Satellite Comms Question...

[Skyowl's Wife]

Okay. I was thinking about the thread where it ended up being "what would we miss" and one of the things I mentioned was internet.

I came up with this possibly-totally-boneheaded idea. You Satellite whizzes might be able to help, I don't know crap about them. I'll climb back in my kitchen if you all say I should :p. Please don't point and laugh!

Scenario:

You have a server. You have wind/solar power. You have a satellite-based ISP. Hughesnet or some such. The power goes out.

Could you not host a mini internet for others in a similar situation? Don't think there would be many, but a few... Enough to at least have limited communications. Kind of like back to the DARPA days. May be primitive, but IS it possible? Does the satellite shot go straight from your dish? Would extra power be needed?

[coxmw]

Okay. I was thinking about the thread where it ended up being "what would we miss" and one of the things I mentioned was internet.

I came up with this possibly-totally-boneheaded idea. You Satellite whizzes might be able to help, I don't know crap about them. I'll climb back in my kitchen if you all say I should :p. Please don't point and laugh!

Scenario:

You have a server. You have wind/solar power. You have a satellite-based ISP. Hughesnet or some such. The power goes out.

Could you not host a mini internet for others in a similar situation? Don't think there would be many, but a few... Enough to at least have limited communications. Kind of like back to the DARPA days. May be primitive, but IS it possible? Does the satellite shot go straight from your dish? Would extra power be needed?

Yes and No, First your satellite would have be a transmitter/receiver. You would have to setup the site but the only poeple to be able to talk back to you would also have to have the same setup. Then there are the ground repaters.

But most all will be losed with a EMP.

Mike

[herbalpagan]

For a simple local outage, such as we had this winter...when we plugged things in with the genny, the satalite still worked fine. However, once you get into a wide spread one, it would depend on what caused it. Hubby thinks that the electronics in the server, since we keep it in the basement, might, AMYBE make it in an emp, but the sat would fry with it's exposure. Who knows what the company servers would be like.
I'm hoping to learn more about HAM radios so that I can aqt least hear another voice if TSHTF. If I kept it protected, like most HAMS are, it might work....but I think we'll probably have to see bye to internet.:mad:

[Oscar Wilde]

[I'm hoping to learn more about HAM radios so that I can aqt least hear another voice if TSHTF.]
Try to find tube powered equipment....radio, power supply....transistorized stuff susceptible to EMP....of course veeery few tubed radios are D.C. powered.... a friend once showed me a tubed 23 channel CB....a long time ago.
O.W.

[Oscar Wilde]

[I came up with this possibly-totally-boneheaded idea.]

Not bone headed....you'd make MacGiver proud...the rest of us too.
[I don't know crap about them.]

I don't know crapp about them either other than most if not all the satellites are military or militarized even though some serve the "needs" of us consumers....(99.9% of all space shuttle flight were classified military missions).....i.e we all enjoy tinkering with our gps's....when the curtain falls you can set that thing aside...use it for a paper weight, cause it will no longer provide you/ us with usable info. Axe and some of the others no doubt have considerable experience with a function called packet radio....requires computer, radio and functions as a bill board of sorts in some magic point out amongst all the radio waves I don't know much about it either other that it might be an option ....for the time being....again, when the curtain goes down we're all in for a big surprise .....we'll find out real quick just what doesn't function as we expected.
O.W.

[Defcon090]

Okay. I was thinking about the thread where it ended up being "what would we miss" and one of the things I mentioned was internet.

I came up with this possibly-totally-boneheaded idea. You Satellite whizzes might be able to help, I don't know crap about them. I'll climb back in my kitchen if you all say I should :p. Please don't point and laugh!

Scenario:

You have a server. You have wind/solar power. You have a satellite-based ISP. Hughesnet or some such. The power goes out.

Could you not host a mini internet for others in a similar situation? Don't think there would be many, but a few... Enough to at least have limited communications. Kind of like back to the DARPA days. May be primitive, but IS it possible? Does the satellite shot go straight from your dish? Would extra power be needed?

A very good question that has been pondered but not many solutions. Since this post started almost 5 years ago!! a lot has happened. As for HughesNet systems you could power it the same as before TSHTF with a generator or solar power stuff. And the signal does go straight to the sat. And, not all sat systems are government or military, etc. There is also IMARSAT which is a phone system we should consider.

Another new comms method can be seen here: http://www.winlink.org/ however, you would need to be a licensed ham or a very close friend that had the equipment. This looks like a nice way to go IF you got the cabbages.

[RICHFL]

Takes too much training, money, time, and the group would need to be established before hand.

HAM radio is not just nation wide but world wide. You can start by purchasing a receiver and just sit and listen to the other HAM operators who are transmitting.

You will still need to take training and the purchase of equipment could cost a few hundred dollars to start. It's just a overall better program.

HAM is set up in the USA as part of the emergency communications net-work during and after a disaster including SHTF.

[Defcon090]

Takes too much training, money, time, and the group would need to be established before hand.

HAM radio is not just nation wide but world wide. You can start by purchasing a receiver and just sit and listen to the other HAM operators who are transmitting.

You will still need to take training and the purchase of equipment could cost a few hundred dollars to start. It's just a overall better program.

HAM is set up in the USA as part of the emergency communications net-work during and after a disaster including SHTF.

I kinda agree. Unless one already has some equipment and experiment sat comms would be a bit restrictive.

[PrairieRat]

My problem with an EMP scenario is, when do I know its safe to unpack the Faraday cage?
You can't see it, hear it or smell it. What survivable sensors can a person use to tell when its over?
We can't assume only one pulse weapon or event.

[myakka]

Praire, It is a wave event. So unless you are thinking multiple detonations of a low level nuke? If so, then it is anyone's guess. But if it is a solar flare, then these events are so rare that the thought that you would be hit by multiples is not so likely.

If you are thinking low level nuke, I could see the attacks being made about a week apart. That would lure most folks with gear into breaking out their equipment in a big hurry to set up comms.

Still, that is anyone's guess.