Comment by Bender

For grid-down data my preference would be laser instead of RF as laser is regulated by the FDA and not the FCC not that either would take interest. With laser one could send incredibly large amounts of data very fast. It's more manual setup but I would expect once set up it would be far more reliable, better for setting up mountain top repeaters and meshes. Laser is also better for data privacy encryption aside as the beam is directed to a target vs. omnidirectional broadcasting. During grid-down most people that would be using a mesh would be at static locations. One could then bridge in these RF omnidirectional devices into the mountain and home repeaters to prevent over-saturation.

Another nifty feature of a manually positioned laser is the automatic measurement of time domain. One could have an optional security feature to automatically disable the data-stream if the time domain of the laser changes in physical distance of more than {n} user-defined meters or centimeters to prevent MitM (Monster in the Middle) beam interception for the extra properly paranoid types.

There can be weather issues for laser but for that one could fall back to voice using any one of the hundreds of makes and models of HAM gear that can operate on and around 11 meters by moving a jumper or holding down two buttons when it is powered on. Illegal but only enforced by monthly example of someone impacting revenue generating sites. Voice changers and scramblers FTW. RF signature ignored. Don't use sloppy SDR's. In a grid down event TLA's will be busy with higher priority issues and will "look into it" eventually by which point the transceivers mysteriously vanish assuming one can even get the TLA to show up.