What is Supply Drop BBS?

Supply Drop BBS is a community bulletin board for LoRa mesh radio networks. If you have a radio that can reach a BBS node, you can post messages to public rooms, send private mail to other users, and chat with people across the mesh — no internet required.

Think of it like a small-town notice board crossed with a group chat, running entirely over radio.

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Who is it for?

Anyone on the mesh. You don't need to run anything or own any servers. You just need a radio that can reach a node where Supply Drop BBS is running.

Common users:

• Ham radio operators using MeshCore or Meshtastic hardware
• Community groups that want off-grid messaging during events or emergencies
• Experimenters who want to try text-based radio communication

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What can you do with it?

Public rooms — Every BBS has rooms (channels). You join a room and read or post messages that everyone on the BBS can see. A typical BBS might have rooms for general chat, local news, net check-ins, or emergency coordination.

Private mail — Send a direct message to any registered user. They'll get a notification next time they check in, even if they weren't online when you sent it.

Persistent messages — Messages stay on the server. You can scroll back through what you missed, read at your own pace, and reply later. Radio doesn't have to be real-time.

Multiple radios, one community — The same BBS serves MeshCore and Meshtastic users at the same time. You don't all need the same hardware or firmware to talk to each other.

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How does it work?

A Supply Drop BBS node is a small computer (usually a Raspberry Pi) connected to a LoRa radio. When your radio reaches that node, you can send it short text commands — the same way you'd send a message to any other node on the mesh.

You (radio)  →  mesh network  →  BBS node (Pi + radio)

The BBS responds with text that your radio displays. Commands are kept short because radio frames are small. Most things are a single letter:

N    read new messages
P    post a message
M    go to mail
H    help

You don't need any special app. If your device can send a direct message to another node, it can talk to the BBS.

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Getting started as a user

1. Find a BBS node near you. Ask in your local mesh group, or look for nodes advertising themselves as room type in your advert list.

2. Send it a message. On MeshCore or Meshtastic, send a direct message to the BBS node. You'll get back a welcome message and a short help menu.

3. Create an account. Type REGISTER followed by the username you want:

   REGISTER callsign

4. Log in.

   LOGIN callsign

5. Read the rooms. Type R to list rooms, then a room name to enter it. Type N to read new messages.

That's it. The full user guide covers every command in detail, but most people only ever use a handful of them.

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Running your own BBS

If you want to set up a node for your community, see the Installation guide. It takes about a minute on a Pi 4 using the one-line installer.