Notes from the foothills.

The open-source software that runs the LoRa mesh relays in these foothills has spent the summer in a legal dispute — not over how it works, but over its name. It is worth understanding what that fight does and does not put at risk.

MeshCore is the routing protocol S.I.E.R.R.A’s solar relays run on: the software that lets a network of low-power LoRa radios pass short text messages hop by hop when there is no cell tower in the path. After a split in the project’s core team earlier this year, a former member filed to register “MeshCore” as a trademark — in the United Kingdom in late March and the European Union in April, by the project’s own account. The remaining team, which treats the name as the community’s, is opposing both filings. As of late July the opposition is formally lodged and the trademark sits in “opposed” status — in the team’s own words, “a waiting game,” with no guaranteed outcome. The project estimated roughly $18,000 in legal fees to see it through and raised that through a community fundraiser that concluded in late July.

That is the news. The more useful part is what a trademark actually governs.

A name and its code are separate things

A trademark is a claim on a name and a logo — on branding. It is not a claim on software. MeshCore’s firmware and core libraries are released under the MIT License, one of the most permissive open-source licenses there is: anyone may use, modify, and redistribute the code, for any purpose, commercial included. That grant is already made. It cannot be pulled back by a later dispute over the name, and it does not depend on who wins one.

So whatever a trademark office eventually decides, the code already on a repeater stays exactly as free to use as it was — still readable, patchable, and rebuildable by whoever maintains it. The project has said development carries on regardless, with a 1.17 firmware release in progress.

Why the license is the part that matters

This is the quiet argument for building resilient infrastructure on open-source rather than a vendor’s product. A company can fold. A product can be discontinued and its servers switched off. A brand can be sold or contested, as this one is now. None of that reaches MIT-licensed code that is already in hand — the version compiled onto a relay is yours to keep, run, and maintain even if everything else about the project changed tomorrow.

For anyone deciding whether to put weekends into learning a platform — or a district weighing what to standardize on — the license is the part worth reading first. It is what separates infrastructure you operate from infrastructure you only rent. The MeshCore name may be settled by a trademark office over the coming months. The terms that let a community depend on the software were settled the day the code was published under a license that cannot be revoked.

In foothill and mountain communities like Calaveras County, staying connected isn’t just a matter of convenience—it can be a vital lifeline. Between winding mountain terrain, seasonal wildfires, winter storms, and Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS), traditional cellular and internet infrastructure can easily drop out right when residents need it most.

To help solve this challenge, S.I.E.R.R.A has officially applied for competitive grant funding through the Calaveras Community Foundation. If awarded, it will fund the expansion of our off-grid MeshCore network along the critical Highway 4 Corridor, bringing 10 brand-new repeaters and educational workshops to local residents.

Who is the Calaveras Community Foundation?

For those unfamiliar with local philanthropic efforts, the Calaveras Community Foundation (CCF) is a 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to enhancing the quality of life across Calaveras County. Since its inception in 2000, the Foundation has distributed over $3.3 million in grants, assistance, and scholarships to support worthy local projects. It runs a competitive grant cycle each year for local nonprofits, schools, and units of government; in 2024 it awarded grants to 29 organizations.

10 New Repeaters Along Highway 4

The Highway 4 Corridor stretches through diverse elevation changes—from Angels Camp up through Murphys, Arnold, and beyond into Bear Valley. The region’s rolling hills and dense timber frequently create cellular dead zones where standard mobile service fails.

If awarded, this grant will fund the purchase and deployment of 10 strategic MeshCore repeaters.

What Are MeshCore Repeaters?

• Decentralized & Off-Grid: MeshCore uses low-power LoRa (Long Range) radio frequencies. Nodes communicate directly with each other without relying on cell towers, satellite links, or grid power.
• Solar & Battery Powered: Repeaters can be mounted on rooftops, towers, or elevated property and run on solar and battery power rather than the grid.
• Deliberately Placed & Maintained: MeshCore is not a self-healing swarm. It relies on a small number of deliberately placed, maintained repeaters that hold known routes between them. If a repeater goes down, its route is restored by the team that keeps it running, not by nodes re-routing on their own.

