0.4 dc34 2026-08-06 2026-08-09 4 00:05 https://cfp.hamvillage.org https://cfp.hamvillage.org/media/dc34/img/hrv_dot_log_color_transparent_kOtORV8_lITGLir.webp America/Los_Angeles Ham Radio Village (W321) Creator Talk 2026-08-07T11:00:00-07:00 11:00 00:30 Meshtastic has quickly become one of the most exciting new tools in the radio and hacker communities. Using inexpensive LoRa radios and open-source software, it allows anyone to build decentralized, off-grid messaging networks that work without cellular infrastructure or the internet. This talk introduces Meshtastic and the technologies that make it possible. We’ll cover the basics of LoRa radio, how mesh networking works, and how Meshtastic ties together radios, microcontrollers, and mobile apps into a simple communication platform. Attendees will learn what hardware is required, how easy it is to set up a node, and how Meshtastic networks are being used at events like DEF CON and in off-grid environments around the world. If you’re curious about building your own mesh network—or want to understand why everyone is suddenly carrying strange little radios—this session will show you how to get started. dc34-21-meshtastic-101-off-grid-mesh-networking-with-lora Jon Marler (K4CHN) en 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. false https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/N3MDLZ/ https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/N3MDLZ/feedback/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Creator Talk 2026-08-07T12:00:00-07:00 12:00 00:30 Entry level talk reviewing what foxhunting / radio direction finding is Covering the basic equipment requirements Yagi antenna building Body fading Minimum equipment Tips and tricks dc34-35-getting-started-in-radio-direction-finding Nate Moore en 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. false https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/7MVRHZ/ https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/7MVRHZ/feedback/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Creator Talk 2026-08-07T13:00:00-07:00 13:00 01:00 Every hacker has seen the post: someone asks what radio will let them “reliably talk 500 miles to family when the cell network goes down.” The replies quickly devolve into bad advice, magical thinking, and dismissive gatekeeping. The result is confusion, wasted money, and false confidence about off-grid communications. This talk is the antidote. We’ll cut through the mythology and explain what amateur radio can actually do for personal and family communication during major disruptions — and what it cannot. Starting at a 101 level, we’ll cover realistic ranges, basic propagation, equipment tradeoffs, digital modes, licensing myths, and why distance is usually the wrong requirement. Rather than dunking on preppers or policing fun like a sad ham, this talk reframes the problem the way hackers do: understanding constraints, failure modes, and human factors. We’ll focus on practical off-grid communication strategies that work in the real world — coordination, redundancy, and low-bandwidth messaging — not fantasy continent-spanning voice links. dc34-17-ham-radio-isn-t-magic-preppers-sad-hams-and-practical-off-grid-communications Andrew Ohnstad - N3OCQ en 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. false https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/STGJPE/ https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/STGJPE/feedback/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Creator Talk 2026-08-07T14:30:00-07:00 14:30 00:40 You own your radio. The protocols you use — AX.25 and APRS — are open standards anyone can implement. But the software your club depends on? That's often a different story. For the security-minded: this is a story about critical communication infrastructure running on software whose source code doesn't exist. Amateur radio has a long tradition of self-reliance: building your own antennas, maintaining your own gear, understanding your own stack. That tradition breaks down at the software layer. Too much of the tooling that holds the hobby together is maintained by a single developer, distributed as a closed binary, with no source code and no succession plan. We've already seen what happens when that developer is gone: When Roger Barker G4IDE passed in 2004, UI-View32's source code went with him — leaving the community to maintain unofficial workarounds rather than fix the underlying binary, with the registration servers eventually going dark. Bob Bruninga WB4APR's death in 2022 raised the same question for his reference APRS implementations and the aprs.org site he maintained. These aren't edge cases — they're a pattern, and the hobby's aging demographics make it one we can't ignore. This talk makes the case that open-source licensing isn't just a software philosophy — it's an infrastructure resilience strategy. If a tool is critical to your club's operations or your emergency net, its source code needs to outlive its author. As a working example, we'll look at open-packet: an early-stage, MIT-licensed packet messaging client in Python — a working existence proof that the open-source path is viable. A brief live demo will show the basic functionality, along with some nice to have extras such as visual themes and a web client. Attendees will leave with a concrete lens for evaluating the software they depend on, a GitHub link, and three specific asks — from "try it" to "apply this thinking to every tool in your shack." dc34-25-who-owns-your-shack-open-source-amateur-radio-and-the-software-we-can-t-afford-to-lose Jeremy Banker - K0JLB en 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. false https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/3BC7DL/ https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/3BC7DL/feedback/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Creator Talk 2026-08-07T15:30:00-07:00 15:30 00:48 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. dc34-34-advanced-topics-in-lora-meshes Eric Escobar en 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. false