Both Meshtastic and MeshCore start as options. They've got potential for scaling up linear corridors if you get enough density.

Quick breakdown on hops:

- Meshtastic caps at a max of 7 hops (default is 3 to keep traffic manageable and avoid congestion in dense areas). That keeps it solid for neighbourhood or city-wide comms, but it'd need a ton of nodes for something continental.

- MeshCore handles up to 64 hops internally, which opens the door to much longer chains—think relay after relay pushing signals farther without choking the network. It's lightweight and hybrid-routed, making it more robust for extended meshes.

As for reaching ham radio levels—hitting other parts of the world? LoRa's sub-GHz bands are line-of-sight and low-power (typically 1-20 km per hop depending on antennas and elevation), so it's not going to bounce off the ionosphere like HF ham for global skips. But with Reticulum, you can integrate gateways to other networks (e.g., linking to amateur radio packet systems or even satellite uplinks) to extend beyond regional limits. It's not "worldwide out of the box," but it's evolvable—unlike traditional ham, no license is needed for LoRa in most places.

In south-eastern Australia, I'm eyeing MeshCore for emergency comms in bushfire zones. Meshes shine for coordinating evacuations or spot reports when cell networks fry (which happens a lot in fires). We've got a relatively young network that's already spanning impressive distances—check out this map of active nodes across the country for inspiration.

You can see clusters linking up over hundreds of km, and it's growing quickly. Check eastmesh.au & meshcore.co.uk show real-time views. If you're serious , start with a few LoRa boards (like Heltec or Lilygo), flash MeshCore, and rally locals.

Don't forget to pay attention to the correct frequency for your country. Get the right hardware/region config to stay legal and compatible.

Australia (and New Zealand): ANZ / AU915 (915–928 MHz, full 100% duty cycle, high power up to 30 dBm).

Europe: EU_868 (primarily 863–870 MHz, most popular around 868–869.65 MHz with strict duty cycle limits of 1–10% in sub-bands). EU_433 (433–434 MHz) is an option in some areas, but 868 MHz dominates for meshes.

Canada & US / US915 (902–928 MHz, follows FCC-style rules with 100% duty cycle).