how to communicate to the outside to my business if needed?

[unitivity]

I have a business that needs deadline answers at times and need to communicate possibly within 7 days do or die.

not probable but possible. what are the ways i can be communicated with and

if needed to do so to the outside without leaving the playa.

if you have time to educate me on this design need please.

very best warm sparkling regards,
unit.
( unitivity)

[GreyCoyote]

The best, and most reliable way to stay in touch with Defaultia is via satellite phone. Start researching this now, because provisioning these can be problematic on short notice. And last time I looked, it was a buck a minute plus the monthly fee, which was equally expensive. These phones also have data capability (again, an extra $$$ item) so you might be able to get some internet too.

FYI cell phone reception on the playa is very spotty (but getting better I am told last year), but is far from reliable. Some have weak signal, while other providers are completely useless. There are some places that MIGHT let you camp-out on their wifi (center-camp is rumored to have on-again/off-again access available, YMMV), but bandwidth is limited and it would be foolish to rely on this gift for anything mission critical.

Bottom line: if you need it, you better be prepared to bring it. There are no public phones, no internet, or reliable cellular service in BRC. The nearest landline will be in Gerlach. The entire point (imho) of BRC is to get you AWAY from all of this connectivity and put your head into a different place for a while. Think hard about whether you really want to be in BRC if you need to stay so connected.

Edit: I just looked at a couple of providers. To rent an Iridium 9575 Extreme is about $100/week, and 60 minutes of airtime runs you another $100. Not nearly as bad as several years ago. A little googling will get you better rates with some effort.

[trilobyte]

I'm moving this to the Q&A board, since that's a better fit for general preparation questions (you don't specify, but I'm assuming you mean communicate to the outside world from Burning Man).

There are a few points of occasional (weather permitting) wifi access (center camp comes to mind), but there's no getting around potentially needing to leave the playa. Cell phone and sat phone service can be spotty (the models I've used were no good in dicey weather), and the same goes for every other form of communication. It's a shame that your business is set up so poorly that there aren't any backup plans or no other decision makers are able to cover the time that you'd be away. You may also want to consider just doing a partial week.

[unitivity]

Thank you

i do not want to go so far as to get scotty to beam me up, just an email or cell phone once a day or so

from back at the ranch to know i do not have to stay out at BM the rest of my life, which could happen.

So it is possible with a bike and a strong battery in an iphone 5 i could possible get through within a mile or so ride?

best regards,

Unit

[Canoe]

+ to the sat phone

otherwise, it's leave BRC to go to Gerlach to find a phone, or possibly all the way back out to Fernley to ensure cell access or an available land line.
And, how would you know they need to hear from you.

There are some camps providing some access to call outside by phone, for very short duration calls. Some bring limited cell coverage to the playa.

Some people manage to have internet access (very slow) while on playa. You cannot count on this being available, therefore you cannot rely upon this.

Here's one who had some access. viewtopic.php?f=69&t=66754
Last year anyway...

p.s. a partially depleted battery can result in lowered transmit power, but having a battery with more capacity doesn't mutate your transmitter into one with more power.
Moving into the open can increase your chances, so moving to the edge of BRC in the direction of the nearest tower (where?) might make the difference. You cannot count on this.

Back to the sat phone. Only way to be sure. They're rentable.

[unitivity]

thank you, how far is the nearest phone tower, and i could take the bus into the nearest town empire or so how much is the bus to go back and forth

to empire and back; best regards, unit..

thanks for being so fast on these questions!

[unitivity]

sorry i type as you answer and i ask what you say funny we have brains that repeat the same things. thank you memes - unit

it is not life or death calls it is my staff states i do not listen to them or something like that.

REally i want to stop them form stealing everything.

Thank all three of you for living with me with this question. unit

[GreyCoyote]

Forget the iPhone, or any other cellular-based phone if you need reliable comm. You are in the middle of NOWHERE in a bowl between mountains, in a hostile environment, with 60,000 other iPhones. If *one* person says "hey! I got signal!", the tidal wave of people trying to connect with "dude, this is SUCH a party" calls will bounce you off into the weeds. Forget it.

Trilo cites weather as an issue to consider when getting satellite service, and it's true. The reason I didn't suggest some of the lesser phones is because they work not at all when they get rain-masked. The Iridium 9575 Extreme is basically a best-of-class satphone. It too can have issues in a big storm, but it will take a lot more rainfall before it ditches the connection. Not perfect, but better than most.

There are no cheap solutions to your problem. If you need reliable communication, you either need to leave BRC to get it, or bring it yourself at a price.

