My Boss and I were chatting earlier this morning about how she’d suffered a break-in not too long ago. Her husband is an amature rafio operator and he found a way to create QR codes with your name and contact information and then place them inside the case of your radio equipment. That way if it is ever stolen, there’s a chance it could be returned to you. This might not be a bad idea for us model railroaders either. QR codes could easily be palced inside locomotive shells or inside frieght cars.
An interesting idea – BUT, if it’s printed on paper that can easily be peeled off, is it really going to deter theft? I doubt that any pawn shop or potential black market buyer is going to open up an item to see if there is any owner identity inside. A non-removable QR code on the outside might be more of a deterrent.
I use an electric engraving pencil and put my name on the outside in plain sight if it’s something really valuable.
DCC decoders have the capability of programming your personal identity into their CVs, but if I were to purchase a used locomotive with DCC, querying those CVs to see who the owner may have been is something I probably wouldn’t do. All those CVs would give me are numbers, which would probably be meaningless to me.