the future of larping comms

Currently, one cannot legally use encryption on GMRS, FRS, MURS, or HAM frequencies. This has posed a problem from people interested in spooky larping activities. And, something like ATAK with a range extender / mesh network can only get you so far.

Enter ground-to-satellite direct smartphone communications. Numerous companies are working on it, the most publicized one of late being SpaceX/Starlink+T-Mobile. It should be entering operation in a year or so, and uses standard mid-band PCS. Any regular T-mobile plan will include it, and any regular smartphone can be used. Other players are AST SpaceMobile, and Lynk Global, but in my opinion they're never going to be serious contenders.

Sure it will be limited to texts and low-quality voice calls, but you can get a LOT of data to your larping friends with the right software and the ~5kbps data rate the V2 Starlink sats will permit. Plus, now pesky FCC regs are a thing of the past, you can send whatever messages you want to whoever, literally anywhere in the US—as encrypted as you want.

What do you think? Is 'direct-to-cell' the tactical comm dream we've all been waiting for?

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  1. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Yes. A smartphone and a solar powerpack is now a full battlefield comms/nav suite if you prefetch your maps and have a wifi LAN on base.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >smartphone
      Enjoy your adversary knowing your location all the time.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1499976967105433600 relevant Musk tweet if people are concerned that he'll 'sell out'. Sure you should still be assuming the gov is trying to listen in, but with the right data sanitation it will be a bomb-proof comms method for larping etc

        what are burners?

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          > Musk
          Into the trash it goes. He'll sell you out.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          The most bombproof comms method is a signal phone call if you want direct privacy. For radio an SDR and an audio device of your choosing will be more than enough

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Starlink isn't selling this as a standalone service. You need a recent phone and an account with a partner carrier to make it work.

        https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1499976967105433600 relevant Musk tweet if people are concerned that he'll 'sell out'. Sure you should still be assuming the gov is trying to listen in, but with the right data sanitation it will be a bomb-proof comms method for larping etc

        what are burners?

        It's not going to be enabled for burners or MVNOs.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          Is it easy to get a t-m plan w/o ID verification?

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            That would be burner MVNO phones, so not eligible.

            wonder how well modified SSTV or equivalent will be able to go over it. I am certain they'll be using special sauce compression for voice streams...

            It'll be regular ass GSM/GPRS.

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              I thought postpaid just requires ID.

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              >GPRS
              yes that's true, I was overthinking it.
              Well, it's going to be like 2 years before average Joe and not first responders will be able to use this, so lots of time to figure it all out.

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              Sounds like we need to figure out what the ukes are doing with starlink and jailbreak domestic shit to copy them, if we can.

              I'll admit this is a blind spot for me, so I might be throwing out simple solutions to complex problems, but is it feasible and where would we start?

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                Ukrainians have normal Starlink terminals, only difference is the 'account' is probably set up in a way to avoid having to log in, just plug in and use. Priority is probably higher too.

                You can't use starlink unless the network recognizes your hardware ID and that it is tied to an account which has paid the monthly fee

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                Ukrainians have normal Starlink terminals, only difference is the 'account' is probably set up in a way to avoid having to log in, just plug in and use. Priority is probably higher too.

                You can't use starlink unless the network recognizes your hardware ID and that it is tied to an account which has paid the monthly fee

                Elon is donating preconfigured terminals. They just power up, point south, and plug in Ethernet.

  2. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >one cannot legally use encryption on GMRS, FRS, MURS, or HAM frequencies
    As a moron who doesn't know what those are, why?2vh24

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      they're for "public use", read part 97 of FCC regs, basically all comms have to be un-obscured formats

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Those are radio frequency bands. It's illegal because the government can't listen in and it makes terrible sounding traffic when broadcast. Not like morse code is any better but thats legal.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Why would they care tho.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          It made more sense before the Internet. Now you can send gigabytes of encrypted data out of the country with a cheap laptop and a seat at Starbucks to use their wifi anonymously for an hour.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          Because any radio frequency has fundamental limits on the volume of traffic it can deal with.
          These channels are for reserved public uses, you can't reasonably tell the difference between encrypted broadcast and noise broadcasts trying to degrade the function - ergo encrypted comes become barred by default to make enforcement of no jamming rules easier

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >Not like morse code is any better but thats legal.
        Morse code is infinitely easier on the ears than listing to FM digital voice on an analog receiver.

