Meshtastic

Kindof a modern take on a CB radio from ye olden days. Mostly just keep a node with me when I'm out and about just to see who I can pick up and from what distances.

Edit: I was tired and on mobile when I replied that, but here's a mostly comprehensive list of what I use mine for:

• I just think they're neat!
• I'll pass a node out to everyone in the group when we go camping, hiking, etc. They're all populated with a generic set of canned messages you can send from the device itself (so no phone is required). Messages are like "You good?", "Ack", "Need help", "Checking in", etc.
• The campsite we use most is about 2 miles from civilization, into the forest, down and around a mountain, and by the river. We have a friend who lives at the mouth of the road / edge of civilization. On my way down to the campsite, I stop every so often to "drop a buoy" by which I mean I strap a node to a tree to act as a relay. There's no cell reception at all there, so this lets us relay up to the friend's house if we need anything or have an emergency. LOL, one time we asked her to go get us more ice and beer and she delivered!
• Better to have it and not need it in case of disaster. I keep my primary channel private but set the radio parameters for the "default" channel so I can relay for users using the default config and vice-versa. The "default" Meshtastic channel is a secondary in my config, so I can talk with people using the default config.