For quite sometime I have had a deep a personal desire to find a usable communication method to Send and Receive SMS/Data messages without relying solely on the current Paid/Regulated service providers. I believe this is extremely useful in the event of a serious regional emergency that possibly disrupts the current cellular infrastructure.
Today during another forum discussion the topic of "Off Grid Digital Communications came up in relation to ISP's potentially blocking network traffic of websites, organizations or persons deemed to be participating in any form of speech deemed to be inappropriate. Ironically after careful consideration, it seems that this latter scenario may actually be more likely than disruption via natural disaster. I'm reminded that 1.4 billion people in China have their communications effectively controlled by probably less than 10,000 government bureaucrats. While we here in the U.S. are not subject to such restrictions overt, it seems that small groups of individuals working within organizations can have significant unchecked influence in determining who's communications should be restricted or blocked.
My limited research has uncovered that I'm not the only one who is seeking such a technology and there seem to be some experimental and commercial headway in finding viable solutions to the problem along with quite a few DIY and Opensource attempts. Unfortunately many of these open source projects incorporate technical skills that I do not yet have. So, one goal of this post is attract the attention of those with technical expertise to help explain some of these more complex topics and/or even help create a solution.
I would like this discussion to be limited solely to technology and feasibility of possible solutions.
What Features/Capabilities would this hypothetical communication have?
Here is my stretch list, knowing in advance that it's probably not possible for a device to have all of these features. At least it's can be a point of discussion.
I'm going to post the products or projects that I've already found in a follow up post and leave some space on in this post for any real highlights that come about from the discussion.
Today during another forum discussion the topic of "Off Grid Digital Communications came up in relation to ISP's potentially blocking network traffic of websites, organizations or persons deemed to be participating in any form of speech deemed to be inappropriate. Ironically after careful consideration, it seems that this latter scenario may actually be more likely than disruption via natural disaster. I'm reminded that 1.4 billion people in China have their communications effectively controlled by probably less than 10,000 government bureaucrats. While we here in the U.S. are not subject to such restrictions overt, it seems that small groups of individuals working within organizations can have significant unchecked influence in determining who's communications should be restricted or blocked.
My limited research has uncovered that I'm not the only one who is seeking such a technology and there seem to be some experimental and commercial headway in finding viable solutions to the problem along with quite a few DIY and Opensource attempts. Unfortunately many of these open source projects incorporate technical skills that I do not yet have. So, one goal of this post is attract the attention of those with technical expertise to help explain some of these more complex topics and/or even help create a solution.
I would like this discussion to be limited solely to technology and feasibility of possible solutions.
What Features/Capabilities would this hypothetical communication have?
Here is my stretch list, knowing in advance that it's probably not possible for a device to have all of these features. At least it's can be a point of discussion.
- Low Cost readily available components. Target less than $50 per device.
- Low power similar to current handheld HT's or Cell Phones
- Small Size, similar to cell phone/Pager
- Data only. Most likely SMS/Text but could include GPS location data.
- Open Source software/hardware
- Reasonably long range 5km but 25km would probably be ideal.
- Easy to use, must be totally usable by untrained persons, Wife, Little Kids, elderly parents, ect.
- Can be operated totally legally with respect to FCC Rules. Perhaps falling under FRS/GPRS or MURS licensing if that were even possible.
- Secure/Encrypted transmission.
I'm going to post the products or projects that I've already found in a follow up post and leave some space on in this post for any real highlights that come about from the discussion.