I wonder if IP is really the right decision. AX25 isn't the bottleneck with existing packet radio, and because it's made for hams, it makes it easy to be sure that you're really within your license requirements. ie: identification. It's also difficult to accidentally send encrypted messages over AX25, whereas on IP you have to really watch Wireshark and make sure you're not doing something wrong. It's also not as chatty, which is a real concern when you have a mesh network and someone is hearing you better than you're hearing them --- it could get really messy without coordination. That being said, this is a very exciting project. I'd love to see packet radio make some progress since the 80s (outside of just repurposing 802.11 gear).

We need the ARRL to stop wasting their time on a watered down HOA bill that they've been working on for like a decade, and start talking to the FCC about modernizing regulations for the 21st century. Two things that come to mind are that the spread spectrum/transmit bandwith restrictions are outdated, and encryption requirements need to be formally relaxed so that common digital communication like SSH or HTTPS can be supported to an extent -- I'm not saying I want the ham bands filled with encrypted traffic, but I'm fine with the small community of packet radio enthusiasts being able to remote into a computer from afar.