Packet Radio at Radical Networks
The 24th and 25th of October Dennis de Bel and me attended the Radical Networks conference at NYU Polytechnic organised by Sarah Grant These very intensive two days where a gathering moment for a lot of different projects that worked on ‘different’ networks, in a multitude of ways. To this day I keep discovering super interesting talks on the livestream archive that I missed that weekend. During these two days we hosted a workshop on how to do low-cost packet radio with contemporary devices and gave a talk about other networking projects we did. Below the invitation for the workshop and some images. Make sure to check out the zine we made for the workshop.
Packet Radio Workshop
Before there was the internet there was a wireless internet. In this (non-FCC approved) workshop we will look back to ALOHANET, AMPRNET and examine the phenomenon of packet radio. The workshop will be a hands-on, interactive demonstration of the possibilities of packet radio and the workflow/toolchain. We will go into both historical and contemporary examples and try to set up a little network on the spot.
Participants will learn how to utilize commercial walkie-talkie radios and free software to transmit and receive TCP/IP over HF or UHF radio. In other words, internet via walkie-talkie, because yes, that’s possible. Looking beyond the usual “When Shit Hits The Fan Scenario’s” we will discuss the true potential and shortcomings of these 6km+ range wireless ‘routers’. Depending on the wishes of the participants we can either do a demo and go through the steps and requirements of setting this up for themselves or help set up participant’s own equipment to create one big offline network.
Participants will get a small publication that is both an introduction into the concept as well as a practical guide on how set up your internet over walkie talkie. Each participant will get one copy as a reference etc for when they want to do their own experiments. (from here)
The above three images taken by Michaela Lakova