[tccrockets] Re: Sat Phone and Blackrock Launches
- From: James Dougherty <jafrado@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: TCC chat <tccrockets@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2015 23:16:51 -0800
Did I also mention the first 9 people who donate will be the ones making
the designs/plans on the Blackrock launches?
Hurry - act fast :-)
On Mon, Mar 2, 2015 at 11:09 PM, James Dougherty <jafrado@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi Folks,
>
> In order to file the Waiver for Blackrock, we need to be able to
> contact the FAA with 100% certainty at all times. The problem is that
> cell service still is not 100% guaranteed on the playa (yes, there are
> lingering base-stations and service on the playa for Burning man but
> that is not guaranteed).
>
> I'm looking for nine (9) volunteers who will donate $120 to the club
> with me so that we may invest in proper satellite gear so and we may
> do our own Blackrock launches.
>
> The plan is to get an Iridium Extreme 9575 Satellite phone and
> AxcessPoint Wi-Fi Accessory so that we can conduct operations with the
> FAA (and have email/Internet access) on the playa (independent of any
> basestations that may be in a transient operational state as leftovers
> from Burning man).
>
> I've researched this heavily on price/performance and talked to some
> experts (including one of the original Motorola comms guys who did
> Iridium early architecture and deployment). This is probably a good
> post you may want to share with friends, but here's the current state
> of the art for consumers under $2K (not geek gear).
>
> Satphone - two competing real services for consumers
> - Inmarsat
> - Iridium
>
> Inmarsat - Current issue is the high satellite orbit and only 3 active
> satellites. plus side is that they are low cost, minus side is that
> you need to be stationary to use it. Good service if you're not moving
> - but what if you are in a car? Or an Airplane? what's the point of
> having a sat-phone if you can't use it as intended? If you're sitting
> and not at the nnorth/south poles - it will work and entry cost ~ $700
> for the phone.
>
>
> Iridium - their service and history has been rocky, but from a
> technical perspective, their solutions are the best and will scale for
> the long run. 11 satellites are in geosynchonous (and lower) orbit.
> Will work at any location and any time and service will even work at
> the poles (truly global coverage). Guaranteed (by design) to work
> almost anytime. Entry cost higher - $1000 for the basic phone.
>
>
> Wi-Fi and Internet
>
> The other aspect is Internet usage, we would like to have a system
> that supports reasonable (e.g. circa 90's 56k dial-up) so we can surf
> and/or read email or send important updates out to the chat as the
> launch progresses.
>
> Pricing
>
> All of the units use SIM cards (like an existing smartphone). The SIM
> card comes with a number, and you can keep that number and recharge as
> you go (or change the plan to be a fixed price servcie contract). For
> example, and this is what TCC would do - you can buy 100 minutes for
> $100 so it's about $1/minute. For a big event like our own Blackrock
> event, we could load it up with $200 and have a solid 3+hrs of usage.
>
>
> The Plan
>
> The plan is simple - we get 10 people - well make that nine (i'm in of
> course) who can donate $120 to the club for the Satphone gear - this
> would be the high end extreme edition with the Wi-Fi accespoint - it's
> a special pricing and deal so we have to act fast (within 1 month).
>
> Notes
>
> - If you're worried about the cost - look at it this way - you're
> not going to fly a motor for one launch :-)
>
> - Club will own the phone
>
> - added benefit for the first lucky 9 - off-season we'll let you use
> the phone for some number of minutes that you can re-imburse :-)
>
> - We can add minutes as we go
>
> - No charge for inbound calls first minute
>
> - GUARANTEED ACCESS
>
> Actions
>
> Anyhow, who's in with me? This is everyone's chance to step up on the club
> in a big way - we can run our own serious EX launches at Blackrock and have
> a really great and fun time. Most importantly (and this is the real goal),
> we can have a dedicated 100% guaranteed way to contact the FAA and conduct
> flight operations.
>
> Send email and ACK this message, more importantly send check to
> Richard or bring $120 to the next launch.
>
> Based on the response, we'll plan for the Blackrock launches.
>
> Thank you
> -James
>
>
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