Retinue · community radio

Resilient communities, connected peer-to-peer.

Low-cost, community-owned radio networks that keep people messaging when cell towers and internet go down.

01 · the problem

Storms, floods, and ice take down power and communications in our region, sometimes for days. Families cannot reach each other, and volunteer responders lose coordination exactly when they need it most.

02 · the approach

Small LoRa radios relay data device to device at long range. Hosted at fire stations, churches, ridgelines, and public facilities, they form local networks that can link with their neighbors.

how the mesh works

message path lab

Cut a link. Follow the trace.

Step through what five Retinue radios did: the cut, each send, every frame on the air and who heard it, the requests that expired, and the deliveries.

Generated route trace · not a live traffic or radio-range receipt

TraceTrace event 105 of 105 · 10.9 s

10.9 s · Message 1 reaches the county garage. Path: fire station → church steeple → water tower → county garage, 2 relays.

topology

Message 1 delivered at 10.9 s: fire station → church steeple → water tower → county garage, 2 relays.

Choose a radio to see its own screen. Solid lines are links the trace runs over; a dashed line is cut. Positions are illustrative, not geography or radio range.

County garage · its own screen

TRAFFIC

What its screen says

TRAFFIC, RAD ...
TX / RX: 2/9
HOST QUEUE: 0
LAST RX: 0/0.0
LAST TX: OK 118B
LOCAL link up

radio-mirror draws this radio's own TRAFFIC page from its state at the step. Firmware has no route or delivery screen: a radio knows its next hop, not the whole route, so the route and the deliveries are written in the ledger instead.

trace ledger

16 rows · 105 events

0.0 sThe fire station–water tower link is cut: neither radio hears the other.
0.0 sThe fire station, the church steeple, the water tower, the ridgeline and the county garage each transmit their own announce, and the relays forward them. The announce interval is 600.0 s.
10.0 sThe fire station sends message 1 to the county garage. Its route names the church steeple as first relay, with hop count 2.
10.0 sThe fire station transmits a link request for the county garage, addressed through the church steeple. Heard by the church steeple. Behind the cut, the water tower does not hear it.
10.1 sThe church steeple relays the link request for the county garage, addressed through the water tower. Heard by the fire station and the water tower.
10.2 sThe water tower relays the link request for the county garage. Heard by the church steeple, the ridgeline and the county garage. Behind the cut, the fire station does not hear it.
10.3 sThe county garage answers with a link proof. Heard by the water tower.
10.4 sThe water tower relays the link proof. Heard by the church steeple, the ridgeline and the county garage. Behind the cut, the fire station does not hear it.
10.5 sThe church steeple relays the link proof. Heard by the fire station and the water tower.
10.6 sThe fire station answers with a data frame. Heard by the church steeple. Behind the cut, the water tower does not hear it.
10.6 sThe fire station transmits a data frame. Heard by the church steeple. Behind the cut, the water tower does not hear it.
10.7 sThe church steeple relays the data frame. Heard by the fire station and the water tower.
10.7 sThe church steeple relays the data frame. Heard by the fire station and the water tower.
10.8 sThe water tower relays the data frame. Heard by the church steeple, the ridgeline and the county garage. Behind the cut, the fire station does not hear it.
10.8 sThe water tower relays the data frame. Heard by the church steeple, the ridgeline and the county garage. Behind the cut, the fire station does not hear it.
10.9 sMessage 1 reaches the county garage. Path: fire station → church steeple → water tower → county garage, 2 relays.

Each step is an event in a route trace that retinue-sim generated by running Retinue nodes over this five-radio topology, at retinue revision fa0d98b. The traces are committed to this site with their provenance; the site does not run the simulator. The screen is radio-mirror drawing that radio's TRAFFIC page from the trace's state. Radio positions are illustrative, not geography or radio range. Read retinue-sim at that revision.

Each unit costs about as much as a tank of gas. Nodes can run from USB-C, battery, or solar power; the pilot will measure off-grid runtime under local conditions. The network remains useful as long as working radios retain a path between them.

the FIVCO pilot

ten proposed sites · stylized, not to scale

Ten sites across Boyd, Carter, Elliott, Greenup, and Lawrence counties, hosted by local organizations and public facilities, with high ground prioritized for useful range.

The pilot produces three things:

A working backup messaging layer for participating communities.
A measured coverage map.
A costed, step-by-step playbook other Appalachian counties can copy.

what it costs

Typical community radio hardware costs
Item	Estimate
Heltec V4 radio, assembled and programmed	~ $50
T114 radio	~ $30
All-in-one solar node	~ $100
Battery, solar panel, or wall power	varies by site
Monthly service fees or subscriptions	none
Ten-site county pilot	materials + installation + training

Exact site costs depend on the host and placement. Measuring them is part of the pilot.

06 · partnership

Merely is the technical partner: building, installing, and maintaining equipment, then training local hosts. An eligible public or nonprofit partner holds grant funds. The community owns its network.

07 · open source

Retinue is our open-source Rust implementation of Reticulum. Stock Reticulum applications recognize our radios today, and the same radio family interoperates with Meshtastic and MeshCore.

Read the Retinue source ↗