Any messages you send on "LongFast" should appear on https://za.localmesh.org/chat.html . You can also join us on discord to help with troubleshooting https://discord.com/invite/tKGFwFYvsT .
Make sure you get a 868Mhz node if you want to use it for Meshtastic or MeshCore in Cape Town. Smartcasa as mentioned above or Micro Robotics is your best bet to get going for cheap.
You can also buy them directly from smartcasa ... https://www.smartcasa.co.za/products/seeed-studio-xiao-meshtastic-node.
I'm using one of those nodes with a yagi to connect from Kraaifontein to Hawequas (40km).
Yes! mine was also a Redstone but not CGA ... Some of my friends recently gave me a Redstone case with matching amber monitor and a motherboard with the Redstone bios! Slowly rebuilding my childhood machine.