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Handhelds The Internet Hardware

Using a Wireless Network for Personal Emergencies? 61

Posted by Cliff from the when-you-can't-afford-a-busy-signal dept.
An anonymous reader asks: "A friend asked me this today and as I began to think about an answer I realized it made for a perfect Ask Slashdot question. His question was: 'Now that our illustrious Attorney General has gone as far as to suggest that families put in place an emergency communications system between themselves, I'm shopping for the right solution. I think RIM because it allows me to enter text and to rely on the pager network rather than the cell network. But the last that I looked, it was still impossible to do without my own server. Enlightened Ones: what suggestions might you have that would allow us to each have something in our pockets and is most likely to be fault tolerant to a messy event?' Having had the experience of using my Crackberry in NYC on 9/11 as the only stable means of contact, I too wonder whether this is the next big thing? So I turn the question over to you at Slashdot -- If you were in need of a hand-held, wireless data device and wanted to use a data network which was likely to survive, what would you use? Which arcane pager or emergency information networks were designed for survival? What if you wanted it to easily work with POP email? How about for reasonable data rates?" Assuming we are not quote to the point of a truly fault-tolerant network, what would need to happen for it to become reality? Which provider is close to putting something like this together?
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Using a Wireless Network for Personal Emergencies? More

Using a Wireless Network for Personal Emergencies?

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  • It is your duty as an American to carry around a satalite phone in a backpack, ala Zach Morris from Saved By The Bell. Who do you turn to for such a beast? Iridium of course. After eleven rounds of refinancing, they are back in full force, with even bigger phones and more ridiculous rates. Anthrax scare in L.A.? Call your family in San Diego and let them know you're alright, or at least not dead, for the low, low, comforting price of $24.99 per minute.
    • I'll have to disagree. You need to use GlobalStar. The phones have this really neat flip out antenna without some ugly bulbous looking antenna. I've seen the Iridium antenna at pr0n shops before.

      I'm not biased or anything. I just helped the manufacturing of the antenna for Globalstar/Qualcomm. I got to build a small anechoic chamber for the testing/tuning of the antennas. BTW, if anybody needs help building fully or semi-anechoic chambers for EM, I need a job. :)

    • IMRSAT charges around $2 a minute on specials, but some people (US Army) pay the full price of $4 a minute

  • Amateur Radio (Score:5, Insightful)

    by drdink ( 77 ) <smkelly+slashdot@zombie.org> on Tuesday February 11, 2003 @07:04AM (#5278253) Homepage
    One option is getting amateur radio licenses. One of the prime purposes of amateur radio is to be able to communicate and help the community during an emergency. Depending on what license class you go for, you can communicate locally or globall.. It also depends on your equipment. You can do voice, CW(morse code), packet, etc...

    You can't raelly go wrong with an amateur radio license. Not only does it give you a failsafe communications method (assuming your transceiver has batteries), it also gives you a new hobby. You get to tinker with electronics, broadcasting, and radio equipment. It is a great learning tool for understanding computers better.

    For more information, I suggest you check out the American Radio Relay League [arrl.org] website. You might want to check and see if your local area has any amateur radio clubs [arrl.org] that you can go to and ask more detailed questions.

    • Re:Amateur Radio (Score:3, Interesting)

      by KDan ( 90353 )
      Yup, and carry a portable radio with you if you're scared of catastrophic events. Radio is the one service which should survive any catastrophic event - when the public (govt) radio doesn't survive, it's likely the whole place was wiped out and there are no survivors.

      Unless you have a crazy dictator at the head of the country. When Romania was struck by a massive earthquake in the 70's, the radio went silent, even though most people were alright and it could have transmitted. Why? Because they needed to ask for Ceaucescu's permission to announce on the radio that there had been an earthquake, and he was away on holiday somewhere. Thus for several hours the rest of the civilised world thought that Romania had been wiped off the map by this earthquake...

      But normally, radio is one thing which has enough backups everywhere that it will survive.

