In the light 0f hurricanes and earthquakes and all sorts of mobile and incidental activity one thing rings strong … everyone talks about infrastructure and that just means one thing generally … backhaul …
*ALMOST* every circuit or communications method, I don’t care if its satellite, cellular, wifi, wimax, or whatever you are talking about. If there is no Internet behind that signal you might as well be talking to the MOON. If they lose their Infrastructure meaning that they lose their Internet then all your fancy VOIP - Voice over Internet Protocol and any thing else that goes over internet … goes right out the window.
One thing that d0es not go out the window though is SSB / HF or low band communications. Assuming it was not something nuclear that damaged common solid sate equipment then SSB / HF communications can still get through,. Sailmail and such things for HF email might just work, assuming nothing happened to the infrastructure of Sailmail and the shore stations for that.
But you might consider becoming more familiar with your SSB / HF equipment on your boat - and on land as well if you can. And Ham Radio / Amateur Radio is one such way to do that. But not the only way in the marine environment. You might however try checking into or listening to area SSB / HF marine networks to be ready for any such occurance and be ready to communicate by SSB/HF radio if that ever becomes the only way to go.
If the INTERNET ever goes … even if by satellite … you might want to be ready and able to use SSB / HF radi0 to communicate if your have to.
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Alan Spicer - KA4UDX
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8. February 2010 at 20:02
The Backhaul issues do come up time to time in the satellite world. The military use this but also business with corporate offices all over the world. The way it’s done with as little backhaul as possible is, private static IP’s. In this way, as long as the satellite and the earth station (SAS) have power, you can communicate via voice or data from sat terminal to sat terminal without ever going to the internet or phone lines. In fact, that is the requirement when these folks come in is “we want to communicate in the event that there is NO internet and NO phone lines anywhere in the world”. Of course, I wouldn’t mind having a MSR8000 HF transceiver with a wideband antenna either.
9. February 2010 at 02:20
Hi Grady, thanks for the comment. I guess that’s true that to communicate from a remote to a corporate office, or between two corporate offices, or even between two mobile stations … as long as you don’t need to call a number on the PSTN or communication with Internet services other than what your company or organization provides, then no backhaul would be needed. In a way it’s like two ham stations with multiple microphones on either end, or in this case telephones and/or computers. As long as you don’t consider the satellites in space as part of the infrastructure then this works. Of course it’s doubtful that anything would happen typically to satellites in space (unless your name is Globalstar) Also as long as any infrastructure remains up that allows calls to the PSTN and connectivity to the Internet at the LES then that stuff is fine as well. I guess typically if something weather related happened it would affect only one area of the world. I believe that some satellite systems have more than one LES - which would give you the capability to switch to an alternate and keep on communicating.
Anyway thanks again for the comments.
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alan spicer - ka4udx