Map Layers & Filters¶

This page walks through everything on a region map: the menus, map styles, coverage modes, overlays, tools, settings and filters.

Item	What it does
Switch Region	Jump to another region or multiregion group. Type a city or code to search.
Freq	Show only pings, repeaters and links on one radio preset (frequency / bandwidth / SF). All is the default. Pings from before June 2026 carry no preset and only appear under All.
Active Wardrivers (car icon)	How many wardrivers had an active session when the page loaded.
Filter	Opens Filter Map Data. Shows a count while filters are active.
Region	Region Info (admins, links, radio presets, settings), Contact Region, Repeater IDs, Repeater List, Observers, Leaderboard and Admin Panel.
Insights	The packet Analyzer and Visualize Live.
Settings (gear)	Light / Dark Mode toggle, and Settings for the options under Settings.

Base Layers¶

Switch map styles from the Layer Control (stack icon, top-right) under Map Mode:

Standard: The default (OpenFreeMap "Liberty"). Best for general navigation and street names.
Bright: A brighter variant.
Dark Mode: A high-contrast dark style that makes coverage stand out.
Topographic: Terrain, elevation lines and hill shading. Useful for spotting line-of-sight obstructions.
Satellite / Google Satellite / Google Hybrid: Aerial imagery (Hybrid adds street labels). Useful for checking sites, tree cover and landmarks.

Your choice is remembered in your browser. Turning on Dark Mode from the Settings menu also switches the map to the Dark Mode style.

Coverage Modes¶

Under Coverage Mode in the Layer Control, pick how coverage grid squares are coloured:

Mode	Colours grid squares by
Standard	Ping type (BIDIR, TX, RX, and so on). The default.
Effective Coverage	How reliable coverage is. Each ping type gets a score (BIDIR 3, TX / RX / DISC 2, DEAD 1, DROP 0), averaged per grid square.
Signal Strength	Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR): ≤ -1 dB is red, ≥ 5 dB is green.
Ping Age	How recently the square was pinged: green under 30 days, red over 90 days (adjustable in Settings).
Noise Floor	Background RF noise: green is quiet, red is loud. See Noise Floor.

Ping Types¶

In Standard mode, the Coverage group lets you turn each ping type on or off. It's greyed out in the other modes.

Type	Colour	Meaning
BIDIR	Green	Heard repeats from the mesh and successfully routed through it.
TX	Orange	Successfully routed through, but no repeats heard back.
RX	Purple	Heard mesh traffic but did not transmit.
DISC/TRACE	Cyan	A discovery or trace reply was heard.
DEAD	Grey	A repeater heard it, but no other radio received the repeat.
DROP	Red	No repeats heard and no successful route.

See Ping Types Defined for more detail.

Noise Floor¶

Every companion reports a noise floor reading (in dBm) with each ping: the level of background RF interference at that spot. Closer to 0 dBm is loud; very negative (e.g. -120 dBm) is quiet.

Different radios report different absolute values, so MeshMapper shows a noise delta instead: how much louder a spot is than that companion's usual baseline.

Once a companion has at least 5 readings, its baseline is its 10th-percentile reading (roughly the quietest conditions it sees).
Each reading is scored as the difference from that baseline.
Baselines are recalculated regularly.

For example, with a baseline of -110 dBm, a reading of -90 dBm is +20 dB: 100× noisier than usual. Readings in the same grid square are averaged.

A Noise Floor legend (Quiet → Loud) appears in the bottom-right while this mode is on.

Overlays¶

Toggle these in the Layer Control. Some may be greyed out as Disabled by Administrator in regions that hide them.

Overlay	What it shows
Repeaters	Repeater chips, each with its hex ID and state. See Repeaters.
Repeater Coverage	Click a repeater to see where it was heard: grid squares and dashed lines coloured by ping type (DROP is left out). With this overlay off, the squares show in plain blue with no lines.
Repeater Neighbours	Lines between repeaters that reach each other. Green: seen in a packet path in the last 3 days. Orange: seen longer ago. Blue: reported by the repeater. Purple: uploaded from the app. Coverage fades while this is on. See Links Between Repeaters.
Repeater Scopes	Which repeaters carry a mesh scope, and the links between them. See Repeater Scopes.
Backbone	The repeaters and links that carry half of the region's traffic, in gold. Only backbone repeaters are shown while it's on. See Backbone for how it's calculated.
Neighbour Zones	Pins for nearby MeshMapper regions. Click one to open that map.
Neighbour Zone Boundaries	Dashed outlines of nearby regions. Needs Neighbour Zones on.
Region Boundary	This region's boundary (black, or white on dark and satellite maps).

