shinester
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Post by shinester on Sept 3, 2020 11:22:16 GMT 10
The problem is you can only receive [tower is 4W] and not transmit [router is 0.1W], unless you made/had directional antenna for all of the routers [now acting as access points]. Max range at 0.1W is about 1.5km outside. Directional antenna [out a window is fine] would be better. Many routers have multiple channels [hence multiple antenna] and you could use one of those antenna as your directional antenna to another access point with the amplifier as well as keeping omnidirectional antenna for the immediate area. Longer ranges due to the 4W probable. Line of sight is critical here but routers acting as repeaters could chain to send signals to another town many 10s of kilometers away. A compatible system in that town would allow phone comms between the towns (maybe). Hopefully at minimum a 'push-to-talk' (PTT) system using currently available apps should be possible. Nice. If not, text.Yeah, voice over IP should work fine, not sure on the applicable apps, but internet is essentially a large network like we're creating. My thinking is a single network, though the more people on it, the more repeaters/access points the less bandwidth. Still are ha ha. But there are tens of thousands (millions?) of smartphones out there and people can use them without training. Maybe thousands of routers too. A system could be designed and the hardware and software needed kept until needed. Agreed. It's worth looking as a possibility. Then it would be a matter of "Oi, you. Plug your phone into this cable and download the software." Bingo, they have a working phone they already know how to use. And USB charging is everywhere now. Very easy to charge phones. Charge phones, yes, though power from? [solar,.. who has batteries, yes car batteries and who has 12V charging?] Phones aren't much use unless near a router as they only have 15mW of wifi power. Didn't know this till now, it's the real limiting factor in the wifi networks not the router. So, maybe you set up routers talking to one another and acting like access points to the water tower with directional antennas. This hub can be chained to the next place if you can get line of sight. Each needing probably 2 amplifiers, 1 to transmit omnidirectionally and 1 to transmit to the other town. Hooking up routers and powering them with a car battery max drain 70% should keep them going for a bit. You could charge them from household solar panels if you had someone who knew how to convert to 12V. . So you would get a lowered bandwidth network [1Gbit total] and you could probably use phones with an app if you were near anyone's house.
You would have to know how to make this work before any event so you had all of your apps, connections and devices squared away as well as a bunch of manuals for routers you're not familiar with [what IP address they have and what is the typical admin password].
I would only be confident if I could put together a working example 1. get a couple of routers and network them together
2. make one on battery power [portable]
3. check for what range I can get out of it, router 100mw to router 100mw. - try PTT on phones for utility. [CB radios are still looking better] 4. from there invest in amplifiers and see what range I can get omnidiretionally and directional. 5. place up high and see what kind of practical range I'll get within a community. 6. check an access point near the practical range limit and try with phones.
7. get pdf manuals for many common routers 8. put all into a kit with charging options [so you're independent of having to source that] so if you need the network up, you just plug it in and zip tie it to whatever you're putting it on.
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shinester
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China's white trash
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Post by shinester on Sept 3, 2020 10:17:15 GMT 10
Commies do as commies do, insight hate and dissension. I'll happily have a beer with any of our white trash.
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shinester
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Post by shinester on Aug 31, 2020 8:51:50 GMT 10
Yup.
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shinester
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Post by shinester on Aug 31, 2020 8:49:41 GMT 10
When it comes to growing vegies it is worth bearing in minds to do as much as possible to prevent them being attacked by insects and fungal pathogens. These are the things that trigger plants to produce higher levels of defensive chemicals that can have effects on human health and the taste of the end product. Have you got Austere suggestions for this?
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shinester
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Post by shinester on Aug 30, 2020 22:57:24 GMT 10
Can stop entry for as long as two minutes.
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shinester
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Post by shinester on Aug 30, 2020 22:49:42 GMT 10
I've looked into this and seeing a lot of things I had seen previously, not a lot more range. Wifi - you can indeed build a mini mesh network, great for a house, not much more. - you can add on an amplifier taking the typical 200mW of power up to 8W with an add on between the router and the antenna [simple to do], though at best 4W might be legal [and I'm not certain of that!]. Range of a typical router to 4W seems to be 40% increased. Remember range IS diameter, so that's a lot more houses nearby. - Directional antennas for wifi [replace omni-directional] can have quite significant ranges into the kms, potentially 25kms. Not much use outside the 'beam'. Lots of hints from people who know much more than me forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2554426An example of the 4W amplifier You can get 1km extenders made for outdoors, the price made me laugh, $700USD. That's a lot of baofengs for less range. Remember the transmitter of the 'phone' also matters it has to reach the wifi-extender. Mesh - there are mesh kits though they're more for home use - the main problem you need a LOT of mesh units [each costing more money.. radios = cheaper/easier] - android phones 'can' do it but you have jailbreak/source them from what I can see. - the software side of things still seem immature.