      Daniel
    • police style walkie talkies are an equivalent option.
      • police style walkie talkies are an equivalent option.

        Well, during 9/11, those little "talkies" stopped working because the communication tower was on top of the second tower.

        Ironic, isn't it?
    • Yep. You could also dig out those old 9,600 baud modems and adapt them to do packet radio. It's specifically against the law to use CB radio for packet. It would be very very naughty to do 9,600 baud packet on CB, and if you got caught you'd get in lots of trouble. Better not do that then. I certainly didn't tell you to. It works great for uucp, just let the mail trickle through. Slow, but better than goatse.cx (slightly).
    • What about EMP? Do they still sell hardware with tech old enough that it wouldn't get fried from an electromagnetic pulse?

    • I agree fully - "Ham" radio is the way to go. With todays easier Tech License (not disparaging - I'm only a Tech myself) it's not hard, plus, on top of keeping in touch with your family, you can actually help others

      I see that the original poster is from NYC - He should look at the NYC ARES [nyc-ares.org] web site. We are on "standby" right now - my scanner is on monitoring all out "tac" frequencies

      Disclaimer:
      I am the Queens County Emergency Coordinator of NYC ARES and the Queens County Radio Officer of RACES

  • I'd use GSM. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by otuz ( 85014 )
    In Finland, just about every square is covered with GSM networks.
    GSM phones have text messaging, voice messaging and some newer phones have built-in digital cameras and multimedia messaging.
    The GSM network is quite fault-tolerant too and everyone carries around their phone everywhere.
    I understand you still live in a 80's world on the other side of the ocean, so your cellular technology maybe isn't very advanced. You have "pager networks"? ;)
    • In the immediate aftermath of 9/11 I believe cellular communication was impossible; all the networks were completely swamped with worried relatives and friends trying to communicate with each other.

      I think having an extra communication channel, e.g. wireless would be a useful extra in times of emergency.

      • Not only overwhelmed, but the largest single cell node was on top of the WTC - of course IT stopped working. The thing is, so did most of the rest of the cell sites downtown. Let's face it, a large are down there lost their trunk lines, and the cell sites use trunk lines (The Verizon building across the street was wrecked - and all the cables that went through the WTC site were GONE, and well as most of the stuff in the streets arount the site

    • I read somewhere that many Israelis use their GSM mobile phones to tell each other that they are OK when there is a terrorist outrage. The article said that they would usually make very short calls as soon as possible after the incident before the network jams, or send text messages.

      Seeing as Israel suffers more emergencies of this type in an average month, than most countries do in a decade I would think that would be a good place to seek advice or experiences.

      I hope this helps

    • Typical modern euro-arrogance. "you still live in a 80's world..."

      Now if he/she/it only thought about it for a moment- GSM or CDMA or W-CDMA or anything else - they're all dependent on centralized servers, switches, cell sites and controllers.

      As others have noted, 9/11 overloaded ALL our cell systems on all technologies, including the GSM system in NYC (at the time, Voicestream, now T-Mobile and also now Cingular & AT&T as well), not just the "80's" style cellular. BTW, "80's" cellular in both US and Europe was analog FM, so get off your high horse. Anybody with a cellphone in NYC today is on a signal that is either CDMA-based (Sprint or Verizon), TDMA air-interface with GSM protocols (T-Mobile, AT&T, Cingular), or TDMA air-interface with N.American IS-136 protocols (AT&T's older network).

      Original poster's comment about using a pager network is because the pager networks are optimized for text message delivery with "guaranteed" delivery.

      SMS via the cell networks (which BTW we DO have here) works pretty well, but is not guaranteed immediate delivery, which is why many businesses still require or encourage text pagers or blackberries rather than SMS.

      SMS over the cell networks *was* a major factor in restoring communication on 9/11. A number of news articles reported that people discovered that their SMS texts got through even though the voice channels were too congested or signal too weak due to lost cell sites to make voice calls.