Only one of Repeater Neighbours, Repeater Scopes and Backbone can be on at a time. Turning one on turns the others off.

Repeater Scopes¶

MeshCore repeaters can be set up with named scopes (e.g. yow). A message tagged with a scope is only forwarded by repeaters that carry that scope. ✱ Not set means the repeater only passes messages with no scope.

Turn on Repeater Scopes and pick a scope from the bar at the bottom of the map. The map shows only the repeaters that carry it, and draws a link between two of them when both carry it. The bar shows how many repeaters and links match.

MeshMapper learns a repeater's scopes three ways:

I (Inferred): seen forwarding traffic in that scope.
R (Reported): the repeater listed it when an observer asked.
U (Uploaded): a wardriver's app asked the repeater and uploaded its answer.

A ★ marks the repeater's default scope (the one on its own adverts). Repeaters with firmware older than v1.12 can't answer scope queries.

To check whether a scope name is in use in your region, use the Scope Finder.

Map Tools¶

Open Map Tools (the tools icon on the map). One tool is open at a time.

Line of Sight¶

Check terrain clearance between two or more points.

Click the map or a repeater to place points A and B (or type coordinates). Use Add Point for more.
Set each point's Height above ground. Points placed on a repeater start at 3 m.
Check the Freq (defaults to your region's most-used frequency).
Click Calculate.

The result shows the elevation profile (with earth curvature) and the first Fresnel zone, and rates each leg: Line of Sight CLEAR, Minor Fresnel Intrusion, Fresnel Zone Partially Blocked (less than 60% clear) or Line of Sight OBSTRUCTED. On the map, green is clear and red is blocked.

Antenna Coverage¶

Estimate how far a radio at a spot could reach, using terrain.

Tap the map (or a repeater) to place the pin.
Pick the transmit power (14–30 dBm, default 22) and set the TX and RX heights (defaults 6 m and 2 m). The frequency is set from your region's most-used band.
Optionally open Advanced for sensitivity, spreading factor, antenna gains, cable loss, fade margin and environment. The defaults suit most setups.

The map shades Strong (red), Likely (orange) and Fringe (yellow) areas, and shows how far each reaches plus the approximate area covered.

Note

This is an estimate from bare-ground terrain. Buildings, trees, antennas and weather all change real-world range. Treat it as a guide, not a guarantee.

Coverage Timeline¶

An animated playback of how the region's coverage grew, from its earliest data to today. A playback bar at the bottom lets you Play/Pause, drag to jump to a date, and click the speed to cycle 1x → 2x → 4x → 0.5x.

Scope Finder¶

Test whether a scope name is used in your region. Type the name (e.g. yow) and click Find. MeshMapper checks it against the region's recent scoped traffic and tells you whether it's already tracked, found, only weakly matched, or not found. If a scope is found but not yet monitored, a region admin can add it under Repeaters, Neighbours & Scopes in the admin panel.

3D Terrain¶

The 3D Terrain control (landscape icon, top of the map controls) drapes the map and coverage over real terrain.

Enable 3D: turn terrain on or off.
Hillshade relief: add shaded relief.
Exaggeration: 0.5× to 2.5× (default 1.4×).
Right-drag (or Ctrl-drag) to tilt and rotate.

My Location¶

The Show My Location button (top-right) finds your position once and zooms to it. For continuous tracking, turn on Follow My Location in Settings.

Insights¶

The Insights menu has two packet tools:

Analyzer: opens the MeshMapper packet analyzer for this region in a new tab, showing raw packets heard by the region's observers.
Visualize Live: animates packets on the map in real time. Each packet is an orange dot that travels its actual path through the repeaters to the observer that heard it, and repeaters flash as it passes. Click Exit Live Visualization to stop.

Settings¶

Open Settings from the gear menu. Settings are saved in your browser.

Map Display¶

Units: Metric (m/km) or Imperial (ft/mi). Applies to distances on the map, filters and leaderboards.
Grid Mode: Simplified (default) uses 300 m grid squares, merges cells and groups repeaters at wide zoom, and loads faster. Detailed uses 100 m grid squares and shows every repeater. Changing it reloads the page.
Default Zoom: the zoom the map opens at, from 14 - Street to 8 - Region.
Info Panel: show details in a Sidebar or a Popup.

Map Behaviour¶

Hide Missing-Repeater Data: hide pings from repeaters no longer on the network.
Follow My Location: keep the map centred on your GPS position (updated every 5 seconds, keeping your zoom). A blue dot and accuracy circle show where you are.