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shinester
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China's white trash
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Post by shinester on Aug 30, 2020 22:31:04 GMT 10
Effectively radios are usually analog, like FM/AM radio. Digital commercial radio encodes the signal as data 10101010s and then is converted by the receiver. So much like that, they're digitally encode CB-style radios that were add ons to certain US and Mexican mobile phone systems. I'd have to get the units from the shed to give you further specifics, though I think they're only 1W so limited in range, I got almost 3kms on line of sight [flat] without obstacles, much much less in buildings. So think CB that's very unlikely to be understood as it's not a system used in this country. I would still rather use CB to be frank as it's easier to use.
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shinester
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China's white trash
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Post by shinester on Aug 29, 2020 23:25:29 GMT 10
Yep.
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shinester
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Post by shinester on Aug 29, 2020 13:19:57 GMT 10
Yes. "Just going to the bottle shop to get some more water storage, honey. Back soon!" ROFL. You know that Europeans drank mild alcohol as a normal thing in cities/ships for eons instead of water for it's safety. [and fun I suppose] Yeah, the house was like.. oh we have to boil water etc... I just went and got some 10L drums and said, this is exactly what they're for. We'll just refill them and store when the water is clean again.
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shinester
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China's white trash
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Post by shinester on Aug 29, 2020 13:14:29 GMT 10
I know I’ve asked you to clarify this before years ago - are the BF-888S’s the ones you need a radio licence for, or the much shorter range ones that anyone can use? Lol, sorry for not responding sooner. Radio license... if you use Australian approved devices on CB channels then you don't need a license. This is what most people do. If they are not 'approved' and you use them only on CB channels, I'm not sure how anyone would know [or care], though that's up to you. If you don't program the correct channels in [Australian suppliers may or may not do this] then you may well be using frequencies you're not allowed to. It is easy to do with a computer and a cable. --- Baofeng's, look they're not the ultimate device by any means. They do work pretty well. Its like going to bunnings for a drill, you can get dewalt or you can get bunnings brand. They both drill holes, the dewalt won't let you down but costs extra. I went baofengs for budget and utility. I would rather have 10 neighbors with them and helping with security than 2 with a top notch brand. There's also many spares if need be. I do have better gear, though I can't turn away from pretty decent for $20! I've got better antennas that cost more. BF888s are entry level, though they are super easy to use and work well enough. I haven't found them to be especially crackly.
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shinester
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China's white trash
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Post by shinester on Aug 29, 2020 13:00:58 GMT 10
Hmm, you can get wifi extenders, which at a guess work like repeaters, better still if you put them up a tree with a better antenna and a solar panel/batteries. I'm liking your thinking and the advantage of wifi is everyone has a phone, could connect a neighborhood with a few of them and a solar panel to charge. extender eg - www.netgear.com.au/home/products/networking/wifi-range-extenders/default.aspxLooking at it, seems like you can get up to 100m outside. There's probably other options such as creating a mesh network, aka joining a bunch of differing devices together. Yeah for sure you can hide your identification SSID, you might be on a winner even if the range isn't great, having a couple of streets worth of people connected in an emergency could be valuable.
