Hacker News Reader

I can see that Meshtastic devices could also be blocked. Also, many don't operate with the FCC rules on the frequencies used.

https://meshtastic.org/docs/legal/

View on HN

Doesn't meshtastic operate in the unlicensed bands? Would that mean they're blocked? The article says they're only blocking devices that need FCC certification and since meshtastic is unlicensed it doesn't need FCC certification as far as I know.

The band it's operating in doesn't change whether or not it needs FCC certification. wifi operating on 2.4ghz is an unlicensed band, but it still needs certification for instance.

IIRC, Meshtastic has an is_licensed / “Ham Mode” setting that changes the software's regulatory assumptions and power limits so it can be used.

Many of the devices also exceed FCC specified power output on those frequences which is an even larger problem.

Don't a lot of these integrate off-the-shelf pre-certified LoRa modules?

Yes, and the FCC has been pretty lenient about the use of these modules under "modular" licensing

Reply on news.ycombinator.com