Accessibility¶

Colour Vision changes the colours used across the map (grid squares, repeaters, lines, legends, charts and coverage modes):

Default
Protanopia (Red-blind)
Deuteranopia (Green-blind): same palette as Protanopia.
Tritanopia (Blue-blind)
Achromatopsia (Monochrome)

Effective Coverage¶

Colour Spectrum: Red → Green (default) or Red → Blue.
Min Sample Size: hide grid squares with fewer pings than this (1–20, default 1).

Ping Age¶

Green (under): squares pinged more recently than this are green (default 30 days).
Red (over): squares older than this are red (default 90 days).

Transparency¶

Normal Opacity: coverage grid squares (default 60%).
Faded Opacity: grid squares faded into the background, e.g. behind Repeater Neighbours (default 15%).
Line Opacity: all lines on the map (default 100%).

Filters¶

Click Filter in the navigation bar to open Filter Map Data. Filters apply everywhere: grid squares, popups, charts and ping history. Active filters show as removable chips, and applying them keeps your current map view.

Time
- Show data from: All time, Last 30 days, Last 90 days or Last year.
- From date / To date: a custom date range.
Signal
- Transmit power: Any power, 0.3 W, 0.6 W or 1.0 W.
- Min / Max signal: signal-to-noise ratio (dB).
Location
- Min / Max distance: distance between the ping and the repeater (in your units).
Repeaters
- Repeater name or ID: show only matching repeaters.
- ID width: pings whose path uses 1-, 2- or 3-byte repeater IDs. This is not the number of hops.
- Ping mentions repeater: pings that went through or were heard from a repeater. Pings where that repeater's ID is ambiguous are left out.
- Repeater Scope: repeaters carrying a scope (only shown when the region has scopes).
- Only external antennas: pings collected with an external antenna.
- Only repeaters with the wrong time: repeaters whose clock is off by more than 120 seconds.

To filter by radio preset, use Freq in the navigation bar.

The address bar updates as you move around and change layers, so copying the URL shares exactly what you see. Repeater and ping popups also have a Copy Link button.

You can also build links by hand:

https://yow.meshmapper.net/?lat=45.4236&lon=-75.7009&zoom=16&m=sat&l=rep.nbr.rb

Parameter	What it does
`lat`, `lon`	Centre the map here. Both are needed.
`zoom`	Zoom level, 3–19 (default 13). Decimals work.
`location`	A place name or address to look up and centre on (zoom 15), e.g. `location=Parliament%20Hill,%20Ottawa`. `lat`/`lon` win if both are given.
`m`	Base map: `std`, `brt`, `dark`, `topo`, `sat`, `gsat` or `ghyb`.
`l`	Overlays to turn on, separated by dots: `rep` Repeaters, `rcov` Repeater Coverage, `nbr` Repeater Neighbours, `sc` Repeater Scopes, `bb` Backbone, `nz` Neighbour Zones, `nzb` Neighbour Zone Boundaries, `rb` Region Boundary. Anything left out is off.
`cm`	Coverage mode: `std`, `eff`, `sig`, `age` or `noise`.
`preset`	Radio preset: `all`, or `freq,bw,sf` (e.g. `910.525,62.5,7`).
`repeater`	Open a repeater by its ID or full public key.
`ping`	Open the grid square at `lat,lon`.
`repeater_list`, `repeater_ids`, `observers`	Open that list on load.
`live`	Start Visualize Live on load.
`coverage-only`	Open in Coverage Only Mode.

Settings from a link only apply to that visit; they don't change your saved preferences.

Tip

To embed a read-only map in another site, see Map Embedding.

Coverage Only Mode¶

For older devices or slow connections, Coverage Only Mode loads just the coverage grid as lightweight tiles.

How to open it: click Switch to Coverage Only on the loading screen, or add ?coverage-only to the map's URL.
What you lose: no overlays, no clicking on grid squares, no filters, and no Map Tools or 3D. Base maps and My Location still work.
To leave: click Exit Coverage Only.

Private Repeaters¶

Repeater owners can hide a repeater's location by adding the "no entry" emoji (🚫) to the start or end of its name.

Map: the repeater isn't drawn. It's listed as Hidden in the Repeater IDs list, so its ID isn't reused by mistake.
Pings: coverage is kept, but the repeater shows as (hidden) with no lines or distances.
Leaderboards: the name shows as "(private repeater)", but its stats still count.