Has anyone investigated (past map/compass, HT radio) options in group coordination & communication During civil unrest, WROL, or advanced LARPING?

I watched the TRex video posted on this and it seems that if you are calling in artillery strikes and such it makes sense, however at a CIV, I don't think I would have the need for something nearly that feature laden (AKA complicated) to use.

If you are inside of cell range, then there are other applications that will help locate your "friends". If you are outside of cell range then any type of coordination based on cell comms is worthless. I don't have the scratch for a dedicated satellite uplink to keep track of my buddies.

I thought the point of the video was that for not much money you could achieve a basic graphical map with real time locations of your friends and communications with a $40 of radio gear and an old phone.

As long as your phone has Gps and you previously downloaded maps then it wouldn’t matter if cell service was up or not.  Right?

To be clear, using APRS with APRSDroid is what gets you the comms without the cell network. This doesn't integrate with the other software he reviewed, but looks like you can kind of use it side by side.

Lots of options for APRS, it's a ham radio thing. I've been wanting to do more with it, messaging and map positioning is what it was built for.

I believe his most blatant point in using RF is that in situations like we saw last month, NYC turned OFF cell phone service so as to prevent coordination across "rioters" and to also prevent the proliferation of "live feeds" from the area during the civil unrest.


I am mostly interested in it as a coordination and net communication system, not "controlling drones or coordinating artillery strikes", lol..

not just for any situation where cell towers are down/out due to government action, but for natural disaster coordination, SAR for finding that lost puppy up the street, or advanced LARPING with my airsoft SOF...

I was under the impression that he was using analog RF, not digital during his demonstration.

Not a ham expert but does sending digitally encoded data across the analog channel count as encryption?

I think they call it "privacy"..

not what "real" radio guys call encryption..

Well, all RF is analog. Not sure which part you're referring to - at 14:50 in the video he is using APRS which is 1200 bps digital. Of course the actual encoding and transmission is analog, that's why modem (modulator/demodulator) functionality is required and in this case handled in software by APRSDroid. There is no such thing as a digital signal, except in the sense that both sides have agreed to modulate an analog signal to encode digital data. You can get into the weeds about whether you are modulating the carrier or the audio encoding on top of the carrier (which is what HAM packet and thus APRS uses, called AFSK - the only method possible where you can just plug into the speaker/mic of any radio.)

I have since installed APRSDroid and have been playing around with it, and it's pretty sweet. It is open source, so it's possible to add features that may be needed. Would be very easy to add encryption of APRS messages, which of course would only be legal on a radio band which allowed it (or during such time that it didn't matter, of course).

I have the app on an Android Tablet. and now my Windows laptop.

I can see applications for this in a prepping world. Though, you will need to be able to save map files for off line use. Still working on figuring that one out.
There is a lot to be figure out on this app, to include networking it with other devices.

Outside of that, if it can be networked. You can plan routes, you can mark areas that maybe you should not enter for whatever reason. What is seen in the video, is meant to market toward military etc.
It has other uses...


As you can see it has been done. Keep in mind, there are people already using this for nefarious purposes or apps like it anyway. ATAK has plus's and minus's. Its free... Just needs to be figured out.

At a minimum, I have been able to set way points on the tablet showing me a path home from work should I have to do that on foot. Hopefully not.
After learning today, that the maps may not be available when not internet connected. I need to start working on that. Guess I need to see what happens when I turn the internet off on the tablet. Although, I will have my cell phone with me which does have internet hot spot. Sooooo... Possible....?

If I can get a mesh Network up and running it becomes more useful. Mark points of interest to the prepper, i.e. Areas checked for scavenging, Areas of danger, and possible problems occuring in the area to warn others.

The Ubiquiti mesh wifi device he shows in the will cover 460 ft theoretically. to cover a mile, you would need about 11 of these... So this would require assistance from a neighborhood to set up.
There are other ubiquiti devices which would offer longer distance, but not sure if they are mesh capable

I ordered 2 of the 5ghz ubiquity nodes to try this on. I wish I could use 900mhz for better range, but i cant find any of the rocket m900s for sale.

Atak works great if you have 2 devices on the same wifi network.

Im not sure why I need to use AREDN on my ubiquities. If i just connect one of them to a router cant the others be used as mesh network nodes to that router's network?

@RjSteed

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=397kuliLgXo

I was able to connect my computer to my tablet via
manage outputs and ip's

i can tex between the two, send data such as better mapping links, and areas marked off.

starting to get somewhere with it. Going to try the tiny mesh network devices out eventually with ham radio.
going to take a bit to get that set up.

I guess PM me if your interested....

Any reviews of the Beartooth?  Looks like it uses proprietary software.
Gotenna Pro X looks to be Atak compatible, but not as civ-buyer friendly.

I had never heard of beartooth, looks like gotoky is similar, connects to a phone over BT, then transmits app to app using radio, 916 MHz & 858 MHz

It doesn't work off grid, but I have been using ATAK by connecting phones over a VPN tricking the program to thinking they are all on the same WLAN. It has been working great.

The best VPN I have found for this is free. Its called ZeroTierOne.

That's what I am trying to figure out.. how can we communicate with like minded individuals when the grid is removed from accessibility..

if the grid is up, calls/texts/etc aren't challenging.

Got it that makes sense. Its too bad gotenna wont release their plugin for these. I imagine they would sell thousands of gotennas if they did.

I have not played with the AREDN nodes that I mentioned above, but in theory that would work just like the VPN.