News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:How Not to Go Off the Grid by _jal on Thursday October 13, 2022 @04:19PM (#33195994)
Kind of, but it is the WSJ.

Tangent, but it is interesting to me, how many people now seem to be unwilling to go out of cell range. It reminds me of people decades ago who would go camping, but only with a car. If you had to leave powered-travel range, they were out.

This is less the case for me now, but there was a time when leaving my cell at home was a huge luxury. And I still enjoy days when I can go do things without it - pretty much the only time anymore when my time is truly my own.

Re:How Not to Go Off the Grid by servercobra on Thursday October 13, 2022 @04:57PM (#33196390)
We just ran into this for my yearly Boundary Waters canoe trip where cell coverage is spotty at best if you're a couple lakes in. Some of our significant others, especially those who just had or were expecting kids, convinced us to rent a satellite communicator for emergencies. I get it, but part of the experience is being completely disconnected and knowing you're on your own if anything goes wrong.
Re:How Not to Go Off the Grid by thwayunion on Thursday October 13, 2022 @05:40PM (#33196827)
> but part of the experience is being completely disconnected and knowing you're on your own if anything goes wrong.

No.

If you cannot self-rescue, someone will notice your absence and SAR will eventually be deployed. Leaving behind your inReach requires a full search, which wastes valuable SAR resources and possibly even puts SAR professionals at additional unnecessary risk. If the emergent event is the result of something that impacts a large area -- storms, earthquakes, avalanche, rock fall, etc. -- other people may die because SAR spent too much time on you.

If there is ANY chance that SAR will be deployed to help you -- requested by you or otherwise! -- it is incumbent upon you to either carry an inReach or give regional SAR an explicit "do not rescue" request prior to departure.

Re:How Not to Go Off the Grid by catiopatio on Thursday October 13, 2022 @05:17PM (#33196608)
> … part of the experience is being completely disconnected and knowing you're on your own if anything goes wrong.

Frankly, that’s silly.

In the very unlikely event that something goes seriously wrong, having a satellite-based emergency beacon is easily the difference between life and death or serious life-long injury.

I’ve spent plenty of time in the backcountry where cell service is not just spotty, but nonexistent. Now that beacons are cheap and widely available, I always take one.

Being self-sufficient and disconnected are good, healthy experiences — having an emergency communication mechanism for emergencies that you cannot handle yourself doesn’t detract from that.

Re:How Not to Go Off the Grid by thwayunion on Thursday October 13, 2022 @06:16PM (#33197171)
It's much more than that. If you are leaving your sat device at home to "up the stakes", you need to let SAR know that this is the game you are playing. You need to make sure they know you do not want or expect a rescue under any circumstances and you need to make sure that the absolute safety of all other parties, including the SAR team themselves, will take priority over a search on your behalf.

And if their response is "that is stupid, take your sat device" then do so.