Documentation
Glossary
Plain-English definitions for every term you will encounter, grouped by where they show up. Bookmark this page; it is the fastest way to decode jargon from the rest of the docs.
The basics
- Mesh
- A network where every device can relay messages for the others. No central tower.
- Node
- A single Meshtastic radio. Your radio is a node; every other one within range is too.
- LoRa
- Long Range. The radio technology Meshtastic uses; trades data rate for distance.
- Channel
- A named, encrypted space on the mesh. Everyone with the channel key sees its traffic.
- Broadcast
- A message addressed to everyone on a channel rather than one specific node.
- DM
- Direct Message. A message addressed to one specific node.
Codec terms
- Codec
- The algorithm that compresses your voice into a small stream of bytes.
- Codec2
- A very low bitrate codec (1.2 to 3.2 kbps). The default in Voicetastic; tuned for the slowest LoRa presets.
- AMR-NB
- Adaptive Multi-Rate Narrowband. Eight bitrates between 4.75 and 12.20 kbps. Wire-compatible with the Voicetastic Android app.
- Opus
- A higher-fidelity codec. Narrowband (8 kHz) by default when selected; wideband (up to 16 kHz) is reserved for fast LoRa presets.
- Bitrate
- How many bits per second the codec produces. Lower bitrate, smaller file, lower fidelity.
Protocol terms
- Chunk
- One slice of a voice message, small enough to fit in a single Meshtastic packet.
- FEC
- Forward Error Correction. Extra parity chunks that let the receiver rebuild missing pieces without asking.
- Parity
- A redundancy chunk. Carries no audio on its own but lets the receiver patch holes.
- NACK
- Negative ACK. The receiver says "I am still missing these chunks". The sender resends only those.
- PRIVATE_APP
- The Meshtastic application port (256) Voicetastic uses for voice frames.
- Stream sequence
- A counter that lets the receiver tell overlapping recordings apart.
Behaviour terms
- Pacing
- The deliberate gap Voicetastic leaves between outbound chunks to avoid flooding the radio.
- Reassembly timeout
- How long the receiver waits for slow chunks before giving up on a message.
- Partial
- A message that finished with missing chunks. Audio plays with brief silences where data was lost.
- Modem preset
- A Meshtastic setting that picks how fast (and how far) the LoRa radio talks. Voicetastic adapts pacing to it.
Still confused?
The protocol wiki has a much longer technical glossary covering every constant, every header field, and every error variant.