How far can Meshtastic go, it seems using LoRA. How is it different from VHF/UHF based radio that can do 30+ miles using handheld where no cellular power exists(off-grid communication), or the 5-mile walkie-talkie. My assumption is that Meshtastic has the advantage of low-power that can sustain much longer time.
Another forthcoming alternative will be satellite-based chat using phones.
For a single hop you can expect close to similar ranges as a VHF set. We saw 30NM distances on open sea when leaving Curaçao. Could be a lot more with antenna situated high up.
Where the magic potentially kicks in is the mesh hops. With those you can reach much further by jumping from one node to another.
It's not even close to satellite comms in reach or reliability, but it also requires no infrastructure, no licensing, and no subscriptions.
Meshtastic is multi-hop, doesn’t require a license and is encrypted by default. It’s also a toy network, really. Reliability doesn’t seem to be high on the priority list.
Reliability carries serious costs in airtime usage and power consumption, and there's always going to be someone who demands that the network support an even higher level of reliability. "Toy network" is highly subjective and depends on your (unstated) assumption about what kind of use case you want Meshtastic to fulfill.
Another forthcoming alternative will be satellite-based chat using phones.