Meet Pulse
Say hello and know you were heard
Pulse is a small, clearly labelled bot on Melbourne’s public Meshtastic channel. When you say hello or ask for a radio check, it tells you TheClique heard you and how the message reached it. It is run by The Clique online from the TheClique node.
Pulse is on. It answers hellos and radio tests on the public channel as described below, within the limits listed. Ed still reads and replies to everything else himself.
Last updated 31 October 2026.
Why it exists
A lot of people set up a node, say hello on the public channel, hear nothing back and conclude nobody is out there. Often someone did hear them; they just didn’t answer. Pulse makes sure a hello gets an answer, so people know the mesh works and keep their node on.
The website explains Pulse. The mesh demonstrates its value. The aim is more useful nodes staying online, not more radio traffic.
What Pulse answers
Messages on the public channel that greet everyone or test the radio, such as:
hello,hi all,good morning everyonetest,testing from Ringwood,radio checkanyone out there?
It also answers a direct request for a radio check: Pulse, please respond. See below.
What it leaves alone
- Conversations, questions and anything that isn’t a hello or a test. Ed reads those himself.
- A greeting to a particular person (“hi Sam”) or a reply to someone else’s message.
- Any hello someone else has already answered, whether that’s a person or another bot. Pulse is built not to compete.
- Anything that looks like it came from a bot, so two bots can never get into a loop.
- TheClique’s own nodes, and its own messages.
What a reply looks like
One short message, signed as a bot, that says how TheClique heard you:
“Via 2 hops” means two other nodes passed your message along before it reached TheClique. Pulse only describes signal strength when it heard you directly. For a relayed message, the signal it measures belongs to the last node in the chain, not to you, so it doesn’t pretend otherwise. More on hops and signal
The first time Pulse answers your node it may add the short link cliq.im/pulse, but only if the channel is quiet. After that it leaves the link off to save airtime.
Ask for a radio check
Testing your reach when nobody else is around? Send this on the public channel:
Pulse, please respond
Capitals and punctuation don’t matter, and a “hey” in front is fine, but it has to be the whole message. Mentioning Pulse in a sentence won’t trigger it. Pulse answers within about 10 seconds, day or night, without waiting for a person:
- One answered radio check per node per hour, counted by your node’s ID rather than its name. Other people’s checks don’t use up yours.
- Radio checks share Pulse’s overall limits (6 replies an hour and 20 a day across everyone), and Pulse stays silent when the channel is over 25% busy. If you get no answer, it may have been held back for one of those reasons, or TheClique simply didn’t hear you.
- What a reply proves: your message reached TheClique, by the path shown. It doesn’t measure the quality of every hop along the way, and it can’t tell you how well anyone else hears you.
- The hop count appears only when your firmware reports it. Signal strength appears only when TheClique heard you directly.
- Pulse answers the way you asked. Ask on the public channel and the answer is public, so everyone listening can see the mesh is working. Ask in a direct message to TheClique and the answer comes straight back to you.
Radio checks are on.
Day and night
- Daytime (7am to 10pm): Ed sees your message first and answers it himself. If it was a hello or a test message and he can’t get to it within 30 minutes, Pulse sends its short reply instead.
- Overnight (10pm to 7am): Pulse answers hellos and test messages after two minutes, unless someone else has replied first.
- Radio checks (
Pulse, please respond) are answered within about 10 seconds at any hour. - Next morning: Ed sees who said hello overnight and may follow up in person.
- Other messages: Ed’s phone may suggest a reply drafted by an AI model running on TheClique’s own computer. Nothing is sent unless Ed decides to send it. Pulse itself never holds conversations.
The limits it keeps
- At most one hello reply to the same node every 6 hours, and one radio check per node per hour.
- At most 6 replies an hour and 20 a day across everyone.
- Silent when the channel is busy (channel utilisation over 25%). It leaves the web link off above 15%.
- Replies travel only as far as they need to: your hop count plus one, between 3 and 5 hops.
- Every reply fits in a single packet (200 bytes or less).
- No position broadcasts, no advertising and no repeated announcements.
How Pulse will be introduced
Before Pulse answers on its own, we will tell the Melbourne Meshtastic community what it does and ask for objections and suggestions. When it starts, TheClique will send one short introduction on the public channel, once:
That’s the only announcement. There will be no recurring promotional messages. Everything else Pulse has to say lives on this page.
Tell us what you think
Too chatty, not chatty enough, or would you rather Pulse didn’t answer your node? Contact TheClique with your node’s name and we’ll sort it out. What TheClique logs, and how to ask for removal, is under Privacy.