OCALA, Fla. (WCJB) – Community members gathered Saturday at the Marion Baptist Association for the latest Marion Mesh Meetup, an event focused on building a community-powered communication network designed to help neighbors stay in touch when internet and cell service go down during hurricanes, severe storms and other emergencies.
Organizers said the effort is expanding “Meshtastic” infrastructure, a long-range, low-power radio network that functions without cellular service or internet access by creating a self-healing mesh of devices.
“I would like to see all of Marion County covered in off grid mesh, so that if we were to have some type of natural or man-made disaster, we could still communicate with devices like these — because communication really is just a basic human need,” said Mark Weible, executive director of the Marion Baptist Association…