goTenna: a new idea for a local area wireless network using smart phones.

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goTenna enables you to communicate without any need for central connectivity whatsoever—no cell towers, no wifi, no satellites—so when you're off-grid you can remain connected. In fact, goTenna will even work if your smartphone is in “Airplane Mode”!

How does this magic work?

Pair your smartphone to your goTenna device wirelessly, using Bluetooth-LE. Your goTenna needs to be within 20 feet of your phone, so that the two can communicate with each other. Use our free app to type out a text message or share a location. Your smartphone will send the message to your goTenna, which will then shoot it out, via long-range radio waves (151-154 MHz), to the intended goTenna(s).

See more here http://gotenna.com/pages/how-it-works

[Sacajawea]

Now, if they could just expand that 20 ft range...

[RD]

I am so tempted to get one of those, I wonder if the price will go down any.



RD

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Sac

The 20 ft range is for the phone to talk to the antenna via bluetooth. The range of the unit to unit(cell phone, goTenna package) can go upto miles and it is encrypted comms.

Look at the chart on the page from the link above to see this distance calculator. Shown below conservative range over water is 3.6 miles. Click on the other images to see the comms distance for those
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