Empowering the Public: Educational Seminars

Technology is only as effective as the community using it. A core pillar of our grant proposal is hosting a series of free educational seminars across Calaveras County. Our Goal: Demystify off-grid radio communications and put accessible messaging tools directly into the hands of everyday residents. These public workshops will cover:

1. MeshCore 101: What mesh networking is, how it differs from Wi-Fi or cellular service, and how it operates during major utility power shutoffs or disasters.
2. Getting Started on a Budget: Demonstrating how affordable, pocket-sized LoRa radio devices—commonly in the $60–$100 range, such as the RAK WisMesh Pocket v2, which listed for $84.97 at Rokland as of July 2026—connect via Bluetooth to your smartphone to send off-grid text messages.
3. Emergency Preparedness Workflows: How families, neighborhood watch groups, and local volunteers can set up private channels for neighborhood check-ins during storms or evacuations.

What Does This Mean for You?

For the general public, the goal of an expanded MeshCore network along Highway 4 is a way to send short text messages that does not run through a cell carrier or depend on grid power—if the grant lands and the network is built out.

Looking Ahead

As climate shifts and extreme weather events continue to challenge conventional utilities, building grassroots infrastructure is no longer optional—it’s essential. S.I.E.R.R.A is proud to take this next step. We hope to receive grant notification later this year. In the meantime, keep an eye on our community announcements for upcoming meeting dates, node placement updates, and seminar schedules! Be Safe and Stay Connected
Jay Goldberg, Founder

A canyon with one road out and thin cell coverage is a familiar setup in the Calaveras and Tuolumne foothills. It is also the exact problem two mountain communities elsewhere have been solving with volunteer radio, and their networks are worth a look at the height of fire season — because the part that makes them work is not the equipment.

The fast part, and the slow part

In May, residents of Weber Canyon in Utah’s Summit County switched on a solar-powered GMRS repeater built on a donated half-century-old television tower on the canyon’s northern ridgeline. GMRS — the General Mobile Radio Service, a licensed UHF two-way band — carries voice between handhelds with no cell tower in the path, and a single ridgeline repeater extends that range across a whole watershed; the Weber Canyon net now reaches out to Oakley, Kamas, and Park City. The project began after a resident watched a documentary about the 2018 Camp Fire and recognized his own canyon in it: sparse cell service, one way in and out. The license is a flat $35 for ten years, no exam, and the repeater itself needed FCC approval.

The radio was the fast part. About 30 people now check in on a monthly roll call — first Tuesday, 8 p.m. That standing net is the point. A radio that has sat in a drawer since the day it was bought is not a communications plan; a group that keys up together every month, on a known channel at a known time, is. The roll call is where a member learns whether their handheld actually reaches the repeater from their own property — which is not something to find out during an evacuation.

The longer proof

California’s own fire country has the longer-running version. After the 2015 Valley Fire destroyed 1,300 structures and killed 4 people in Lake County, survivors in Cobb built the Cobb Alert Net, documented by the Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network. It now counts 270 participants across 85 square miles and 7 hamlets, organized in three tiers: a small core of licensed amateur (“ham”) radio operators, 34 GMRS operators who serve as neighborhood leaders, and residents who use the simplest license-free Family Radio Service walkie-talkies. It practices weekly, 20 to 60 minutes at a time.

The tiers are what let it scale. A neighbor can join at whatever level they are ready for — an FRS radio off a store shelf, a $35 GMRS license, or a full ham ticket — without being left out of the net. Nobody has to clear the highest bar to be reachable.

What carries across

Two things translate to the Highway 4 and Highway 49 corridors. First, the hardware is the cheap, quick part; the network is the people who practice with it. Second, both nets were built deliberately, before the season they were meant for — the same order of operations as clearing defensible space or packing a go-bag. A GMRS license covers an entire household and takes no exam, which makes it the low doorway in. The higher-value step is finding out whether your road, ridge, or water district already runs a net. In Calaveras County, one already does: the Ebbetts Radio Safety Net, the volunteer GMRS net that S.I.E.R.R.A grew out of, holds three practice nets a week — Monday out of Murphys, Wednesday and Saturday out of Arnold. Where no such net exists yet, a handful of neighbors and one repeater is all Cobb and Weber Canyon started with.