      However, an emergency communication system should NOT be dependent on some other part of the infrastructure being up and operational. Whether that be beloved-by-Europe-GSM, US/Asian CDMA standards, Europe's new WDCDMA (based on US-developed CDMA tech), TDMA, or the pager networks, or Nextel-style iDEN.

      Thus the poster who suggested getting an amateur radio license is spot-on. If your emergency preparations include always maintaining charged batteries for your handheld transceivers (HT) and or mobile stations (e.g. car battery power), you can establish communications. There are regular practice sessions, traffic networks for message passing, and events like the ARRL's "Field Day" for practicing this. Of course, all family members would need a ham license but it's something anyone vaguely intelligent can get. People often use "repeaters" which are volunteer and group-owned re-transmitters. So that's "infrastructure" of a sort, but it's distributed, not controlled by the government or corporations, and thus somebody's repeater is still up even if the one on the top of the skyscraper is down. Plus there are common non-repeater ("simplex") calling frequencies like 146.52 MHz and agreed-upon sections of the bands for direct simplex.

      Another option would be the licenseless FRS radios so often seen at ski areas. Limited range, but workable as you get back uptown towards home, perhaps. And maybe the higher-power GMRS radios that share some frequencies with FRS but have much more range. They need to be licensed but there are no operator test requirements.

      Of course perhaps in Europe, GSM magically works even when your city is bombed, power and fiber lines are destroyed, and the main telco switching center is disabled.
      • I live in Australia and we use a GSM network here, it is common at the end of a music festivals and the like for both voice and SMS to go out, at times SMSs can take hours to get thought or not at all, the same thing happened on Christmas day last year city and nation wide.
    • Sad isin't it? I just moved from Germany and loved the GSM network.

      I bought AT&T version of the GSM network, it's not bad, they still have some bugs to work out.

      Another thing that gets me is that here in the US you pay for INCOMING calls per minute!!!

      I know, it's unheard of in Europe.
  • That would probably be the only thing which would still work in case of a nuke attack. :)
    • Well, you would have to wait until the broad-band disturbances caused by the mushroom cloud clear up. Assuming, of course, that you survive that long.

  • Walkie-talkies, carrier pigeons, satellites (Score:3, Funny)

    by karnat10 ( 607738 ) on Tuesday February 11, 2003 @07:57AM (#5278439)
    The only really robust and emergency-proof wireless devices I know of are walkie-talkies and carrier pigeons. Let the pigeon carry an USB drive, then you also have reasonable data rates. And it's also kind of a Post Office Protocol implementation, not very RFC-conform though.

    If there's really something going on, every system which relies on fixed nodes (such as WiFi, cellphones) are very likely to fail.

    Probably a satellite based system will work, although presumably Uncle Sam shuts down the satellites if it gets serios.
  • GSM? Nope, you're limited to a smallish number of concurrent calls per cell, so you're not getting through when lots of others are also trying to call: ever tried to make a call when there's an accident on the motorway and everyone's phoning their SO to say they'll be late for dinner? You can't.

    Why not carry around a walkie-talkie, a carrier pigeon, a set of semaphore flags, a satellite phone (won't work in a city though, not with those tall buildings).

    Better still hide in your basement and stop worrying about things you have no control over.

  • We have 30 or so DingleBerries that my techs support, and to the best of my understanding (and my checkbook's), we pay an annual fee to Cingular for their operation. We don't have the phone models, which I'd guess would require the cellular networks, but does Cingular offer a pager-only net just for these silly little status symbols?
  • Now that our illustrious Attorney General has gone as far as to suggest that families put in place an emergency communications system between themselves

    That seems insane! Has anyone else heard of this? Any links to the Attorney General's site where this is mentioned? A quick search didn't turn anything up for me. Did someone make this up or have I not heard of it because I don't live in the states?

