Meshtastic is an open-source project using low cost LoRa radios as a long range off-grid communication platform in areas without little or no communications infrastructure. It’s a portmanteau of Mesh and “fantastic”.
I found it shared on Facebook, which lead me to the subreddit post, which lead me to reading more about it and even finding Lemmy communities and local groups!
https://mander.xyz/c/meshtastic
I also made sure to check if this wasn’t a hail corporate thing. And I also felt like I missed the era of homemade radios. So this is exciting for me!
If you want to have communication available at any kind of protest, and you would rather not provide the authorities with your name and address, Meshtastic can be quite useful. In the US, we have reached the point where that can be a serious issue. In other parts of the world it can be a matter of life or death.