Like, I probably sound paranoid af. But I’ve read news about apparant “illegal CCP ‘Police Stations’” operating out of NYC (and variojs places) and um… I’m Chinese-American, and I was born in mainland China, especially under current administration, I personally feel like its a very bad time to be like… flying a drone.
See, because drones are made in China, there’s basically a fear of “spying” from these drones throughout the country, and DJI is already on the path of being banned, and I’ve seen videos of karens harassing a Youtuber, even when they are white, so I can’t imagine the shit I have to face if I cross paths with a karen. I feel like they would straight up call the FBI and accuse me of “being a spy”.
Same with radios. I’ve heard of the story where someone visited India with a radio (because they were gonna do hiking or something and there were no signal), then they got arrested and held for a few hours and investigated for being a “terrorist”, so that kinda gets worrying because this fear of “terrorism” is also prevalent in the US. Someone is gonna see that radio is gonna think “this guy must be a terrorist” or “is that [the radio with antenna sticking out] a bomb?” I mean, I heard about some woman on a plane called airport security on a guys doing… algebra, like just imagine in a crowded area with a “weird device that ‘looks like a bomb’”.
Kinda feels anxiety-inducing to be playing around with these gadgets, don’t you think? Am I worrying too much?
I don’t think you have much to worry about yet, but the concern is not unreasonable. I think radios are likely to remain fairly safe. If nothing else, they can be pretty inconspicuous.
Drones are more likely to be a problem. They can be used to observe and record the results. When the government is routinely lying about situations, having video that directly contradicts them could become very dangerous. And while it hasn’t happened yet, sooner or later people will begin using drones as offensive weapons to commit political violence.
It’s a good idea to be aware of the potential risks of whatever you do. That doesn’t mean you should stop, just make sure you aren’t caught unprepared by changes. We are at a point where the law matters a lot less than it should, so changes can happen overnight and without any formal announcement.