https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/GQRGS3/ https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/GQRGS3/feedback/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Creator Talk 2026-08-08T11:00:00-07:00 11:00 00:30 Modern amateur radio is no longer just voice communication. Today, radios routinely exchange digital data, text messages, telemetry, and even machine-learning encoded voice signals. This talk introduces the world of amateur radio digital modes and explains how computers and radios work together to communicate using sound. We’ll explore some of the most popular digital modes used by operators today, including FT8, JS8Call, WSPR, APRS, and several emerging digital voice technologies. Attendees will learn what digital modes are, how they differ from traditional analog radio, and why they have become so popular. The session will also highlight new developments in the digital radio ecosystem, including open-source digital voice systems and long-range LoRa APRS experimentation. If you've ever wondered what those strange buzzing sounds coming from a radio actually mean—or how to start experimenting with digital radio yourself—this talk will show you how to get started. dc34-22-digital-modes-101-the-weird-wonderful-world-of-computer-radio Jon Marler (K4CHN) en 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. false https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/MDRYD7/ https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/MDRYD7/feedback/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Creator Talk 2026-08-08T12:00:00-07:00 12:00 00:30 You crammed, you passed, you got a callsign. And now your radio is sitting in a box while you wonder what you're actually supposed to do with it. This talk is a guided tour of the rabbit holes waiting for you on the other side of your license exam, organized by how deep you want to fall. Technician class? You can hit satellites with a handheld, track yourself on a map with APRS, or chase hidden transmitters through the woods with a directional antenna and questionable judgment. Upgrade to General and suddenly you've got the HF bands: a global playground where you can work 200 countries in a weekend via a mode a Nobel laureate invented, argue with the laws of physics via antenna wire, and wage legal warfare against your HOA. dc34-23-so-you-got-your-license-now-what Danny Quist en 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. false https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/SCZHWV/ https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/SCZHWV/feedback/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Creator Talk 2026-08-08T13:00:00-07:00 13:00 00:30 We all have radios in our pockets. 5g, Bluetooth, and heck star-link up in the sky. Let's talk about why 100 year old tech is still relevant today, and why us hackers should care about ham radio when the internet is basically everywhere now. dc34-27-why-signals-still-matter-amateur-radio-in-the-age-of-cell-phones Nate Moore en 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. false https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/9NG7QE/ https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/9NG7QE/feedback/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Creator Talk 2026-08-08T14:30:00-07:00 14:30 00:30 N0OPS and W0BDP will walk the audience through the diversity of ham radio operations such as portable activations such as POTA/SOTA, satellite contacts, digital weak-signal modes, direction-finding competitions, emergency communications, and drone telemetry. The takeaway: no matter how long you've held a call sign whether it's 5-minutes or 5 years, there's almost certainly a corner of this hobby you haven't touched yet. This speech is an invitation to go find it. dc34-29-ham-radio-licensed-to-experiment Dan W0BDP Norte en 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. false https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/JNXS3Q/ https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/JNXS3Q/feedback/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Creator Talk 2026-08-08T15:00:00-07:00 15:00 00:50 Meshtastic does exactly what it says: it carries your text off-grid to whoever shares your channel key. The risk is what people assume it does on top of that. **The mesh does not keep your secrets and does not vouch for your neighbors**, and a growing number of people are betting real stakes on both, using it for protest logistics, disaster response, and off-grid safety where "trusted friends on a channel" is exactly the wrong threat model. We go looking for the beasts that live in that gap, impersonation, forgery, silent packet-dropping, traffic analysis, and node-database floods, each shown live on a real mesh with a custom firmware fork and a Python toolkit. The uncomfortable part is how little it took: two developers who do not write firmware for a living built the whole offensive stack with AI assistance in **about 16 days of evenings**. _This is not a dunk on Meshtastic._ It is a field guide to its actual threat model, and to operating like you know the difference. dc34-26-meshtastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them Scott Thompson en 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. false https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/CTMAYM/ https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/CTMAYM/feedback/ Ham Radio Village (W321) Creator Talk 2026-08-08T16:00:00-07:00 16:00 00:45 Lead acid, nickel metal, lipo, lithium iron, silicon carbon? With all the different battery types out there now, how can you be sure you're keeping it functioning at its best, and not creating a ticking time bomb? This talk will cover the plethora of energy sources for off-grid radio operations and give tips for what works best and how to get the most out of it. dc34-18-keeping-the-angry-pixies-happy-the-care-and-feeding-of-your-batteries hamster en 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. false https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/FEXNSU/ https://cfp.hamvillage.org/dc34/talk/FEXNSU/feedback/