Most nodes participate in infrastructure behavior to some degree. When we refer here to an “unattended” node, it means a node that is at or above rooftop level in the immediate area, and generally not used to send direct messages or chat.
Due to the very large amount of nodes on the MSP Mesh network (currently at least 500, but likely many more) the default settings that come pre-configured with all Meshtastic devices cause too much airtime congestion.
With so many nodes, even without anyone actually chatting with each other, that many devices constantly blasting telemetry caused the network to be congested nearly all the time.
By changing to a shorter “chirp” preset (Medium Fast, in this case) the actual time spent on each of these broadcasts is significantly shorter, and frees up more of the frequency to be used at any given time.
1 hour = 3600 seconds
3 hours = 10800 seconds
12 hours = 43200 seconds
24 hours = 86400 seconds