Any practical grass-roots mesh wireless network would have to be built using commodity consumer WiFi hardware. People aren't going to go out and purchase spread spectrum radios, especially not in developing countries where governments are most likely to kill Internet access.

On the other hand, a shortwave radio is dirt cheap to build and can interface with the audio / mic ports on your smartphone / laptop. And the range is on the order of hundreds of miles.

can be used as a stealth backchannel to C&C compromised devices out of band from the internet/cellular connection