Radio is pretty fickle, have you tried different locations? The higher the better, different materials block signal, antennas can always be better. It's a real rabbit hole but i recommend it. Have you connected to MQTT, you should be able to find a local server and get an idea of who's around you.
jared
joined 2 years ago
Reticulum network
In the us there are MQTT servers for each state and many cities and regions. I haven't been active in a while but my state also has a discord.