Build your own SAT phone on Meshtastic
The short version: A DIY Meshtastic build shows how off-grid mesh networking lets people communicate without relying on centralized, trackable telecom infrastructure.
Our Take
The creator behind Digital ID, Mass Surveillance and Digital Currency walks through building a makeshift satellite-style communicator using Meshtastic, the open-source mesh networking protocol that's become a favorite among preppers, privacy advocates, and anyone tired of routing every text through a carrier's servers. It's a niche, hands-on video, but it sits squarely in the same conversation we care about: who controls the infrastructure you depend on, and what happens when that infrastructure doubles as a surveillance chokepoint.
Cell networks, like ALPR camera networks, are centralized by design. That centralization is exactly what makes them easy to monitor, log, and hand over to whoever asks nicely with a subpoena or a vendor contract. Mesh radio setups like the one shown here route around that single point of control entirely — no carrier, no cell tower pinging your location, no metadata trail sitting in a database waiting to be queried. It's a small-scale but real example of people building parallel infrastructure because they no longer trust the default kind.
We cover license plate readers specifically because that's the surveillance layer tracking your car, but the underlying fight is the same one this video touches: decentralization versus default surveillance. If you want to see how dense that camera network already is where you live, check our map, and if you're ready to push back on it, our take-action page has concrete steps.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Digital ID, Mass Surveillance and Digital Currency, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.