A Relay is Born: the Missoula Valley Internet Co-op Grows One Radio Link at a Time

As we’ve discussed in prior articles, and in our previous community call, the success of this community owned and operated network that we are building hinges upon two things:

1.) Active participation from the community itself.

2.) Individuals willing to volunteer to host relays.

These relays are the lifeblood of our network. They allow the service area of our network to grow out from our fiber connected gateways, connecting neighbor to neighbor, and one neighborhood to the next.

During this past week we brought on-line the first sets of relays that bring full coverage to the lower Grant Creek area, and (eventually) the entire Missoula and Bitterroot valleys. With just a few property owners volunteering to host an additional small, inexpensive antenna on their home, our network coverage has expanded, from covering around 75 homes, to over 200.

To provide prospective relay operators with an idea of what the anatomy of a relay looks like we’ll start with some images of our first relay; sending a signal roughly 243 meters up the street, it helps provide more comprehensive coverage to the lower part of the neighborhood.