If you dont use the default LongFast meshtastic is really empty. I switched my node to MediumSlow, since it’s like 86% faster than LongFast. I knew there would not be any in my area, so I subscribed to the msh/US MQTT topic and theres still nobody else. I’m going to leave it like that for a while and see if I hear anything during any kind of band openings or catch any other MQTT nodes trying out that topic. And yes, both uplink and downlink are enabled. I do know that there are some nodes in the Bay Area on msh/US/mqtt-bayme-sh, but I am not near their.
Yeah I don’t think meshtastic is the right choice for dense areas, even on faster methods it will quickly get overloaded.
From what I understand, you can have several hundred nodes easily on the fast modes. That is definitely a quick overload compared to your traditional cell phone network. But there are not that many people with Meshtastic and not that many events where the super fast modes are even required. Even in large metropolitan areas, I’m only seeing upwards of 30 or 40 people on MeshMap, and obviously that’s not showing everybody because that’s opt-in, but that would still be well within the range of the fast modes.