SHTF Communication...

reply to post by Jkd Up
The only problem with Ranger arrows is the military has immediate access to the info. That is why i mentioned patterns with stones. As long as you don't clear an area to make your pattern in then it will appear to be just another random formation of rocks on the ground.

Below is a perfect example of why survivalists can not afford to rely on technology, phones and the internet for communications. this story broke this morning on the BBC.


Severed cable disrupts web access
Internet and phone communications between Europe, the Middle East, and Asia have been seriously disrupted after submarine cables were severed.

It is thought the FLAG FEA, SMW4, and SMW3 lines, near the Alexandria cable station in Egypt, have all been cut.

A fault was also reported on the GO submarine cable 130km off Sicily.

Experts warned that it may be days before the fault is fixed and said the knock on effect could have serious repercussions on regional economies.


Jonathan Wright - director of wholesale products at Interoute which manages part of the optical fibre network - told the BBC that the effects of the break would be felt for many days.
"This will grind economies to a halt for a short space of time," he said "If you look at, say, local financial markets who trade with European and US markets, the speed at which they get live data will be compromised."

"If you think how quickly trades can be placed, if they are suffering from bad latency times, then by the time a trade is placed, the market may well have moved on."

The cause of the break is as yet unknown, although some seismic activity was reported near Malta shortly before the cut was detected.

In a statement released in relation to one of the breaks, France Telecom said: "The causes of the cut, which is located in the Mediterranean between Sicily and Tunisia, on sections linking Sicily to Egypt, remain unclear."

The French firm said it was sending a ship out to fix the line between Italy and Egypt, although it could take until 31 December to fully repair the line.

The main damage through is to the four submarine cables running across the Mediterranean and through the Suez Canal.

It is thought that 65% of traffic to India was down, while services to Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Taiwan and Pakistan have also been severely affected.

Earlier this year, the same line was damaged in the same area - off the Egyptian coast - although only two lines were snapped then.

"We've lost three out of four lines. If the fourth cable breaks, we're looking at a total blackout in the Middle East," said Mr Wright.

"These three circuits account for 90% of the traffic and we're going to see more international phone calls dropping and a huge degradation in the quality of local internet," he added.

"Normally you would expect to see one major break per cable per year. With four you should have an insurance policy. For this to happen twice in one year, on the same cable, is a serious cause for concern."


A selection of your comments on this story:

Over weekend 13th to 16th December had considerable delays and time-outs reaching my email server in Germany and various homepages in Switzerland and the UK. I suspected that a breakdown somewhere was at fault but was surprised to be unable to get any info from Google etc. You can check your ADSL speed easily but finding the speed of a connection from one continent to another seems to be lacking.
John Russell, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia

I began downloading something this afternoon but late this evening it suddenly became six or seven times slower. I now know why.
Max, Wallasey, UK

I teach English at a high school in Sisaket. The last few days our connections have been very, very slow. Yesterday, when I was trying to teach some students how to use Limewire to download movies and songs, the connection seemed to be nearly non-existent. We thought that maybe the wire to our building had been damaged.
Les Blane, Sisaket, Thailand

I work at a call centre. We are unable to make calls as the latency is too high which only ends up in dropping of every call that we dial and the internet speed has been downgraded like anything. I hope this gets fixed by Sunday (December 21), otherwise we will be in total blackout and will suffer in great loss of business in this high time.
Adeel Awan, Karachi, Pakistan

Yesterday's cuts in Malta were a big hassle to all GO subscribers. One here seems to all of a sudden realise how dependent we all are on internet. At least alternative measures have been taken in Malta by GO in conjunction with another internet service provider which was not affected, and therefore today almost all Malta is back to normal - albeit with slower connections.
George Bugeja, Zebbug, Malta

Internet is very slow. I could not connect to any sites except by using a socks server I installed on one of my servers located in USA. I wonder why they do not use separated cables with separated routes? Why are the four main cables located with each other? It is just like putting all eggs in the same basket.
Walaa Waguih, Alexandria, Egypt

Currently staying in Brazil - cannot access virginmedia.com - don´t know if this has anything to do with the above.
Roger Francomb, Sao Paulo

One of my favourite sites was unavailable earlier. It's back up, but from conversations there are still others who cannot access the site, some in the same country as the site's servers.
Michael Harvey, Framingham, Massachusetts, United States

I had trouble with the net from earlier today which I thought had something to do with the local SP. The link gets disconnected frequently and even when you are connected it is terribly slow.
Josekutty, Doha, Qatar


Story from BBC NEWS:
news.bbc.co.uk...

