The first cold email went out March 20. By April we had a phone call with the city's utilities supervisor, a guy named Ron who used to be a ham operator and immediately understood what we were asking for. Ron's exact words: "Yeah, that's basically nothing. Bring it over."
We brought it over on a Saturday. Heltec V4 in a weatherproof box, 915 MHz whip, 12 V power tap off the tower's existing service. Total parts: $137. Total time on the platform: 40 minutes, including the safety briefing.
What we learned
The pitch matters more than the spec. Ron didn't care about LoRa or hop counts. He cared that we'd done this before, that the box weighed less than a brick, and that if it broke we'd come back and take it down. Treat every host conversation like a favor someone is doing you, because it is.
The first ping is the best feeling in this hobby. Five minutes after we powered it up, the node showed up on the map, and a hop from Topeka came through that previously couldn't reach the metro. That's the whole game.
What's next
With Bonner online, the I-70 west chain is closed: Topeka → Lawrence → Bonner → downtown reaches in 4 hops, reliably. The east side is the next ask — we need a host in Independence or Blue Springs to do the same thing on the other side of the metro.
Massive thanks to Ron, to the Bonner Springs Public Works department, and to everyone in the Discord who answered hardware questions at 9 PM on a Tuesday. This one really did take a community.