Both communities stood up their nets in an ordinary month rather than a dangerous one. The monthly or weekly schedule is what turned a pile of radios into a network that answers.

PG&E cut power to about 7,800 customers across 10 counties on July 15 — the utility’s third Public Safety Power Shutoff of the year. Calaveras and Tuolumne weren’t on that list, but both counties sit in the same Tier 2 and Tier 3 high fire-threat districts PG&E uses to decide who goes next when wind, low humidity, and dry fuel line up. That puts a shutoff reaching the Highway 4 or Highway 49 corridor well within reach this season — worth planning around before an outage starts, not after.

The backup clock

A 2020 California Public Utilities Commission decision requires wireless carriers to keep cell sites in Tier 2 and Tier 3 high fire-threat districts running on backup power for at least 72 hours after the grid goes down — enough to hold 911 access, emergency alerts, and basic connectivity through a typical shutoff. That is a real, enforceable floor.

It is also just a floor. PG&E’s own July 15 shutoff notice is candid that outage length depends on real-time weather, damage assessments, and the patrols and repairs needed before lines are safe to re-energize — and in steep terrain, that inspection can take longer than flat ground. When a shutoff runs past 72 hours, the backup clock at the cell site runs out before the grid comes back, whether or not anything else goes wrong.

What closes the gap

None of this needs to be solved in the moment. A few things are worth having ready before a Red Flag forecast, not after the outage starts:

• A battery or hand-crank radio that receives NOAA Weather Radio or standard AM/FM. It pulls official alerts straight off the air, with no cell tower, account, or app in the chain.
• A charged battery bank or a small solar panel, topped off ahead of a forecast wind event rather than found dead when the power drops.
• A GMRS radio. The FCC license is a flat $35 for ten years, with no exam, covers an entire household under one callsign, and talks radio-to-radio between family, neighbors, and vehicles without touching the phone network at all.

PG&E posts a rolling 7-day PSPS outlook and address-level shutoff status once a watch is called — that page is the one to check as conditions build, not a blog post written days or weeks ahead of the next event. The backup-power window is generous. It is still a window, and the plan for what happens after it closes is the part worth having ready now.

An evacuation order names a zone, not a street or a town. When a Sheriff’s Office issues one, it points to a zone code drawn on a map ahead of time — and if that code is unfamiliar, the middle of an incident is the wrong moment to work out whether it means you. It costs nothing to know it early.

What a zone is

An evacuation zone is a geographic boundary drawn in advance by local emergency officials, not improvised during an incident. Calaveras County’s Office of Emergency Services and Sheriff’s Office maintain zones through Genasys Protect (formerly Zonehaven), the same public lookup tool used by dozens of California counties. Enter an address at protect.genasys.com and it returns a zone ID, plus that zone’s current status. Calaveras County’s guidance on what to do with that ID is blunt: write it down somewhere visible, “like on your refrigerator” — it is the name that will show up in an alert, not the street.

Warning and order are not the same word

Cal OES defines exactly two evacuation statuses, and the difference is about time, not severity:

• An evacuation warning means a potential threat exists. It is the signal to get ready — pack, arrange for pets and livestock, account for anyone who needs more time to leave — because an order may follow.
• An evacuation order means an immediate threat. It is a lawful directive to leave, and the area is closed to public access.

The Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office uses the identical two-tier language, word for word. This is statewide terminology, not a Calaveras-specific system, which is why the same two words apply on both sides of the corridor even where the local zone tools differ.

Where the authority lives

S.I.E.R.R.A does not draw these zones or decide when a warning becomes an order — Sheriffs’ offices and Cal OES do, and only they can issue or lift one. The Live Feed points to Genasys for evacuation status for the same reason: the authoritative record belongs with the agency that issues it, not with anything that mirrors it. When an order comes, it comes from them, and it is the one to act on.

Looking up your zone at Genasys Protect takes under a minute. Doing it now, rather than during the next red flag day, is the entire reason a zone system gets drawn years ahead of the fire it is built for.