People keep repeating that, but it's not actually true. There are no bands available for long range (50-100 miles between hops), decentralized, encrypted, mesh networks that are cheap enough for random people to connect to.
You're probably thinking of random wifi meshnets that only work in densely populated cities. That's very different, and the limitations of those networks is exactly why HAM radio meshnets are so attractive.
There's no ham bands where you're going to build a 50-100 mile range mesh network.
Most of the HF ham bands have kilohertz of bandwidth. These are the bands where you'll get propagation over the horizon. The better ham digital modes get ones of kilobits of data in good conditions. To get that sort of throughput you need good antennas on both ends and a fair amount of output power.
It's enough power to give someone bad RF burns and antennas large enough to require sturdy masts. The antennas alone will violate most HOAs. The output power requires some knowledge to be safe.
None of the equipment required for HF is cheap or easy that some rando can throw some up to participate in a mesh network.
Encryption on amateur bands is a non-starter. There's no practical difference between your fantasy encrypted HF mesh network and RF noise. That means there's no practical difference between you using such a network to chat with your buddies, businesses flooding the air with commercial traffic, and noise.
HF can affect huge areas due to propagation. If a business uses a HF mesh network for commercial traffic in the next town over from you, they can basically shut out you from using it. It also potentially shut me out in the next state over.
HF mesh networking is not very practical to begin with and the tiny slice of HF hams have it's just laughable.
I think you assumed I was imagining high-bandwidth, but I was just thinking that even 80s dialup with BBS's or plaintext (encrypted) email would be useful, if it was long range and decentralized. That's absolutely possible with the HAM bands, especially shortwave.
> That's absolutely possible with the HAM bands, especially shortwave.
Such things already exist (Winlink, SailMail, etc) but you don't like them because there's no encryption and they don't have buzzwords like mesh in the names.
You seem to think encrypted transmissions on ham bands will let you play secret agent. All encryption will do is increase the noise floor on HF to the point its unusable by anyone. HF is already a noisy band but a bunch of people playing secret agent will swamp the bands over huge areas.
It's funny that you seem to think since I want decentralized long range encrypted mesh nets, I must be an idiot that doesn't know what I'm talking about. Or is it simply because I disagree with you?
I meant more structural, based on your mention of NYC Mesh: high-speed, carrying all-purpose (including commercial) traffic for random users. You are not getting that by allowing encryption on ham bands, that's fundamentally something different (and regulation world-wide would never allow that under "amateur radio"). What you want for that is expanded spectrum/power/easier permits for long-distance links, e.g. in the 60 Ghz band or even in WiFi bands.
Edit: or in reverse, what kind of current ham radio use would you want to use more openly? Maybe I'm misunderstanding your scenario.
Edit2: E.g. the closest thing maybe is hamnet. Which is literally IP networking, unencrypted, on modified Ubiquiti or Mikrotik WLAN gear so it uses ham bands right next to its usual frequencies and more power. As soon as you take the amateur radio restrictions out, it's just long-distance wifi links, which already have a clear space what they are regulations-wise, the regulations just don't permit as much for it.
People keep repeating that, but it's not actually true. There are no bands available for long range (50-100 miles between hops), decentralized, encrypted, mesh networks that are cheap enough for random people to connect to.
You're probably thinking of random wifi meshnets that only work in densely populated cities. That's very different, and the limitations of those networks is exactly why HAM radio meshnets are so attractive.