- http://gotenna.com/
- http://www.cnet.com/news/off-the-grid-texting-device-gotenna-attracts-antisurveillance-crowd/
Range is supposedly 50 miles "at high elevations", but usually about 9 miles. Seems like each person needs the gadget to create the peer to peer communication. It works on 151-154Mhz. It's not FCC approved yet, communication is encrypted (doesn't seem like encryption at rest though) and messages can be set to self-destruct after being read. Emergency messages are sent clear text to any GoTenna within range.
It would be interesting to put it up high, like at a repeater site, and then see who could connect to it, and see if it can be modified to create a mesh network.