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shinester
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Post by shinester on Aug 29, 2020 6:07:30 GMT 10
Keep local... true, trouble is the solution is also a problem, aka short ranged. Depends what you're looking for. Talkie - haven't tried it, looks like wifi voice chat. Might be useful for neighbors. play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.remaller.android.wifitalkie_lite&hl=en------------------------------------- - anyone who truly knows comms please correct as required, I'm not a professional. If we were playing rabbit and fox, you're the rabbit and I'm the fox and I'm trying to find you. I would need equipment, a CB with a scanner, and preferably a second with a directional antenna. [most people don't have one, though a very skilled radio guy might be able to build one if need be out of a coat hanger or tin foil]. [I'm not that guy] I need to be looking for you and find your frequency. I could use a scanner which is like pushing the 'search' on a car radio, you can scan channels till you find an active one. You're only active when you transmit [talk]. So if you don't talk, I'll never know you're there. If you talk infrequently I might then set up a radio to stay on your channel. This 'search' will be in a limited band of radio, typically you would have to have an idea of what frequencies to look for as there's a lot of frequencies and time I'm 'searching' is time I'm not tuning into a channel. Now lets say I found your frequency and you never changed it and you talked at a time I could predict or you talked all the time [clue] I could listen in and 'when' you transmitted [not any other time] and I could use a directional antenna to find an approximate compass direction. It takes a little time to sweep it around and find the strongest single direction, though not too tricky. If you transmitted only a few times a day, I'd probably have to wait all day to be sure. I would then also have to find 'another' compass direction after traveling some distance to draw two lines on a map, assuming you don't move. [clue] Same deal here as the first one. So with both compass directions, I could draw two lines on a map and get an approximate location of the transmission. From there I could travel to that place, assuming it doesn't move. [clue] So I need to find the frequency, find the compass directions two times from two different places to zero in on where a transmission is coming from. It's possible. I just spent 2-3 days trying to find someone instead of something else in an Austere environment and I would have to be fairly close [5kms or less] to your location and be looking for people [scanner] and manning that radio to notice transmissions. I haven't the man power for that, I can barely manage the very basics of security. What benefit is it to me, lets say I see you a few kms away and you're on comms and I'm listening. I would gather intel, try to figure out all I could and then for what? If I were a bad guy looking for resources, why take on the organized guy with radios with multiple people? Now lets say I go looking for wifi, it's essentially the same technique but less range, if I get up high I can see further and find more, though it might tell me who has power. Useful I suppose if I were the bad guy. Wifi transmits 'hey I'm here' all the time, so it's much easier to find. An old technique is using a pringles can as a directional antenna. Essentially screw off the antenna top from a USB and screw it into the pringles can with a few other piece of metal [could be tin foil]. Now I can go hunting Your phone will tell you when there's a wifi nearby. Easy to see someone nearby has wifi, it's transmitting all the time, for a phone, it's a couple of houses, for a pringle can antenna [or similar] then it depends on terrain, though up to a 1km if you're up in a tree for instance. Depends what you're looking for.
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shinester
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China's white trash
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Post by shinester on Aug 29, 2020 5:23:51 GMT 10
I'm glad things are back to normal. Not sure what all of that was about, I think we'll stick with condition yellow [watching] for a while. I really don't want to spend a week digging a shelter under the house for nuclear war, been meaning to, I really should... crap. With pine gap being cratered that's very very dangerous. I'm surprised it didn't turn very bad. Glad it hasn't. I'll make a very basic one, an L trench. I suppose I could lay timber down on top for now... I was using that timber for a bed I was making, I suppose if I wrap plastic around it and be careful I can keep the condition of the timber whilst I make this shelter. At least till I figure out a better option. Not the most fun thing I've done, better to be sure, it's not full on, I'm not going to dig 24-7, but for a few days I'll work at it and then I can rid of the 'hall shelter' which the partner is starting to crack the poos about. Better to have a dirt hole in the ground than nothing. Im too far away from anything that matters to be in the blast radius, so the house won't be falling on me, though potential fall out could be an issue. The trench easily gives me 1m of soil to the sides and with the floors above me, I won't need 1 meter on top if the worst thing happens. We'll see. Probably a waste of time.. prepare for the worst, expect the best.
We're boiling water again. Oh I just cleaned my teeth without boiling... so easy to forget these things. I have bottled water, I'll use that for a bit and keep the bottles to fill up. Then there's that big drum. I might look at catching rainwater asap, didn't want to cut the downpipes, but I suppose I can go to bunnings and add a joiner if this is all nothing.
Glad we got a BBQ going in the neighborhood yesterday after the fridges all died, even with all the masks. A nice get together despite the C' thing, good to see community spirit is still alive in all of this nonense. I had kept half of my food on the backup batteries and I'm glad it's over as I wouldn't have been able to keep them charged with the limited solar I had. Met a few new people and got to know a few more better. The beers might have been warm but the laughter was real. Good to know them a little better. This might matter in the future, though if things got really bad, there's only a few people I can support in terms of food. If the food run out, we would be in all sorts of crap!
Plan B is to live in the roof, to disappear, could stay there uncomfortably for a few months without issue if it were really bad. There's lots of food that doesn't need cooking. I wonder if looters would come looking in the roof or burn the place down. Hard to know... I'm fairly sure they'd wished they hadn't looked. I wish I had grabbed that abseil rope last year, at least we could get out from any height. I'll make a thick rope with all of the loose ropes I have, that'll do the trick so we can climb down if need be. At least we could defend and potentially escape if we had to.
