioned diagnosis and a version pin, not a cleverer prompt. **The attacker's effort floor collapsed; the hardware did not care**, and that asymmetry applies to every volunteer-run protocol. So we close where it matters, with an opsec playbook drawn straight from the beasts: change the default key, verify identity and content out of band, assume broadcast, do not stake life-safety on availability, and **match the tool to the threat** (Meshtastic bought simplicity and adoption, Reticulum offers cryptographic identity and authenticated encryption by default, MeshCore sits between). Credit where due: Meshtastic already ships public-key DMs and signed admin messages, with cryptographic node identity in progress, and our hardening is offered as support for that trajectory, not a homework list for volunteers. Come find the beasts, then learn to live alongside them. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Creator Talk https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/CTMAYM/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Scott Thompson PUBLISH FEXNSU@@cfp.hamvillage.org -FEXNSU Keeping the Angry Pixies Happy: the Care and Feeding of your Batteries en en 20260808T160000 20260808T164500 0.04500

Keeping the Angry Pixies Happy: the Care and Feeding of your Batteries

The talk will cover various battery types. For each type, we will cover such items as why you might want to use it, what the cost is, and most importantly, how do you charge/discharge it safely? While most of the batteries will be of the chemical variety, some mention will be made of mechanical batteries. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Creator Talk https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/FEXNSU/ Ham Radio Village (W321) hamster