dconrad

Killer -- where's your hackerspace?

LoRa basestation gateways are available off-the-shelf for from Kerlink, Multitech, and Link Labs. The gateways are actually quite simple, they just forward packets to the cloud network server, and back to the clients.

Standard 800/900/2400 antennas on the client devices, obviously you can get more range out of a long high-gain antenna, but PCB antennas work as well.

Security in the LoRaWAN standard is well thought-through, you might be surprised.

Glad you agree. :)

We're putting up a LoRa network here in SF, and plan to publish a bunch of our test data, including link error rates and throughput. Urban deployments are new so more data will help us all understand what's doable. (There are a few rural deployments in production; less uncertainty there.)

For LoRa, check out Multitech, LinkLabs, and Libelium. Semtech has a development board, too, though it would need to be paired with a microcontroller. Warning that most of this stuff is not for the faint of heart -- you need to be ready to dive into datasheets, bring up radio drivers, etc.

For Sigfox, if you're not in an area with a Sigfox network, there's not much you can do. But TI has some killer FSK dev boards. http://www.ti.com/tool/smartrftrxebk and http://www.ti.com/tool/cc1101cc1190emk915

Ingenu has radio modules and dev boards, but I don't think they're set up to sell single-unit quantity.

If you're in San Francisco, we're making a going to be distributing dev boards that will work out of the box and come with a bunch of sensors. Just sign up on our website: www.beepnetworks.com