I haven't used a SPOT for ten years, but at that time they were pretty limited in their comms. They weren't on if I didn't want them to be on, and even when in and supposedly with service, were flaky. Now, I use an InReach. It has more functionality than the devices in the past, but the connection isn't really any better. All of these devices were owned and managed under government contracts but I don't think they would be any different. I have never used them to track myself as I go, I use different equipment for that.
Long story short, you'll worry more about getting service when you need than you will about being tracked when you don't want to be. A tree canopy or tall canyon can prevent comms.
The 3B was like peak RPi though. Nowadays unless you need the GPIO or the low power or form factor, it’s not worth it at all. You can get low-spec 3-5 year old off-lease office desktops for roughly the same price point as a top end RPi now, and they are commonplace and easily found in the secondary market.
Hell I just bought a really clean Ryzen 5 3500 laptop for $200. Only had 8GB mem and a paltry NVMe but these are cheap upgrades if needed.
There are definitely more economic options, but I lucked out with a cheap i7 Intel NUC a few years ago that’s had no problem running any of my Plex streams. Might be worth checking out
I’ve been very happy with my Nvidia Shield. It’s powerful enough for all 4k HDR media and runs Android so it’s customizable but I don’t have to think about it.
There is a bigger model that lays flat which has great hardware and then there is a “tube” model similar to the Amazon Fire stick size which is 32 bit only and has hardware issues also.
I like my Shield but it was a real bummer that I couldn’t just plug in a USB drive and play movies on it. It’s annoying that I have to setup Plex or Jellyfin or whatever to serve movies to the Shield
The satellite uplinks these devices use is very bandwidth limited, and quite expensive. I can assure you that it’s not routinely sending anything without telling you.
Maybe at the time you most need it, you’d want it to be as readily as possible. May I suggest a thin plastic layer to open the circuit rather than having the batteries out?
It’s not even just your medical data. I picked up a prescription for my mother who just had spinal surgery, and they wouldn’t hand over the pain medication without taking down all of my info. I’ve had no issue picking up any of her other prescriptions. Seems the war on drugs is still alive and well.
To be fair, I work in hospice and we have run into situations where family members would help themselves to patient comfort meds if they could gain access. It’s not a bad idea to track who has access along the way.
Meanwhile, I’ve seen dozens of videos on Instagram of cartel guys floating literal boatloads full of coke and god knows what else across the gulf of mexico.
Watching the US government handle drug enforcement is like watching a toddler eat piss with a fork. Whatever they’re hoping to achieve isn’t going to help anyone and they’re not even trying to do it effectively.
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