Yeah, the usual nonsense from people about this or that controlling us. I get the fear, I've seen it in my profession many times, people getting well into issues of being controlled. People are being influenced all the time, it's only a question of who and for what. These conspiracy things are much the same, they're controlling each other, one error leads to another. Makes me laugh, nobody really knows what's going on properly anyhow. The problem is fear is always what gets you controlled.
Army being called up... hmm.. makes sense to be on alert. I think we're right, I might just grab a few more bottles of gas for cooking to be sure anyhow. I mean it's extra really though who knows what you might need the gas for, it never goes off.
Drones being shot down? No idea on this, could be that some kid was flying one out of boredom and the law took it down for security? Weird.
In Victoria: cash not available, what's that all about. Have to use cash for purchases at the supermarket? That's of concern. I'm not sure I need anything, I could go without just fine, though I'm always happy to grab that extra thing. Do I need to hold onto the cash I have, we hardly use it anymore till now. Weird.
I think I'm going to fill up the cars with the old petrol and top up with fresh in the jerry cans. I wonder if I can buy some more of them [probably not] though I'll look. Long queue at the servo, still, I'm at the pump now, even if it's overly priced. No jerry cans, though I should be ok, I've designed my preps to only need the fuel for travel and possible power tool use with the gen. Everything else, cooking, washing, toilets should be covered for at least a few months and a if this goes to poo.
[I'm not acting on the information available only to those who have the required security clearances]
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shinester
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Post by shinester on Aug 29, 2020 4:56:15 GMT 10
My partner has her pilots license from another country, her father's an instructor. I'm not looking towards having that as a go-to though I certainly see the value in it and I'm a big fan of the 'bush planes' and the people running channels on youtube.
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shinester
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China's white trash
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Post by shinester on Aug 29, 2020 4:40:19 GMT 10
Quick and simple - bluetooth is quite short ranged, used mostly for accessories such as keyboards headsets etc. It can be used for filesharing though it's limited in range. - wifi is more for use within a building/house. With the right directional antennas this can extend to great distances, though typically it's using omni-directional [all directions] antenna and isn't going much past a few houses up and down the street at best. Neither is particularly good at communication over distance, nor for security. Messages to my mind are also not 'immediate', messages take time to write and see. Good for news, not so good for security. A message board handles the first part if you're looking to inform a community. The Briar app at a glance [I've seen quite a few of these apps before] allows sharing of files/messages when another user is nearby. A few houses down the street in real world terms. You 'could' go further with a directional antenna and if you were willing to set up phones with proper antenna on them on high points you might get a neighborhood coverage. You 'need' to have a string of working phones from where you are to where you want to send the message. Your phone - neighbor 1 [2 houses down] - neighbor 2 [5 houses down] - neighbor 3 [7 houses down] - destination [10 houses away] I have some old phones from an american network [I'd have to look up details] that are set up to be able to work as a kind of digital radio, aka not immediately able to listen to. They have about 1-2km range and you can send text etc. They are useless as phones for here, though the radio network works. Proper radios are still better, simpler and no issues with legality. They're meant for worksites. I would have rather spent the money on proper radios looking back, though they are a secondary layer of communication for me. On radios, you have to stay on citizen frequencies to be legal in normal times. I had to tune my baofengs into the proper frequencies, though if someone wanted to use them outside of the correct frequencies it would be easy to do and only people looking would find them. Don't do the wrong thing here in normal times, such as interfere with other people's frequencies [its tightly regulated], very hefty fines if you're found. There's all sorts of channels for bus companies and so on. If you're looking to set up a bunch of people with cheap and easy to use radios, baofeng BF-888S's are about $20 each. 16 channels, which can be programmed to be anything you like. A simple dial for the channel [and it tells you the channel it goes to] with a push to talk makes it easy for people unfamilar with radios to use them. I've got other baofengs also. The BF-888s include an ability to do 'basic' scrambling of the voice to one another. Get the USB charger version and add a solar charger. These are fine for a few kms [1-5]. It's all line of sight, that is the clearer the path from both antennas the longer the range, so very impressive distances can be done with the right antennas in a fixed set up. In Austere times, they can use what's called a repeater on a hilltop which repeats your message on another channel and sends it to the other side of the hill. Repeaters are already in use with citizen band radio. I am suspect of them being powered in a SHTF situation. Here's my old link on the topic of solar radios. ausprep.com/thread/3164/solar-charging-radio-system
