there is also this: https://www.nycmesh.net/ , somewhat related and can be used as a back up information/communication source
LoRa can run in any band you want, but it's almost universally deployed in ISM bands as well, 315/433 or 868/915 MHz. I don't think I've ever seen a LoRa chipset that would push enough power to exceed part-15 regs.
HOWEVER, to be strictly legal, a part-15 device actually needs to be tested and certified thereas. Otherwise the parts can only be sold as a kit and stuff, which is how pretty much all lora stuff is sold right now. And you'd be hard pressed to piss anyone off enough to care.
Yeah. Disaster Radio does not look like a "kit" at all. Not for "an average user" at least. I'd be cautious building and operating hardware that can potentially get me in trouble with authorities.
Still great general idea though, to build a solar-powered kit that's easy to setup and operate, a kit that makes sure there is a "plug-and-play" solution in case of a disaster (natural or not), kit that also delegates legal responsibility to the "creator"/manufacturer.
Look at the unmitigated chaos on CB for a sense of how much the FCC feels like enforcing anything on the unlicensed bands. Probably 95% of CBers are running above-legal power, many of them by _several orders of magnitude_, and behold, the field in which the FCC grows its fucks, it is barren.
Disaster.radio uses LoRa which is very low bandwidth and typically omnidirectional antennas. It only uses WiFi to connect users’ “terminal” devices to the node within a short range.
disaster.radio is not a replacement to a existing internet infrastructure like NYC Mesh. Setting up a high bandwidth mesh network is a lot of work. Each node needs a non-trivial amount of power (enough to make solar hard) and nodes generally need line of sight which requires good mounting locations and planning.
We, the creators of disaster.radio, actually also run a small wifi-based mesh network https://peoplesopen.net/ and the idea for disaster.radio came out of frustration with difficulty of mounting wifi nodes (finding interested people in good locations, then negotiating with landlords for permission to mount on rooftops and running ethernet cable for PoE into building, then finding another location within line of sight and repeating the process). We thought: What if we could make a "mesh throwie" where installation was as easy as throwing it on a roof (and maybe strapping it to something).
Wifi is 2.4/5ghz.
"LoRa uses license-free sub-gigahertz radio frequency bands like 433 MHz, 868 MHz (Europe) and 915 MHz (Australia and North America)." -Wikipedia