Hi Folks, I'm new to this and wanted to buy a pair of devices for me and my father. For me, it's an emergency preparedness thing (and texting at festivals and such where cell coverage is saturated). I'm not sure what all he would use his for, but I figure it would be a cool fallback for Home Assistant to get messages out if the network and backups go down. My questions are as follows:

• With intermediate Linux skills and entry level radio skills (messed around with a FlipperZer0 for a bit) how difficult would you anticipate it being to send emails or messages received on a PC to myself via radio?
• I'm seeing the Heltec and the Wiotracker names a lot. If I grab one of their small radios, is it likely to be suitable for a project like this?
• Second, and unrelated. I wouldn't mind having a few GPS trackers on my bicycles so I have at least a chance of recovering them if they get snatched. Are any of you cyclists? Are there any particular devices, accessories, mounts, or software that you find bridges the radio and bicycling worlds well?

Thanks for any guidance you can provide.

Meshtastic supports mqtt, so that would probably be the easiest way to send messages to/from Home Assistant. Everything is done through the GUI, no coding knowledge required.

I have the Heltec V3 personally, so I can vouch for that. I would imagine that any device would probably work, though, as long as it has Wi-Fi.

For tracking, I'd look into Airtags or Moto Tags. They have a battery life measured in years instead of hours, and they're much smaller.