  3. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    wonder how well modified SSTV or equivalent will be able to go over it. I am certain they'll be using special sauce compression for voice streams...

  4. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    > cannot legally use encryption on MURS
    Do digital voice packets count as data? The FCC thinks so for the internet. Because encryption of digital data packets are legal over MURS.

    They'll probably change it as more and more digital encodings take over for FM, but for now, the law says what the law says.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      lol I've even seen some HAM boomers be afraid to transmit ASCII art because "it's a method of encoding data hurrmrmrhrhruhrhrhr"

      > Musk
      Into the trash it goes. He'll sell you out.

      t. bought into Facebook memes

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Well I ain't a ham boomer. Although I'm still trying to find an old head that remembers which of the motorolas used to do FHSS over the 900MHz bands, for reasons.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          not that, but if you want a neat bit of old tech read up on the TST-7698

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            80s signal tech is simultaneously outdated yet so God damn aesthetic it's ridiculous.

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              80s to mid 90s electronics were like that in general. This was a Japanese 8 bit home computer.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >t. Is a moron
        Elon is not your friend moron. Starlink is no safer than ViaSat

  5. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    So what situation are you LARPing where you need encryption to avoid someone listening in, but whoever is listening in has no other SIGINT/EW capabilities whatsoever, and you're still going to have access to infrastructure based comms?

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      that's the thing, there is no infrastructure needed on the ground, local. As-is it's superior for small-scale activities. The types of DF possible by adversities completely changes and becomes much more 'higher level'

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >there is no infrastructure needed on the ground
        That's not how satellite based communication works. It goes up to the satellite, then gets sent back down. If the person on the other end is also using a satellite, then it still gets routed over surface based infrastructure before being beamed up to that satellite rather than being beamed satellite to satellite.

        >The types of DF possible by adversities completely changes and becomes much more 'higher level'
        You have no idea what you're fricking talking about.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          >If the person on the other end is also using a satellite, then it still gets routed over surface based infrastructure before being beamed up to that satellite rather than being beamed satellite to satellite.

          not sure what you're trying to explain here. That isn't a point of debate.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          I think he meant YOU don't need infrastructure on the ground. Just a phone. Plus, if a local Starlink ground staton goes, the network will have laser inter-sat capabilities for V2 network anyways

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          Starlink v2, upon which this feature depends, does in fact use laser links to route data between satellites. You need ZERO ground infrastructure in theater beyond a cell phone and some solar panels or a generator.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            >Starlink v2, upon which this feature depends, does in fact use laser links to route data between satellites
            I'll believe it when they're in orbit and operational. Otherwise it's as real as Tesla's """"self driving"""" feature.

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              September 2020 they launched the first laser link prototypes fwiw

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                NASA is also using laser comms for Artemis.

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              cool thread about starlink in Ukraine. twitter.com/TrentTelenko/status/1523828159296286721
              one tweet of note: "In addition, one of the lesser known features of SpaceX's Starlink internet service, point to point email service for Starlink users encrypted and not using any ground infrastructure whatsoever, has aided Ukrainian military units behind Russian lines to communicate"

              V1.5 sats ALL have laser links, once that shell it done it should 'turn on'.
              https://starlink.sx/ shows these specific sats' crosslinks in blue,

