On Sun, 17 Jan 1999, J.M. "Jersey" Miszczyk wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I live in South Africa and very often go "into Africa". There is no
> telephone connections in the bush :((. And distances to the nearest
> "civilised" places are often measured in hundreds of kilometers. Email
> sometimes would be very handy. I know that there are satellite phones on
> the market but.... the price is quite high, specialy taking our exchange
> rates into consideration.
Motorola and others have put up 66 Near Earth satellites that
should be usable across Africa with a proper antenna and equipment. The
cost will be high but I guess will come down with use.
> Is there a way of utilising ham satellites? My company is an Internet
> service provider as well and I would not have a problem with setting up "a
> satellite Internet router" or "a satellite Email box" which could be
> utilised by others as well. Btw... Linux is the preferred operating system
> :))
I know of no satellite that is Ham and would allow use as an
Internet e-mail server. That would be in direct conflict with the stated
use of the 66 satellites.
> If it is possible, I would appreciate some initial guidance.... I learn
> very fast :))).
> If this is not possible.... well I do not easily take no for an answer
> :))). I will look for some other means of distance communications..... I
> already eliminated tam-tams..... baud rate is quite low :)))))).
> I would like to apologise if this subject was already handled on this
> forum. I did not have much time to browse through the historic data. I got
> the whole idea few days ago during my scuba trip to Mozambique. Beautifull
> country :))) but..... nonexistent or very basic communication
> infrastructure :(((.
>
> Best regards
> "Jersey"
>
I don't think thare has been a lot of talk about commo in
Africa...:-)
Best wishes
- Karl F. Larsen, 3310 East Street, Las Cruces,NM (505) 524-3303 -