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shinester
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China's white trash
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Post by shinester on Aug 28, 2020 11:53:03 GMT 10
emergency.vic.gov.au/respond/?fbclid=IwAR0Sc5H8ysgQRUM8uq76Fon9sL7mnPe7KLYfWgoDYYibldeU1f-E3to2-vA#!/warning/14449/moreinfo Boil your water if you're in one of the 88 suburbs listed. ATTWOOD BAYSWATER BAYSWATER NORTH BLACKBURN BLACKBURN NORTH BLACKBURN SOUTH BORONIA BOX HILL NORTH BROADMEADOWS BULLEEN BUNDOORA BURWOOD BURWOOD EAST CAMPBELLFIELD CHIRNSIDE PARK COBURG NORTH COLDSTREAM COOLAROO CRAIGIEBURN CROYDON CROYDON HILLS CROYDON NORTH CROYDON SOUTH DALLAS DONCASTER DONCASTER EAST DONVALE DOREEN ELTHAM EPPING FAWKNER FOREST HILL GLEN WAVERLEY GREENSBOROUGH GREENVALE HEATHMONT KALORAMA KANGAROO GROUND KILSYTH KILSYTH SOUTH KINGSBURY LALOR LILYDALE LOWER PLENTY MEADOW HEIGHTS MELBOURNE AIRPORT MERNDA MILL PARK MITCHAM MONBULK MONT ALBERT NORTH MONTMORENCY MONTROSE MOOROOLBARK MOUNT DANDENONG MOUNT EVELYN MOUNT WAVERLEY NORTH WARRANDYTE NUNAWADING OLINDA PARK ORCHARDS PLENTY RESEARCH RESERVOIR RINGWOOD RINGWOOD EAST RINGWOOD NORTH ROXBURGH PARK SILVAN SOMERTON SOUTH MORANG TEMPLESTOWE TEMPLESTOWE LOWER THE BASIN THOMASTOWN VERMONT VERMONT SOUTH VIEWBANK WANTIRNA WARRANDYTE WARRANDYTE SOUTH WARRANWOOD WESTMEADOWS WOLLERT WONGA PARK YALLAMBIE YARRAMBAT
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shinester
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China's white trash
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Post by shinester on Aug 26, 2020 22:59:27 GMT 10
15 miles equals 24 km, a good paddler [lets just give him that] can paddle about 5km/hr, so 5 hrs. Plenty of time for the Tsunami that can travel 4000km in that time. Should be fine..
He's connected to his subconscious which is FAB,.. unfortunately, he's critical thinking skills are very poor, aka he believes the stories [waking dreams] in his head are fact instead of dreams. Too much LSD?
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shinester
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China's white trash
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Post by shinester on Aug 26, 2020 22:44:47 GMT 10
I have no idea what you are saying, shiney. Use smaller words and type slower for me please! I’m thinking that you’re saying that people tried to make those who “hoarded” feel guilty because they didn’t want to be different from the crowd and gather sensible stores of supplies themselves. It wasn’t conscious but made them feel better. Yup. That and it's an excuse 'not to grow' and contemplate a new possible reality.
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shinester
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China's white trash
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Post by shinester on Aug 26, 2020 22:37:20 GMT 10
Botulism doesn't occur for foods that you use hot water canning, aka high acid foods.
There's not really data from canning companies about preserving in normal jars, because they want you to keep paying for their lids for profit. I'm not against profit. This is my thinking, obviously make your own mind up.
The jar you buy the pasta sauce in, is pressure canned, which is why it lasts, except they do it at industrial levels. They both work the same, when you heat up the contents the air at the top expands and some of it pushes out the seal. This creates the vacuum seal [technically not a vacuum, a lower air pressure than outside]. Everything inside the jar heats up past 125C killing any and all pathogens inside, essentially making it sterile. Of course the guides of similar sized jars aren't going to be much different in lengths of times and if you like you could leave it in for longer to be sure. I often use that time as extra cooking time, great for soups. So you're left with the same steralised contents with a vacuum seal. Modern jars use a silicone ring that in my mind are far more durable and are endlessly reusable. Of course you make sure it still has a good seal, aka pop when you open it. I've haven't had a single issue with modern jars, the bell jars, I've had some small numbers of issues, such as lost seals [trying to reuse or tightening the ring too much]. Been doing it for a few years now.
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shinester
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Post by shinester on Aug 26, 2020 22:22:59 GMT 10
Thanks for the heads up. We don't have a lot of people doing canning, though of course that also means our supplies aren't great either. Early on there was lowered stocks in seeds and especially seedlings, couldn't find them for a little bit there.
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