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                What's to stop them from working with glowies to intercept your shit via their encrypted keys since I assume they own the keys, unless they are doing something actually end to end encrypted where they remove/delete the keys and such. Like WhatsApp vs. Signal.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                doesn't even matter with modern TLS and such. SpaceX has said it is encrypted but hasn't elaborated. They were at a recent hacker convention handing out bounties if you found exploits which was neat

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                >doesn't even matter with modern TLS and such
                yeah

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                if you aren't wrapping your data in extra encryption at the point of being sent, regardless of the 'pipe's' encryption, you aren't doing it right anon

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                So you're saying you can use modern encryption with these since they are digital? I am just curious because I know absolutely nothing about radio encryption or satellite comms.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                Yes this is a digital system of data transfer. Like a regular GEO commsat for internet but instead it's 30,000 LEO sats. With current Starlink dishes, you pay the monthly fee and plug a router in and boom you're talking to the WWW off of a static IP.
                My parents use normal internet Starlink, it's pretty great

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                ... to add to this, data is data. It doesn't need to be ''the internet'' going through it. The Japanese military, Ukraine of course, and every branch in the US has been testing it out. Air Force has been using it in F-35s for testing, also in AC-130s and KC-135 back in 2020, plus boats. Lots of contracts being thrown about. google starlink military testing and you'll see some articles

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                You can have perfect glow immune encryption with anyone who 1) you can meet in person 2) can keep their private keys private.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous
              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                Intelligence agencies can't rely on torture for *passive* surveillance.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                "Not your keys not you crypto" applies to more than bitcoins. You don't trust infrastructure to encrypt shit for you. You do your own end to end crypto and manage your own keys. Always has been like that but normies want muh convenience.

                https://i.imgur.com/OWd8l3H.gif

                >doesn't even matter with modern TLS and such
                yeah

                Le smiley with the caret nose specifically was about tapping the internal Google lines that had no encryption though. That said, the weakness of TLS as it's used is the certificate authority. By default, you're basically trusting bunch of companies and government organizations you never heard of. Just like said above, you need to manage your own keys. If you're schizo about quantum computers than it needs to be symmetric encryption and no asymmetric.

  6. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    I will just be happy to ditch my PLB subscription for camping tbh

  7. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    field phones and preplanning anon. That never get's outdated.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      pro tip you can use a river as the ground return for a field phone, like 7km with the right conditions. The earth itself can be a fine ground return line over a few km

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        it doesint sound like a "peaceful nature sounds for sleeping" video? how does one do this?

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          there’s a an army TM out there about it k think
          just stick a stake in the river on both ends

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          Funnily enough the Brits were still using earth return on their sets in WW1, the Germans got good at listening in with their Moritz stations. Everyone else uses 2-wire.

  8. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    > mmmmmm data.. oohhh data... oh yeah mmm mmm data mmm ohhhh data mmmm yeah baby data ohhh thats right mmm data right there dont stop data

    you addicts have jacked off to internet porn so much that you can't even war without data.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      War without information is just waiting to die.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Nice dubs, however the future is now old man.
      >NODs
      >Thermal
      >IR
      >Data, more data
      >Encrypted Comms
      >HUD displays ground units via Drones
      >Drone warfare

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        also
        >electric ATV & solar panels at your hidey hole

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          any good electric atvs out there?

  9. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >one cannot legally use encryption on GMRS, FRS, MURS, or HAM frequencies. This has posed a problem from
    Use a data frequency and transmit encrypted data in the clear.

  10. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    no

    the glowies have already compromised telcom companies and have integrated surveillance units plus they have compromised chip manufacturing and build in backdoors during fabrication.

    Also a frick huge amount of crypto software is compromised or outright created by glow cutouts for sting operations like the recent ANOM busts.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      again, doesn’t really matter since you can layer on your own encryption. Unless you’re one of those schizos who thinks the NSA has broken all encryption already?

  11. 2 years ago
    Daydream

    You're still using a middleman from what I understand. I thought the holy grail was to have something decentralized

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      both philosophies have their advantages

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