The right to assemble and protest is enshrined in American law, but it can still be dangerous to hit the streets to make your voice heard. Your devices are a treasure trove of information about you, and you may not always know who’s collecting that data. Take a few minutes before you go to assess your digital and physical safety. Even if you have nothing to hide, you don’t want to accidentally give law enforcement officials any information you didn’t intend to share. Follow these tips to lock down your phone before a protest or other peaceful assembly.
Would an old school walkie talkie be a better solution? You want to be able to communicate within a group in case shit happen
That depends what you’re trying to solve. For a lot of people, they’re still gonna need their phone. I don’t think “Just use a walkie talkie bro” would read as very helpful advice to the average person.
If, however, you are the sort of person organizing a protest or other similar activity, yes, absolutely, walkie tallies are great. A lot of people who do serious political activism talk about how radio is still the most resilient communication method. Not fool-proof, you definitely need to study up on the limitations, but an invaluable tool to be aware of.
If you are going to a protest as a group, and you have the resources to invest a few hundred bucks, getting a set of walkie-talkies for the group plus a dedicated burner one responsible person to carry (maybe someone who will be in radio range but clear of the actual happenings) is also a solid strategy, but we also shouldn’t be acting like “Going as a group” and “spending a few hundred dollars” are prerequisites for being politically active. There need to be solutions for everyone.
I think FRS is the only thing legally available without a license. You can buy GMRS radios on Amazon that will communicate with FRS radios on all of the FRS channels, see here:
https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/FRS/GMRS_combined_channel_chart
However, these radios are VERY limited in an urban area with lots of concrete towers. In my experience the GMRS radios on “high power” really only go one little valley over out in the woods. In the city you might get two or three blocks because of all the concrete. You are required to have a license to use GMRS and identify your station every 15 minutes but almost nobody does it. Hell, I listen to the local walmart using GMRS and you’re not even supposed to use it for commercial purposes.
Maybe Meshtastic? That’s a radio I haven’t messed with and I don’t know about it’s performance in an urban environment.
Ear piece highly recommended. The audio is not like a phone call and in a loud environment you will not be able to copy. Practice beforehand because radio is not like a phone call, you need to have some experience.
Yes. You can get them cheap online and they have a built in “encryption” function that isn’t well protected but might prevent people from listening in realtime.