Meshtastic – Admin & Event Setup
This page is intended for session administrators – the person who creates the AFT game session and is responsible for configuring Meshtastic for all participants.
Players do not need to read this page. Their role is described at the end of this article and covered in detail in the Getting Started guide.
Two roles
- Session administrator — creates the session, sets the three Meshtastic parameters described below, and shares the session ID and password with players. Does this once, before the event.
- Players — join the session and press Configure Channel in the AFT Meshtastic panel. Their devices are configured automatically based on what the administrator set. Players do not need to understand radio parameters.
Configuring Meshtastic settings for your session
In AFT, open your session settings and navigate to the Meshtastic configuration section. You will find three parameters to fill in: Preset, Region, and Hop Limit.
All three must be set correctly before players connect. If any parameter is wrong, devices will either fail to communicate with each other or operate outside legal radio limits for your country.
Description of Meshtastic parameters
Preset
The modem preset defines the radio communication profile — how fast data is transmitted and how far the signal can travel. These two properties are inversely related: faster presets offer lower range, slower presets offer greater range.
Common options include LONG_FAST, LONG_SLOW, MEDIUM_FAST, and others. For most airsoft and milsim events, LONG_FAST is a reasonable starting point — it balances range with update frequency.
All devices in the same session must use the same preset. AFT enforces this automatically when players run Configure Channel.
Region
The region setting tells the device which radio frequency band to use. This must match the legal frequency allocation for the country where your event takes place. Using the wrong region means your device transmits on a frequency that may be illegal in your country, and it will not communicate with other devices set to the correct region.
Common regions:
| Country / Area | Region code | Frequency band |
|---|---|---|
| European Union | EU_868 | 868 MHz |
| United States | US_915 | 902–928 MHz |
| Other countries | varies | see table below |
For a full list of regions by country, refer to the official LoRa Region by Country table on the Meshtastic website.
Note on hardware: Meshtastic devices are manufactured for specific frequency bands. A device sold for the European market typically has an antenna tuned for 868 MHz and may not perform correctly — or at all — on 915 MHz. If your participants are coming from different countries, verify that their hardware matches the region you configure for the session.
Hop Limit
The hop limit defines how many times a packet can be relayed across the mesh network before it is discarded. Each relay device decrements this counter by one. When it reaches zero, the packet is not forwarded further.
A higher hop limit extends the potential reach of a message across the mesh, but also increases the total number of radio transmissions on the network — which can contribute to channel congestion.
The Meshtastic documentation recommends a default value of 3 for most use cases. This is a reasonable starting point for airsoft events. For larger areas with many relay nodes, increasing to 4 or 5 may be appropriate. Values above 5 are generally not recommended and can degrade network performance.
Maximum value is 7.
After saving the settings
Once you have saved the three parameters, the session is ready for players to connect.
Players who have not yet joined should join the session normally and follow the Getting Started guide to configure their devices.
Players who are already logged in should log out and log back in before running Configure Channel. AFT loads Meshtastic session parameters at login — a player who was connected before you saved the settings will not receive the updated configuration until they reconnect.
After reconnecting, each player presses Configure Channel in the AFT Meshtastic panel. Their device is automatically configured to match the parameters you set here.