[HacktionLab] discussion on community run communication

[ameba23 at riseup.net]

thanks john for pointing this out 
On Sun, 2 Jun 2013, johnc wrote:
> I'm a big fan of wireless mesh networks so am happy to see proposals
> for workshops etc. using this technology. There is a problem however
> with using the 430-440Mhz band. The bandwidth requirement is 22Mhz for
> 802.11b/g. You would spill over into neighbouring bands. In the UK
> these are already used by emergency services, the MoD and others.
>
> The link below is for the UK frequency allocation table.
>
> http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/spectrum/spectrum-information/UKFAT_2013.pdf
>
> Maybe this isn't such a good idea :-(
you are right - bandwith is a serious problem here.

in openwrt you can set the bandwith to half or quarter or normal wifi 
bandwidth, ive been using a bandwith of 5Mhz.  this is done by setting 
'option chanbw 5' in /etc/config/wireless.  that said, you would still be 
limited to one or possibly two wifi channels, and even then it would 
consume a lot of the band, and any harmonics or mistakes with chanel 
selection could cause serious inteference problems it true.  and 430mhz is 
already used for a lot of things - i would not dream of setting these
routers up in the city.

2.4 and 5ghz wifi is great for projects in cities, and the countryside 
if you have hills and want to use point-to-point links rather than 
ad-hoc.  some of the links that guifi.net use are over 15km apart.  but 
what interests me would be a more rubust solution for remote rural
communities and also for example vehicles and boats that move around, 
making directional antennas impratical.  I would 
be interested to use a standard that is even lower frequency and lower 
bandwith.  but the nice thing about 802.11 is that its an already well 
established standard.

im wanting to experiment with this stuff but i dont want say its a 
realistic solution.  its an idea.  ive been living in the 
french countryside without an internet connection, but lots of time to 
play around with radios.

>
> Another approach is to use plain old wifi but with innovatively
> designed receivers/transmitters: cantenna, woktenna etc.
>
> They've achieved ranges of several kilometres. e.g.
> http://www.usbwifi.orconhosting.net.nz/
>
> Satellite dishes can be modded easily enough also and cantennas can be
> combined with satellite dishes. See below.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantenna
>
> Cheers,
> John
>
>
> On 01/06/13 21:30, ameba23 at riseup.net wrote:
>> Hi there,
>>
>> I know its short notice, but i would like to propose a discussion
>> for barncamp, on community run communication networks.  The idea is
>> to look critically at existing electronic communication networks
>> (eg: interenet and mobile phones) and identify problems, such as
>> centralisation of control, survaillance, advertising, environmental
>> impact, problems with mental health of users.
>>
>> Then a discussion of different approaches to community run
>> alternatives. Which could include storytelling, distributing
>> newsletters on paper, PMR radio, CB, amateur radio, and wifi
>> point-to-point networks.  I have recently visited some community
>> wifi projects including guifi.net in catalunya and tetaneutral in
>> toulouse.   I would also like to propose ideas for a mesh data
>> network on the 430MHz amateur band.  I will be bringing along two
>> 430Mhz routers, with the idea to do range tests, but I have some
>> software problems with them and hoping to find some help with that
>> at the gathering.
>>
>> I put on more or less the same discussion at last years chaos
>> communications congress in hamberg, a bit more blurb about it is
>> here:
>> https://events.ccc.de/congress/2012/wiki/Community_run_communication_networks
>>
>>  also more ideas like this on my website ameba.ehion.com
>>
>> let me know how it works with timetabling things thanks, peg
>>
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>
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