Abstract We consider three different schemes for signal routeing on a tree. The vertices of the tree represent transceivers that can transmit and receive signals, and are equipped with independent and identically distributed weights representing the strength of the transceivers. The edges of the tree are also equipped with independent and identically distributed weights, representing the costs for passing the edges. For each one of our schemes, we derive sharp conditions on the distributions of the vertex weights and the edge weights that determine when the root can transmit a signal over arbitrarily large distances.