    • Re:What!? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by friedegg ( 96310 )
      From Ridge's recent speech [whitehouse.gov] to announce our movement to code orange:
      One of the thoughts that I would just simply share with you, it's probably not a bad idea to sit down and just arrange some kind of a contact plan, that if an event occurred you want to make sure you can -- the family wants to get in touch with one another. That's not a bad thing to do to prepare in advance of any kind of emergency, whether it's a natural disaster or a terrorist attack. Doesn't take a great deal of time. And I think it would make family members a lot more comfortable if they knew they were able to get in touch with one another in the event something happened.
      • Well that sounds a bit more plausible. The original post makes it sound like the attorney general is suggesting families to create their own private telecommunications network. Thanks for the ref.
  • If you were in need of a hand-held, wireless data device and wanted to use a data network which was likely to survive, what would you use?
    CompactFlash cards, and pigeons.
  • Sheesh, cheap decent talking distance, and no reliance on anyone else (this is of course all if you are in range).

    Heck! They even make small walkie talkies with 2-5 mile distances.

    10-4 good buddy. We gonna do what they say can't be done.

  • What type of "emergency" are you planning on? (Score:3, Informative)

    by FreeLinux ( 555387 ) on Tuesday February 11, 2003 @11:20AM (#5279622)
    There have been lots of suggestions so far but, only a few offer good solutions. It all depends on what type of emergency you are planning for.

    Are you planning on a bomb threat or even a 9/11 type disaster and just want to send emails to stay current with the news while you are removed from the actual disaster? Or, do you fear a missle strike or nuclear event and need to find your spouse/children immediately?

    Depending on the scale of the event and your proximity to the event, you may be satisfied with email on a Blackberry. But, the pager network may not be available due to massive load or even destruction. Also, do you really want to send an email and possibly wait for a reply in the heat of a serious emergency, or due you want a direct connection, immediately.

    No single solution really fits the bill but some are better than others for different circumstances. The best solution will be independent of local or regional infrastructure like pager and cell networks or even grid power systems. Your Blackberry is at serious risk on the network side in a large scale catastrophy. The same is true of cell phones and any type of internet access.

    The best solutions are going to be the likes of satellite phones but, both parties will need to be outside. A short range solution, if your family usually stays close together, would be GMRS walkie-talkies which have ranges up to 5 miles but, don't bet on much more than 3 miles. For greater distances the use of HAM or licensed VHF radios would be required.

    It all depends on the type of disaster and what your circumstances are but, I for one would not have to wait or rely on email for an emergency.

  • No servers are required for RIM (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Bishop ( 4500 ) on Tuesday February 11, 2003 @11:53AM (#5279899)
    Blackberry can be run without the dedicated server. Usually an Internet email account is used. But you are not reliant on the email account. Blackberry can send messages directly from one unit to another. Running with the dedicated server is more secure if that matters. For details read the white papers from RIM

    That said I don't think that Blackberries for all the family is the best solution. As they use the Mobitex network they are less prone to saturation then cell phones. However Blackberry is still reliant on a mobitex tower. A single point of failure. Unless you can get a super deal on the units and a monthly plan I can't imagine that Blackberry is the most affordable option either.

    The best most reliable solution is probably HAM radios. A 50w mobile (installed in the cars, and at a home base) can probably give you the coverage you need even if all of the many repeaters in your area fail, and become saturated. A tiny little handheld (yeasu vx5r) would be enough to reach a repeater in most cities. There is a downside. You and your family must be good radio citizens and know how to operate your radios, and how to communicate with other radio operators. In a true crisis you will require the good will and assistance of other radio operators.

  • HAM Radio is your only reliable alternative (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 11, 2003 @12:02PM (#5279966)
    HAM Radio is the only reliable alternative. As we know from 9/11 the phone circuits and the Internet were overwhelmed immediately. Land lines and Cell phones along with pagers and devices like Nextel/Blackberry will be just about useless until the traffic dies down.

    HAM Radio however would work no matter what. Well, short of an EMP from a nuclear warhead detonation. Then most electronics will be toast including all the fancy computers in one's car. Some cars won't start without the computer. Of course you'll have bigger problems in the event of a nuclear attack than trying to contact your family members. Also if you are close enough for the EMP to destroy your electronics then you are probably not long for this world anyway.

