[ale] Misc ramblings of a diseased mind

[Matt Rideout]

There's no perfect solution that I'm aware of, but if you want something 
that's cheap, off the shelf, and fits most of your requirements most of 
the way, check out eXRS. You can get a pair of radios for under $100, 
then look into antenna hacks if the range is lacking.

Of course, strapping one of those old Aironet 900MHz bridges to each car 
would be a lot more fun. :)

tom wrote, On 07/21/2009 11:51 AM:
> I'm back from a road trip to see grandchildren and children. Too much time 
> spent driving means too much time for the mind to wander into ideas and 
> questions. This being one of the more intellegent groups of people 
> around...
>
> Due to vehicle size, there were a couple of times when we needed to convoy 
> rather than ride the same bus. While cell phones have some use here, 
> answering the "Is anybody as hungry as I am?" type questions, lets face 
> the fact that they are expensive to use for much longer conversations 
> while traveling, increase the risk of accident for their management when 
> there is a single person in the car, and are not really a general 
> solution despite being in almost every pocket/pocketbook around. I have 
> seen a hacks book suggest setting up a two car communications system with 
> laptops and ad hoc settings on the wireless setups, but I don't think that 
> the setup would scale at all well to a three or four vehicle convoy of 
> family/friends/what have you. At least the hardware would be frequently 
> available.
>
> With a family reunion coming up in December, having a nice multi-vehicle 
> convoy voice-com system with moderate range, decient privacy settings, 
> and ease of use, would be an interesting item to have. Two approaches have 
> occured to me, but neither feels quite right.
>
> First one would be something setup with an Arduino type controller using 
> XBEE mesh networking type connections. Of course, I'm in over my head at 
> this point, and would probably need to hire somebody to design and 
> implement if I _needed_ it. Or turn it over to the general public (like 
> ALE) and see if anything turned up if I don't _need_. It's an idea but 
> poorly concieved at the moment.
>
> Second would be to do mesh networking with Linux and VOIP technology. Put 
> things on a thumb drive, tell people to bring lappies and possibly USB 
> style networking equipment, and go nuts. 'Course I don't know much of 
> anything about getting mesh networking going, and even less about things 
> like security and range so...
>
> Off the top of my head, I suspect I'd like to shoot for the ability to 
> have ranges of near a mile over the highway between any two vehicles, 
> automatic reconnection, voice level bandwidths with a little extra for 
> comfort or expansion, encrypted links for privacy since this isn't CB, and 
> the ability to automatically scale up to multiple (shoot for 20?) 
> vehicles.
>
> Anybody here find either idea amusing enough to make a useful comment? 
> A ticket for the Clue Train? Even a snide comment?
>
> As usual, thanks to all members of the list for the use of their 
> bandwidth. I do appreciate it.
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