Warning: Geek Alert….

The latest issue of Make Magazine had an article about building a “Library Box“. The idea was very intriguing, so I ordered the requisite WIFI device, a TP-Link TL-3020. I went through the process and viola, a Library Box emerged! It was pretty cool, but after playing with it, I decided I wanted something a little different … a Pirate Box. The process of building a Library Box started with flashing the TP-Link router with a new operating system (a version of Linux), installing Pirate Box, then installing Library Box. So, I’m in the process of backing out the Library Box implementation and getting back to Pirate Box.

Nina then asked, “What are you going to do with it?” A very good question! So, here’s an answer that goes beyond, “It just looked like fun to make.”

Our local Amateur Radio Emergency Services organization provides radio support at a number of local events as practice for support we would provide to local civil agencies in case of an emergency. Radio communications become quite important in an emergency as it has a couple of useful characteristics:

1. It always works. It isn’t dependent on any other infrastructure. A radio, battery, and an antenna are all that are required to establish communications with anyone else. The cell phone system, for instance, relies on cell towers with all of that infrastructure (including the limited number of people who can actually use the cell tower at the same time). One limitation of the cell system is that it can become quickly overloaded.

2. It is a one-to-many communications system whereas a phone call us usually one-to-one. With a radio system, everyone on the frequency hears what everyone else hears.

3. There are places where cell phone service simply isn’t available.

One such event our organization supports is the ultra-marathon run in the mountains south and west of Pocatello each year at the beginning of June. This year the race is being expanded to 100 km (previous years the race course was about 54 miles). Only a very small part of the race course has cell phone coverage. The race conditions vary from “perfect” (last year) to a search-and-rescue event (see my blog from May 29, 2010). Radio communications are very critical for this event.

So what does a linux wifi router with Pirate Box add to the party?

The start / finish line for the race is in a canyon southwest of Pocatello with no cell phone service available. About 300 contestants run in the race and their family / friends / support crew all hang out around the start / finish line and are HUNGRY for information about the race! Meanwhile, in the radio shack at the race, we know what’s going on. We know who is on the trail, who has dropped out, who is at an aid station tanking up for the next segment of the race, and we also know who is leading. How do we provide that information to those around the start / finish line?

Just about everyone there will have a cell phone or be around someone with a cell phone. If we put a web page up on the wifi station and periodically updated it with race information, I’m certain that information would be very well received.

We also line up a couple of parades, the 4th of July parade and the Christmas Lights parade. These parades have 75 to 100 entries that line up on 2nd street in three or four rows of floats. The floats get there two or three hours before the start of the parade (judging happens about an hour before the parade). The people riding on the floats start arriving quite a bit later and always want to know where the float is. As the floats arrive, they check in at a central place and we assign them to a particular row. At the same time we could be updating a website with this information to make it easy for people to find their float … “Home Depot is in row 3, fifth float from the front.”

This Pirate Box doesn’t need to be connected to the Internet. It makes its own hotspot. It’s easy to use, easy to update, and potentially can be very helpful.

Would it also be useful in an emergency? I think so. One of the ways in which we provide support in an emergency is to provide radio communications at a shelter. We can then provide health and welfare information back and forth between the shelter and other shelters, and with the civil authorities. A wifi hot spot at the shelter adds an additional method of communications between people at the shelter and the radio people. We can post news and information on the wifi web page. The “chat” feature would enable them to ask questions from their phone, even if cell service wasn’t available. It would also give us in the radio room a way to provide specific information back to people at the shelter.

So, It’s a nice little capability. And, it’s also a lot of fun! We’ll see how it plays out as we come up on race time in June!

Ta ta for now!