    HAM radio has been used to communicate in times of crisis since it's earliest days. Go get a study guide, join a club and take the exam.

    You can get portable HAM radio's ranging in size from table top base stations to something the size of a CB radio to a handheld unit. Range is limited by the car and portable units due to the antenna.

    Computer data can and does get transmitted over HAM channels but it's slower than normal.

    A HAM operator has the responsibility of bridging communication gaps when a crisis occurs. You have no business using a HAM in a time of crisis if you don't help others to relay communications.

    This also begs to question some of the information coming out to protect ones self and family in the event of an attack. So far most of it is really stupid. i.e. Duct Tape and sheet plastic will do absolutely dick for chemical, biological, or nuclear attack. Just about as useful as duck and cover in the 50's.

    The only real way to survive a full out attack is to have a high quality bomb shelter buried rather deep in the earth. Isolated air and water systems with full filtration. Stockpile of food and supplies.

    But IMHO you are only delaying the inevitable. Sure say we are nuked or say you are in NY and the reactor just outside of NYC is bombed. There would be numbers like 5-10 million dead and more over the next several years from radiation poisoning and cancer. Evacuation of NYC won't happen.

    I would rather be killed in an initial attack of that magnitude than go on living. i.e. slowly dying...
    Sure some would survive but you have to consider quality of life. Your only chance is to be away from the affected attack areas. BOKYAG - Bend Over Kiss You Ass Goodbye.

    In the event of chemical of biological attack, the odds are much better than an actual nuclear detonation. Note a dirty bomb is not a nuclear detonation it's a conventional explosion with the after effect of spreading radiological particles. This poisons people with radiation. So it's much more like a chemical attack. Those at ground zero will surely die. Those in the path of the poison cloud will die. Those not in the path of the destruction will survive.

  • Technology breaks (Score:3, Informative)

    by Ratbert42 ( 452340 ) on Tuesday February 11, 2003 @02:45PM (#5281585)
    Make sure you and everyone in your family know the following:

    Some reliable friends or relatives that are usually home. Pick two in the local calling area and two way outside of the local area. Call them whenever or however you can and use them to pass messages. You have to agree ahead of time on the people though and carry their phone numbers. Keep the calls short.

    A couple of safe places to meet if you can't get home. Somewhere a mile or two away in case of things like a brush fire, gas leak, road closure, train wreck, etc. Somewhere near work, near school, etc. in case of travel problems. Find out and carry the phone numbers of these places if you can. Try to avoid places that could be looting targets.

    Your neighbor's phone numbers (home and cellular). You can call them to check on your house or anyone there.

    Some co-workers cell numbers. Your family can call them if you forget your cell or it dies.

  • Yet another perfect application for mesh networking! (And another oppotunity for a shameless plug, but I digress...)

    One of the products my company [meshnetworks.com] makes is a software mesh for 802.11. We have ported this software to PocketPC, so a device like a Compag^H^H^H^H^H^HHP iPaq with a wireless card can mesh with other devices around it. As nodes go down or enter the network the devices seamlessly configure themselves and route traffic around breaks or congested areas. If the access point you were using went down, you could hop through a neighborss handheld and his neighbor's, so on, until you found an AP.

    Of course, you could also do this with free software. Familiar [handhelds.org] + iPaq + AODV [nist.gov] would be a viable open source alternative. Once you have the connectivity you could use just about any app. Gnomemeeting [gnomemeeting.org] or OpenH323 [openh323.org] would enable VoIP. Email apps are there too.
  • If we get to that point, do you really expect the towers or even power to be available for your wireless devices?

    I doubt it will ever come to that, but if you are REALLY going to plan ahead, that is NOT the way to do it.. It must be standalone and self-powered.

  • In New York City, while cell and some land line phone service was down on 9/11, I was able to remain in touch with family and friends throughout the nation using Palm Vx wirelessly connected to Omnisky (now Earthlink) using AOL Instant Messager.

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