For households · Central Coast NSW

Text your family.Towers or not.

Pocket-sized radios that pair with your phone and send texts hill to hill, with no mobile signal, SIM or subscription. We set them up for your family and show everyone how to use them.

Get your family set up

Photo: Crackneck Lookout, Bateau Bay
Why bother

Outages happen more than you think.

Mobile networks go down in storms, fires, power cuts and plain software faults. When they do, the first thing everyone wants to know is whether their people are OK. A mesh radio answers that without a tower.

13 hOptus Triple Zero outage, 18 Sep 2025
7,000+Outage reports in the Telstra failure, 8 Jul 2026
43%of Australians worry their 000 call could fail (ACCAN, 2026)
Check in"All OK at home." Everyone sees it, even when the phones show no bars.
Find each otherShare positions on a map when the kids are at the beach and the network's down.
Help the streetEvery radio passes messages on, so each home that joins extends coverage for the neighbours.
Options

Three ways in

Learn

Public workshop

Off-grid messaging in 3 hours. You leave with a working node set up for the local mesh and know how to use it.

$149Node included · $69 bring your own
Done for you

Family setup

Bring your radios, or buy them from our shopping list. We put them on a private family channel, add the Coast mesh settings and give everyone a quick-reference card.

$49Per device
At home

Home base station

A solar node on your roof or shed. It keeps your house on the mesh through a blackout and extends coverage for your whole street.

Quoted per site
How it works

From box to message

  1. Pick your radiosWe'll tell you which ones suit your family and where to buy them.
  2. We set them upPrivate encrypted channel, local mesh settings, names for everyone.
  3. Practise onceSend a test message from the beach, the bush and the car while things are calm.
  4. Keep it chargedPut them in the grab bag. Check the charge when you check the smoke alarms.
FAQ

Straight answers

Why not a satellite messenger?

Have both if you can. A satellite messenger is for SOS and costs from around $540 plus a monthly plan. The mesh lets your family and your street text each other, with no plan at all.

Why not UHF radio?

Keep your UHF for voice. The mesh does text, positions and check-ins, works through your phone, and messages wait for people who weren't listening at the time.

Do I need a licence?

No. These devices use the 915–928 MHz band under the ACMA's LIPD class licence, which covers everyone automatically.

Can anyone read our messages?

Your family channel is encrypted. There's no phone number, SIM or account, and nothing passes through a company's servers.

How far does it reach?

A few kilometres between handheld radios at street level, much further once a message reaches a hilltop repeater. Coverage grows as more homes join.

Does it replace 000?

No. The mesh is not an emergency service. In an emergency, call 000 and follow official warnings.

Contact

Get set up.

Tell us how many people are in your household and where you are on the Coast. We'll come back with what to buy and when we can set it up.

Or email hello@hilltalk.com.au

Not an emergency service. The mesh does not replace 000, VHF Ch16, your PLB or official warnings. In an emergency, call 000.