ITS time to have plan B for ATS in an event of internet shutdown

Well I'm not sure if your all aware but its almost impossible to "shut down" the internet as there is no centralised point of control, the internet is formed by millions of computers, switches, routers all connected together so while it might be possible to shut down an ISP or small (and I mean small) portion, to shut it down completely would be almost impossible.

Of course it would actually be possible to deny people access to the internet if the government was that determined, all they would need to do would be to shut down the PSTN. I'm not sure however if they have the power to do this, I suppose though in such a situation anything is possible.

On another note, if in fact, they did decide to shut down the PSTN it wouldn't happen overnight they would have to send teams of telecoms engineers to the thousands of telephone exchange around the country to disable the System X/Y, ISDN, ADSL, MuX equipment.

In regards to keeping in contact with members of ATS during SitX, well as someone has said I don't think it would be anywhere near my main priority however I do think its a very good idea for a couple of reasons.

Communicating with like minded people would be very good for morale and obviously as a community we would help each other, share ideas, meet up etc

I'm no expert on radio communications, but wouldn't it be simple enough to set up a shortwave radio channel that we could all use? or CB radio as someone has suggested?

To be honest I don't think the mobile phone network would be shut down in SitX or martial law so I would use my mobile as long as it continued to work.

A backup plan is quite a hard thing to establish for members of ATS considering the vast amount of us and our differing geographical locations.

Okay people, seems like I was wrong, I work for a large international telecommunications company and even I didn't know about the Government Telephone Preference System.

Link: en.wikipedia.org...

Thanks again for the link smith

[edit on 9/10/08 by Death_Kron]

[edit on 9/10/08 by Death_Kron]

[edit on 9/10/08 by Death_Kron]

[edit on 9/10/08 by Death_Kron]

Originally posted by citizen smith
I stumbled upon a gem of sit X-communications-related info whilst watching Mark Thomas

At around 4:15 into the program, there's a 'trade secret' regarding the UK Government Telephone Preference Scheme...which basically will switch off all non-GTPS numbers at the exchange, including all access to the interweb, and will include cellphones too...the exception is public payphones which are ranked as 'category 1'

perhaps this could solve the communication problem with other ATSers whilst allowing a degree of anonymity to be retained...payphone-to-payphone calls

[edit on 8-10-2008 by citizen smith]

Thanks for the link to the video mate!

Just watching it now and its really interesting, I love watching things like this.

[edit on 9/10/08 by Death_Kron]

Telephone wont work, it relies on a physical connection, anything wireless is going to be the only decent way to network in the event of a communication grid breakdown or shutdown. This leaves radios (CB, Ham, FRS) and Wireless (802.11b/g/n) Its not that hard to whip up a BiQuad antenna and attach it to a wireless adapter, and the ranges you can hit with an unobstructed Line of Sight are quite impressive. Granted throwing up impromptu networks with wireless wont be as nice as an actual structured network its better than nothing. If you really want to stay in contact find a computer geek, make friends with them and learn the arcane arts of wi-fu, its amazing what you can do with household items and computer parts sometimes

dammit..edited due to tech problems


[edit on 9-10-2008 by citizen smith]




[edit on 9-10-2008 by citizen smith]

reply to post by Helig


Chances are, there will be more voice communications during a meltdown than any data communications. But data telecom can be achieved easily, even with a single piece of wire tied to a fence through an appropriate coupler.

Ever go on a foxhunt? Those are fun! Finding flea powered transmitters with home made range finders is a good challenge!!!

Cheers!!!!

Originally posted by RFBurns
Ever go on a foxhunt? Those are fun! Finding flea powered transmitters with home made range finders is a good challenge!!!

Sounds interesting...dyou think you could post more details on how the gear is built and how to use it? would make for a set of excellent 'bug-out' trail indicators. Definately one for the survival forums!

Radio would be the best solution. In a Sit-X situation people are going to need real, unfiltered intelligence to determine what they should do. Stay or go? Where and by what route? Any official information outlet.

CB and FRMS have very limited range and in the case of CB is slave to the band conditions. (radio range in the high-frequency bands --- those with the longest range --- are subject to changing conditions). VHF/UHF are good tactical point-to-point communications modes but that's about it. To receive or transmit any real distances you need to be in the HF bands (mostly between 3 and 25MHz). If one band is bad another is likely better.

There are a number of digital modes in use that allow basic messaging(think cellphone texting) although long messages are easily done. Sending files and graphics are not doable (on these modes at least). RTTY (radio teletype) has been mentioned. A newer version is called PSK31. PSK uses a very narrow bandwidth, is good under less-than-perfect conditions and works well at low power. These are important considerations if you're running on battery or other off-grid power and/or need to be on the move.

The equipment you would need is fairly basic: a multi-band HF transceiver, a long wire-antenna designed for the bands you'll be operating in, a laptop, either a good internal sound card or better yet an interfaced designed for digital modes (they have separate sound A/D converters), digital mode software and a power source. An antenna tuner would also be very useful.

My personal system can be run on internal NiCads, external NiCad bank, car batteries, household AC if available and a hand crank generator that can both power the system and recharge the batteries. A solar array would be sweet but not in-the-cards for me at the moment. It's not technically difficult and is quite reliable.

CB and FRMS have very limited range

CBs with the right antenna system can have very long range
in the 1970s with 5 watt CB and a Beam antenna i use to talk with the east coast of the US, Canada Japan, and Australia from my house in the sierra's of Calif.

With a 10 meter ham 100 watt RF LINEAR amplifier (foot-warmer) In my mobile rig ( my truck) i could add Alaska Russia and sometimes even England
www.electronickits.com...

You do not want to operate a CB radio with a foot-warmer from your home but it is almost imposable to track if you are boon-docking in the hills.
you also will not have complaints filed with the FCC by your neighbors.

Another experiment i did a few years ago was to sent data burst with a laptop hooked up to a CB radio. me and a friend were able to send video from a laptop web cam over 400 miles using a CB radio.

Ever go on a foxhunt?

we use the same technique to hunt down pesky teens that liked to play games on the CB radio then we pinned there CB antenna.

[edit on 5-11-2008 by ANNED]