Skip to main content

Playa to Reno: Partnership with the Black Rock Rangers and BRARA

· 4 min read
Ben Allfree
Ben Allfree
MeshEnvy Founder

MeshEnvy is announcing partnerships with the Black Rock Rangers and the Black Rock Amateur Radio Association (BRARA). Together they gave us the final link we needed to carry messages from the playa back to Reno. That is the corridor we have been chasing since our first goal post, and I did not expect to close it on a day I thought was just an information-gathering trip.

What changed​

We can now send mesh traffic from the Black Rock Desert playa to Reno. That is strategically important because it adds one more resilient communication path across one of Nevada's most traveled and least connected corridors. It is socially important for the same reason. Tens of thousands of people make the pilgrimage from Reno to Gerlach to the playa every year, and cell service falls off fast once you leave town.

This is zero to one on the route that matters most to the Burning Man community and to everyone who lives and works in playa country year round.

Crow, ROG, and a tower in Gerlach​

Crow is the operations manager for the Black Rock Rangers and runs Ranger Outpost Gerlach (ROG). I drove out to ROG headquarters expecting to learn how their radio infrastructure fits into the landscape. What I found was a working tower compound with internet backhaul out to Razorback Mountain and from there onto the playa.

Crow and his team understand this country in a way no spreadsheet can replace. They maintain real communications infrastructure for one of the hardest environments in Nevada. When they offered the ROG tower as a host site for a mesh node, it was not a casual favor. It was a serious invitation to co-locate on infrastructure that already matters.

Testing the chain from Reno​

I tested nodes along the corridor on the drive out from Reno. Our Russell Peak node is currently dark, which explained why I had not been able to reach Poito Mountain from the Truckee Meadows side. That was useful intelligence on its own.

Once I got to Gerlach, the picture changed. Poito was alive and well. I could reach it from town. Knowing I had a path to Poito from Gerlach made the ROG tower feel like a natural home for the next hop. The site sits in the right neighborhood with the right line of sight and the right operators already on the ground.

Phil on the tower, ATGAT on my mind​

My new friend Phil climbed the tower and placed the node. I came unprepared because I thought I was only gathering information. I was reminded, once again, of ATGAT: all the gear, all the time.

I ended up having to flash my client device over to a repeater configuration and leave it untested because I had no other equipment with me. Fortunately, the client node that day happened to be one from a fresh batch of jank nodes. I was wise enough to bring my laptop, and that was enough to get us over the hump and get things configured.

I am pretty sure it is working. I had no way to confirm on site. Next time I come out I will make adjustments and run proper range tests. For now, the node is on the steel and the partnership is real.

Welcome our newest partners​

Black Rock Rangers logoBlack Rock Amateur Radio Association logo

Please warmly welcome the Black Rock Rangers and BRARA as MeshEnvy partners. These are incredible gains for a single field day.

We will round out the deployment with a few more repeater installations along the corridor. The hard part was getting the first live link from playa country back to Reno. We went from zero to one. That is my favorite thing.

If you operate along the NV-447 corridor, host a site in Gerlach or playa country, or want to help test the new path, reach out on Discord or email hello@meshenvy.org.