Published: 2008/12/19 18:52:08 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

reply to post by Anuubis


The problem with something that can be used more than once is it is no longer secure. One of the big reasons that the one time pad is so secure is that every page is used once and only once. The only thing the person that intercepted the message knows is the length of the message.

I see using the one time pad and radio as a good way to communicate just after the event. Use the pad to contact your allies and arange the meeting place.

As for long term use, the one time pad is perfect for that as well since after power is no longer available, written communication will be used. A written message is as prone to intercepting as a transmitted message, maybe more so since the courier could be injured or killed. Without coding, the message is readily readable.

Remember the first line of communication?

1. Get to know several people within a days walking distance from your home and they do the same as well. Before long it will be quite a network spanning many many miles.
2. If possible use horses like the first Pony express.
3. Set up secrect hiding places with your people to leave messages about your particular region or area, this way if it is infiltrated you can stop your messenger from coming your way only to be caught.
4. Have certain markers for your people close to your location if it is clear for them to proceed. You can even keep stored water and or MRE stashed for their arrival.

i've been thinking on this code and here's my thoughts....

given that the SHTF senario would mean the power grid is down then internet, land phones, and cell towers are useless. that would leave battery powered radio such as CB and hand held two-way or maybe HAM if someone had off-grid power to run a station.

also, in this situation most prepared minds would be buckled down and settled in, not moving over large distance. so realistically there would be very few "local" people you would care to communicate with. long range comm is out of scope anyway.

so....
1: develop a code for local use, with family and what not that would not matter outside your small circle of friends. example: i have a set of two-ways for emergency use for me and my wife. max range is 2 miles so they would only be used for wagon trains (convoy of both our vehicles) and such. so anyone close enough to bust in on our comm would not matter cause i know my wife's voice and anyone else on the line would be ignored. but any code used for safety would be unique to just me and her.

2: a national ATS code could be simple with just a handfull of code words. because in the event i would need to cross state lines i would not wish to comm with many people for security reasons, but.... example: say i was on the move and had my CB up in the truck. if i was approching a metro area and wanted know the situation i might put out an any-station request. first, i would need to know what channel to use.
second, know how to idenitify myself as an ATS member.
third, know how to identify any return caller as ATS.
last, way of requesting info and getting a response in the open yet secure.

my idea: designate certain states to use set channels at different times of year and day. (ex: north carolina in jan-june 00:00-12:00 would use channel 10, 12:00-00:00 use channel 14, july-dec use channels 16 and 24)
then when i put out a request i would add a code word or two to let any listener know i was ATS. next the reply would include code to ID the responder as ATS. at that time there could be an additional challenge and password (i say "green", you say "bulldozer"). then once we know we can trust each other i would ask how the roads are in your area. then you say no problems, roads to the south are "golden". golden means road blocks as such do not attempt. so i drive north of the city, meanwhile any bad guys listening would be waiting for me to the south and SOL, and i pass free and clear.

does anyone see where i'm going with this?

reply to post by Anuubis


Very true... But Ranger arrows are quite tuff to locate if properly made and you know where to look. Like I said, I am hesitent of anything leading right to my sancuary. I might tell one or two people and that's about it. Other than that... I'd all be based off of a meeting place.

Anybody come up with any ideas yet? JKD'up's idea of meeting places is good, but that will not help to communicate with all of you. We can't exactly have a meeting place in the middle of the Atlantic.

Well, any radio transmissions would be intercepted immediately, and I mean ANY. Any code you could devise would be cracked immediately.

Here in my area of the world, we still have a lot of old Ranger Fire Towers that are no longer in use. I have thought about this before. Best to learn morse code and signal with flashlights from tower to tower. They are the perfect place to see troop movements and whatnot. They are also inevitably located in very rough terrain. Here is a video I shot of a recent trip out in the area. www.youtube.com...

reply to post by Jay-in-AR

Here in Idaho most of our watchtowers have fallen down from dis-use, but the areas where they stood are still foliage free so they would still work for signaling. A better idea for communicating morse code with lights would be small tactical lasers. They have a longer range, and the focused beam would be a lot harder to see from the sides or below the point of origin.

reply to post by Anuubis


Very true. Good idea.
2nd line.

reply to post by Jay-in-AR

And you can carry a hell of a lot more batteries for a tactical laser.
The small ones for pistols would be perfect. Not too bulky, or heavy.