Just imagine one day you wake up and the electricity grid is off, nothing works. The lights are cold. The phone is dumb glass. You tighten the shoulder straps of a single pack and walk outside. The fight is on, but you are ready.

1. The Pack

Power core – EcoFlow RIVER 3
A brick of steady light. 3.5 kilos, life-proof LiFePO₄, good for ten years of charge and discharge.

Sky fuel – Sego Charger is a foldable origami solar panel
Folds to a stick no bigger than a camp stove, ten pounds on the scale, kicks out clean current the moment the sun tips the ridge. Clip it to the outside of the pack; hike, charge, repeat.

Signal blade – Starlink Mini
A hardback-sized dish, under two-and-a-half pounds, runs on the RIVER’s DC port all day, throws 100 meg downrange wherever the sky is open.

Carry shell – Acronym 3A-7TS Tec Sys Messenger Backpack
Foam armor, hidden straps, spare pockets for cables and the flat panel’s cords. My favorite choice, but take yours.

2. The Line That Never Breaks

  1. Set the panel facing the sun.
    Angle it by eye. No apps, no fuss.
  2. Plug panel to RIVER.
    Green lights flash. You have power.
  3. Feed DC straight to Starlink.
    Skip the inverter loss. The dish yawns, sniffs the sky, finds its bird. Bytes flow.
  4. Hot-spot the phone and the laptop.
    Meet, trade, write, or call home.
  5. Night comes?
    The battery keeps the link for a full watch till dawn.

3. Money Without a Bank

  • Bitcoin on the wire.
    • Phone wallet set to sign offline.
    • Steel-stamped seed in a side pocket.
    • When packets fail, Blockstream Satellite still beams the chain.
  • Stablecoins for calm seas.
    • USDC on a self-custody app.
    • QR swap over Bluetooth when the net is thin.
  • Hardware key.
    • Coldcard or Ledger rides next to your spoon. Air-gapped, silent, yours.

With sats and stables you buy fuel, barter food, pay guides. No teller glass, no frozen card.

4. The Drill

  • Sunday sunrise — dry-run the setup, time yourself.
  • Every month — top the battery to 100 %, rotate the panel, update firmware, refresh wallet backups.
  • Every quarter — walk ten miles with the pack. If it rubs, fix the straps.
  • Every year — cycle the LiFePO₄ full-to-flat twenty times. Keep it honest.

Practice now so sweat is cheap.

5. Closing Shot

The grid may fail. The towers may die. Banks may lock their doors. Yet a man with a charged cell, a living dish, and keys in his pocket is no refugee. He is a free node. Pack light, move fast, stay online. The world might go dark, but your light never has to.