There may be one other possibility, but it's really pushing the definition of "reliable": talk to one of the hams (we have several here on the board, all good folks) and see if you can work-out a phone-patch or packet data feed. I've seen them do some amazing things... and I've seen them crash and burn too. It's a crap-shoot, but it might bear consideration as a fallback plan if you REALLY gotta be in touch.

[Canoe]

I take it you haven't read the Survival Guide yet, let alone all of the preparation materials.
Check the link in my signature and the links in trilobyte's.
It is not meaningless information. You need to know, before you plan and purchase equipment & supplies for the playa, or else you risk becoming a burden on others there, assuming they'll help someone who didn't bother to look after themselves.

There is what should be a daily shuttle-bus to Gerlach-Empire, to shop for suddenly needed supplies.
You need to have your ticket, ID and get a return pass/chit/bracelet ($).
Takes a huge chunk of time out of your burn. If you look at the cost of a daily shuttle ride vs. renting a sat. phone for the duration, available to you 24/7.

http://www.burningman.com/on_the_playa/ ... rvice.html

And as to reliable, look how sparse the playa cam managed to get its signal off the playa last year.
viewtopic.php?f=69&t=66205

[theCryptofishist]

In/out is $20 each time. And you have to wait in line for one of the two available pay phones. And you have to wait in line to get back in, unless you take the bus, in which case you have to wait for the bus. They might have cell towers at Nixon. That's about the furthest out I remember having service, and don't remember its being reliable before Wadsworth. Nixon is an hour and a half round trip by car--traffic willing--Wadsworth 3 or 4. We aren't telling you to get a sat phone because we get a kickback, but because really and truly, everything sucks up time and ends up being unreliable anyway.

[GreyCoyote]

Maybe put this into a different context: I spend about 175 hours on the playa. Folding the cost of the entire trip, tickets, food, gas, etc into this time, I see that I am essentially paying $25/hr to play at Burning Man. A satellite phone would easily free-up two hours per day for you, and likely more. That's at least $350 worth of time "saved" for playa-play. A sat phone will only cost you a couple of hundred bucks to rent, so after all is said and done you saved $150 worth of playa time.

Or another way: 7 trips off the playa and you will have spent the same amount of actual money as the sat phone rental.

So git 'er dun. You either need the ability to communicate reliably every day or you don't. If you do, the above formula makes sense.

[Canoe]

And with the sat phone on you, you're reachable 24/7 (or you can at last check back with them when you wish).
If something happens, you can take care of it immediately and avoid any consequences/damage arising from a delay.

[unitivity]

i worked with bucky fuller for 16 years and learned comprehensive anticipatorial design science.

I bought his dome in carbondale illinois once and had it made into a park. geodesic dome historical property.

i actually sold it to the people so they could make it into a park, i did not donate it.

communication out of bm - this is one of the anticipatorial questoins that i thought i should ask, thank you for helping me.

I have read a lot of the information you mention. Hope to meet you all there some day. thank you - unit ( unitivity )

an email off the iphone every few days would suffice from center camp for a few lines to read if weather permitting.

you have helped me a great deal thank you best regards. Cheers!

[BBadger]

Maybe you can find one of those tiny "strong" signal anomalies out in the LEO camp.

[VultureChow]

I will add that I have been able to get cell service both years I have gone. 2012, I could get a signal sitting in my parked vehicle at 7am every day. I checked in every other day, just to placate my parents and to burn worry fee.

Last year, nothing in camp, but I was able to ride my bike out to walk in camping in the early morning and get some service. I only did that once.

At roughly $200, a satellite phone will probably be your cheapest and most reliable solution.

[cow dog]

new cell tower on fox mtn. north of snoopy rock, south of empire, with elevation on playa you can hit it , but overload and demand will make it spotty or potty service, brunos in gerlach has Wi-Fi, here in northern Nevada, we use the spot global phone when needed, made offshore 12 years ago, stored 10 years, introduced 2 years ago by globalstar, a decent service, pro"s, 22 hour service, cons, does not log missed calls

[Dr. Pyro]

Or you simply realize what is most important right now in your life and not go to Burning Man. How hard is that?

[Sham]

Or you simply realize what is most important right now in your life and not go to Burning Man. How hard is that?

Doc is right. That is one good option and the other is the struggle of just disconnecting.
I too have a business, but make arrangements to be completely out of service for the week. It is so utterly refreshing not to be checking email or seeing who texted me the joke of the day. The phone is off and I have left the planet.

