Setting Up Your Mishigami GMRS Node

This walks you through turning an SD card and Raspberry Pi into a working node on the Mishigami GMRS network. About 15 minutes of hands-on time, plus some waiting for the Pi itself.

Came from the network's registration form? You don't need it yet. Registration happens automatically in Step 5 below, once your Pi is up and running its own setup wizard — that's what actually generates the WireGuard key the registration form asks for, so there's no key to submit until you get there. Just follow the steps below in order, starting with writing the SD card.
What you'll need

1Write the SD card

⇩ Download launch-gmrs-imager.bat

  1. Double-click launch-gmrs-imager.bat.
    • If a page opens asking you to install Raspberry Pi Imager, do that first (it's free, official Raspberry Pi software), then double-click the file again.
    • Otherwise, Imager opens on its own with "Mishigami GMRS Node" already available to pick.
  2. In Imager: Choose Device → your Pi model. Choose OS → "Mishigami GMRS Node" (already listed). Choose Storage → your SD card. Double-check you've picked the right drive — writing erases everything on it.
  3. Click Write, then confirm. Imager writes and verifies the card automatically — this can take several minutes. Don't unplug it until it says it's done.

⇩ Download launch-gmrs-imager.sh

  1. If Raspberry Pi Imager isn't installed yet:
    • Debian/Ubuntu and derivatives: sudo apt install rpi-imager
    • Flatpak (any distro): flatpak install flathub org.raspberrypi.rpi-imager
    • Or download it directly from raspberrypi.com/software
  2. Make the launcher runnable once, then run it: 
    chmod +x launch-gmrs-imager.sh
./launch-gmrs-imager.sh
    Imager opens with "Mishigami GMRS Node" already available to pick.
  3. In Imager: Choose Device → your Pi model. Choose OS → "Mishigami GMRS Node" (already listed). Choose Storage → your SD card. Double-check you've picked the right drive — writing erases everything on it.
  4. Click Write, then confirm. Imager writes and verifies the card automatically — this can take several minutes. Don't unplug it until it says it's done.
Before you click Write Click the gear icon ("OS Customisation") and set your WiFi country code (e.g. "US") — that's what lets the node's setup WiFi come up correctly on first boot.

Don't fill in a WiFi network name or password on that same screen. Leave those blank and let the setup wizard join your network later, once the Pi is running — joining through Imager instead skips steps the node needs to bring its own setup WiFi up correctly, and can leave it unreachable.

2First boot

  1. Move the SD card into the Raspberry Pi and plug in power.
  2. Give it a few extra minutes on this very first boot — it's doing some one-time setup behind the scenes before anything else comes up. Don't unplug it during this time.

3Connect to the node's setup WiFi

  1. On your phone or laptop, open WiFi settings and look for a network named GMRS-Setup-XXXX (the last few characters are unique to your Pi).
  2. Connect using the password: A37B28DX7#
  3. Open a web browser and go to http://10.55.55.1/ — most phones will pop this page up automatically as soon as you join, so you may not even need to type it.

4Get online

The wizard asks how this node should connect to the internet going forward:

If you're joining WiFi while still connected to the node's own setup network, it may seem to drop for a moment — that's normal, it reconnects automatically within a few seconds.

5Register your node

This is the only place you need to register a physical node — right here in the wizard, not on the main network website. The wizard generates your node's WireGuard key itself and submits this form for you.

Submit, then wait — an admin needs to approve new nodes, which can take a while. It's safe to close this page and come back to http://10.55.55.1/ later; it picks up right where you left off.

6Connect your radio

Once approved, the page shows your assigned node number and a Set up radio hardware button. Click it, then pick whichever fits:

The radio setup terminal (also on that page) is only a fallback, for hardware neither of those two covers yet.

No radio yet? There's a separate button on the node's main page to set up a placeholder "test stub" instead, so you can confirm your node talks to the rest of the network before hardware arrives.

7You're on the air

From that same page you can also reach:

PageWhat it's for
allmon3This node's monitoring page (login shown on the page)
DiagnosticsAudio levels and a live signal view
Announcements & IDStation ID and how often it announces
Device statusCPU, memory, temperature, disk usage

If something doesn't look right