[DiogenesLamp]

I looked up the chip you mentioned. It's $19.10 on Mouser.

I think I was getting the RFM69HCW for around $8.00 or so.

Is it easy to use? There was a lot of overhead to learning how to use the RFM69HCW.

[GingisK]

The Microchip LoRaWAN radio is easy to use. It takes ascii text commands through a serial port for configuration. It broadcasts to a LoRaWAN gateway, which will forward messages to the server. I have a Laird gateway and configured it to forward to "The Things Network" through my local WIFI router. Messages did appear at the server in California. I'm in Georgia.

I drove the radio around my neighborhood. It can reach 1/2 mile across easy terrain. Its really hilly and tree laden around here. In some places the gateway could not be reached.

LoRaWAN is a fairly big deal. It is not like using a pair of radios for telemetry. Routing and data content are each encrypted with their own 128-bit keys.