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Walkie-talkies are still unconventional technical items. Everyone has a phone - homeless people have phones. Phones are ubiquitous, and someone having one is not unusual.

They might be lower-tech, but it is odd if someone has a walkie-talkie - also easy to monitor (range == eavesdroppers have range too) and it is in fact illegal to use encryption over the available frequencies or to send digital data (so all things you could do, but which would draw attention).

The problem with committing crimes is that efforts to cover up the crime themselves are likely to create evidence of it.



> which would draw attention

Unless you're disrupting military / police / aviation frequencies, there is virtually no enforcement. The FCC does not routinely police the airwaves - they can be asked to investigate egregious disturbances, but if they do choose to respond (which is rare), that response will not start for weeks or months. Nobody is going to show up with guns drawn for an encrypted LoRa connection.


> and it is in fact illegal to use encryption over the available frequencies or to send digital data

Send it in encrypted Morse code.

Probably illegal but Morse code is itself legal and who out there would even know if some doo-dah-dahs were in fact encrypted anyway?

But LoRa is the more legitimate long-range module for home made digital comms (encrypted) in any case. And should be easier to do.




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