[chuckularone]

There may be one other possibility, but it's really pushing the definition of "reliable": talk to one of the hams (we have several here on the board, all good folks) and see if you can work-out a phone-patch or packet data feed. I've seen them do some amazing things... and I've seen them crash and burn too. It's a crap-shoot, but it might bear consideration as a fallback plan if you REALLY gotta be in touch.

Nope, not gonna happen. One of the most basic rules of amateur radio is that you can't do business over it. Yes there is a phone patch on the tower that serves BRC, but no ham is going to let you call your business and check up on operations over it. It's a flat violation of FCC rules. They would be risking their license.

[Eric]

thank you, how far is the nearest phone tower, and i could take the bus into the nearest town empire or so how much is the bus to go back and forth

Note: a variation of this question has come up every year I can remember. The only reliable answer is & has been "Sat Phone".

The nearest tower is designed to handle maybe 100 cell users, not 60,000. I've camped in Center Camp the majority of times I've been to BM, the wifi there is incredibly spotty other than around 4am (and then it's just iffy), and is completely unreliable once the Gate opens to the general public. Private wifi networks out there are almost all password protected, and even those fail - I had friends who let me have access to theirs after it was impossible to connect at Center Camp, theirs went down due to "technical issues" on Thursday, if I remember right.

If you need to connect with your staff, a Sat Phone is the only way to go, but if you feel you need to leave the event everyday to check with them (which, in the eyes of this former HR Manager, means you need serious staff re-training), you'll probably have to drive to somewhere between Nixon & Wadsworth (I'm on Sprint, my connection sucks until around Wadsworth), which means you'll spend as much time on the road back & forth every day as you will at the event, which makes attending kind of a pointless "look, I did this!" trophy instead of something you actually participate in.

We're not saying "Sat Phone" because we want you to spend money, we're saying Sat Phone because we've been out there for years & know what has the best chance of working to fit your requirements.

[ranger magnum]

I'm moving this to the Q&A board, since that's a better fit for general preparation questions (you don't specify, but I'm assuming you mean communicate to the outside world from Burning Man).

There are a few points of occasional (weather permitting) wifi access (center camp comes to mind), but there's no getting around potentially needing to leave the playa. Cell phone and sat phone service can be spotty (the models I've used were no good in dicey weather), and the same goes for every other form of communication. It's a shame that your business is set up so poorly that there aren't any backup plans or no other decision makers are able to cover the time that you'd be away. You may also want to consider just doing a partial week.

Clearly you are not self employed.

Regardless of how a business is set up, often there are times that key decisions need to be made immediately, and sometimes by specific people. I am the owner of a tire corporation, and there have been decisions that had to be made on the spot, and I am the only one able to make and authorize them. So until you run a successful company of your own don't assume his (or hers) is set up poorly.

But getting back to the OP's original post, I bring a rented iridium sat phone. It works nearly perfectly, as there are no physical obstructions to block reception. As long as you have line-of-sight to the satellite, you should be just fine.

[unitivity]

thank you everyone.

unit

[cow dog]

eric is correct, the only text, message, data, call log, will hit at wads. and I-80. I have an onion, potato growing operation and leave at the peak of harvest to attend, leaving all duties to trusted employees, you got 6 months to train someone to be you

[Simon of the Playa]

i was getting 3 bars ATT at the 2 oclock porta potties all week.

there's something about checking facebook from the blue box at burning man that is just so wrong, it's right.








nobody can see you doing it, either, but they sure a s hell recognize the little notification sound....like pavlovs fucking dogs....the people in the jots to the left and right of me were freaking.

[unitivity]

Want/Need WiFi in BRC? Attend the WiFi Summit on May 9th

this meeting could change things this year. unit

[dragonpilot]

I camped near a theme camp last year called A Shack of Sit which reportedly had set up a WIFI hot spot. They were part of Snowflake Village. I don't have any idea how reliable their WIFI was, but there were a lot of quiet faces staring into their smartphones at all hours. Find their contact person in the list of 2013 theme camps...ask.

[Sunbeam56]

Unitivity -
Just sent you a PM

[unitivity]

maybe we could get 10 persons to put out to get a phone that we could all use and chip in on the system to do it.

if this is not breaking the rules to survive. thanks for the memories. i can't figure out how to post back yet to a pm so

my phone number is 714 642 5399 if anyone wants to talk about it. if this is ok to post? name is unit.

unitivity

[digital]

There is reliable internet on the playa ... you just need to find it.

However, if your business depends on you communicating to the outside world then you need to invest in your own equipment. I highly suggest looking into BGAN.

[Sunbeam56]

Unitivity - Its a little early to commit to a particular piece of equipment yet - lets get together in June?
I'm in - but we will have to discuss the specific Satphone.