I'm in Canada, with respect to ordering hardware. I think what I am trying to do is setup an always-on node to add to the mesh, but I'm only just dipping my toes into the guide and meshtastic to begin with.

Most of the time, my fellow nerds on Lemmy can filter out the noise of various google searches and cut to the chase to get started - guide me!

Benn Jordan had a very simple Setup outlined (iirc linked to a complete guide) in his "Gift ideas for anarchists" video.

Might wanna check that out (also, his channel is worth a look overall)

Buy any pi meshtastic hat (good luck finding one in stock), install meshtastic daemon, profit?

Any hat? Nothing particularly recommended by the fediverse?

I’ve heard the maker-made small batch HATs work best. I’ve been eyeing one of these since https://github.com/chrismyers2000/MeshAdv-Pi-Hat

Thanks, I had been looking at Esty already and put a few in my cart. Appreciate the help.