live feed from Tikaboo?

so should i host a live feed from Tikaboo Peak of area 51? I'm using Qik.com service with my iphone which allows me to provide a live feed over the internet.

I would laugh if anybody here said "no".

Sounds like some interesting watching. What time do you plan on doing this? I'll take a gander.

reply to post by hiii_98


As I explained in some other thread, there is no GSM service on Tikaboo. Are you saying you used your iphone on Tikaboo?

I provided a GSM in one of your other threads. GSM is mostly along route 95. I think the closest GSM to the Nellis range is in Caliente.

The CDMA coverage on Tikaboo is pretty poor unless things have improved. I haven't used CDMA in some time.

Your GSM phone will sniff the towers along route 95. However, due to timing issues, you can't use those towers.

well isnt that a kick in the pants I thought i read on one of my other forums that it should have reception on top of the peak..(which honestly didnt make any sense to me as its satallite feed and not a radio wave).


look alittle barren

i know i've checked other years but i've never honestly bothered to bring a phone up the Mt. Thanks for the correction Gariac.



[edit on 28-3-2009 by hiii_98]

reply to post by hiii_98


I created a GSM Google Earth overlay, but I recall you had difficult using it. Here it is again:
Google Earth GSM coverage overlay

My recollection is the coverage was flaky on Mt. Diablo for GSM. No problem for CDMA, but the CDMA at Tonopah (based on when I was a Verison customer) is that crappy "extended digital" you get when you roam on CDMA. It has voice, but none of the fancy digital features work. With GSM, where it exists, everything seems to work as you roam. I've done tethered modem internet via T-mobile roaming along route 95. [In general, AT&T requires you to pay for tethering, but given that the Iphone has such an expensive plan, maybe they include it in the service.]

One of the regular range visitors has satellite internet. The latency on satellite is pretty bad, so I don't think it would support streaming video. When you SKYPE over satellite, you say "OVER", much like ham radio, to get around the latency issue.

In the old analog cellular days, if you had an external antenna, making phone calls from high points around the range perimeter wasn't a problem. With digital, there are timing issues that limit your range.

There are ways to send video from Tikaboo, but none are simple. The problem is the line of site of Tikaboo doesn't see much "civilization." Badger Moutain blocks Alamo. The Groom range blocks Rachel. The only "civilization" seen from Tikaboo is Hiko and Crystal Springs. You would need to set up a point to point link to one of those "towns", then go over DSL.

It would be far less work just to rent a satcom phone, though the quality of the video would be very poor.

I HATE this new filter format on ATS where if it thinks your posting a similar topic that it removes your entire post. I just wrote a 2 page event story of what occured on our trip to Tikaboo on March 29th. I dont want to rewrite the entire story, so long story short.

The mountain was full of snow. We began our accent around 7:30pm... The winds were blowing 40-60mph on the top of the mountain. The temperature varied between 20-11 degrees. The windchill must have made the temperature well below zero...as all liquids we carried were frozen immediately. I live in wisconsin and used to the cold but camping on top of the mountain this trip...honestly almost killed us. The hike to the top almost killed us serveral times due to the icy snow. I lugged up cameras, telescopes, and all other equiptment but did not get a chance to use any of them due to the live/death experience we were facing and working to survive the entire time. We had no shelter and our plans were to spend the entire night and take photos in the morning. As you can see that last rock wall to the left was built by us last year to survive in March 08. This year some fckn person either burned or threw the railraod tressel off the mountain which really helped cut down on the wind. So we built an entire larger wall on the right side to really shelter us from the mercyiless wind. We also built a large firepit which did nothing but spill noxious smoke clouds relentlessly into our rock home. The rest of the night was searching for wood to burn, and leaves, braches to carry back to try to make bedding from. Really had no time to even watch the base much less setup the telescope and camera to it. The only photo i took was one of us to document that my story is even true.




[edit on 3-4-2009 by hiii_98]

[edit on 3-4-2009 by hiii_98]

I camped out in November. It was not to back, but it was a mild November last year and it had not snowed yet.

If you build a rock wall that is higher than a person can see over while sitting on a portable chair, I bet it will be knocked over. It's human nature. You have one purpose, they have another. What I do is camp at the false summit, since you can get nearly the same view. Then I move up to the peak to do photography at daybreak. So the rock walls were whatever, neither good or bad. If there is wind, the rockwall probably won't make a difference regarding the telescope. But I leave them alone. I think I took a row off the top once because it was too high to photograph over.

The deal is nobody owns anything. It's all shared. I can get along with just about any behavior except for trashing the peak and the stupid graffiti.

Personally, I liked the peak when the railroad ties made a bench. You could sit three people on that bench, and their was no rock wall to get in the way.

well we didnt throw the tie away... someone either burned it or tossed off the mountain. dunno why the hell anyone would do that. It was nice to sit on and rest equiptment on.