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Everest Wireless
16:54 p.m. EDT Dec 12, 2002
It was a Friday night and the bars of lower Manhattan were filling up with the usual after work crowd. At the ExplorersWeb new headquarters, we removed the top plates of our conference table to expose the pool table beneath and held the first official tournament. A torch was lit at one end of the game room and the windows were open to the squalls of autumn rain washing away at the black rooftops and giant billboards around us. The History Channel flooded the streets of Little Italy with bright lights just a block away, a show about old gangland was being filmed.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic
We too had work to do between our rounds of pool. In another part of the world, the south of England, our friends at Corps Communications were planning an all nighter as they prepared for test transmissions that were to take place the next day in Wales. All this is leading up to their final objective: Live video straight from the summit of Everest, spring 2003. This past weekend were the preliminary tests of the system and this upcoming weekend the team will be testing for the full distance
Running Contact 2.0 through its paces
The ExplorersWeb software Contact 2.0 was to be used in conjunction with the live video transmission to showcase its capabilities, enabling live dispatches, pics, and video without the need of a Webmaster. The crew was on standby to help support any and all problems that might arise from testing the beta version of Contact 2.0.
The beginnings
It had all begun with a mail in early 2002 sent from Afghanistan in the midst of a war. A communications officer in the UK Royal Navy sent an email to Tom and Tina Sjogren on their PDA in a small tent on the Antarctic ice. The UK Navy was planning wireless transmissions on Everest in 2003 and had heard about T&T's experience with WiFi networks on their expedition years before.
An ExplorersWeb team had pioneered the WiFi technology that is blowing up right now, back in 1999 on Everest. They built a wireless 802.11b – 2.4 GHz network on the slopes of Everest with the help of sherpas before 802.11b was even given its proper name. They transmitted the world’s highest live pic through a WiFi network, a record still standing today. These days, the same technology used on Everest in 1999 is widely used in wireless office environments and also not-so-widely in urban wireless street stunts like the NYC wireless project for computing in Manhattan’s Bryant Park and street games like Noderunner (and war chalking).
The next level
The Navy/Marine guys now wanted to pick up the relay stick, this time taking it all the way to the summit with live video. A custom unit was created that mated a camera, transmitter, and an antenna all in one small package. The results of the unit’s test were to be used in conjunction with the Contact 2.0 Beta version to showcase its addition of video dispatches and the wireless camera’s capability.
Tried and tested
Contact software has worked wonders on both Antarctica and the Arctic, transmitting the world’s first live text dispatches and pictures through every step of the way on two separate Polar expeditions. The beauty is that the software and hardware are so lightweight and easy to work, that they can be used without much hassle on all camps of a mountain or on a mobile expedition, without the need of big equipment or power units.
Around the world 12 times in seconds, just to be inches away from where you started
On Saturday, our friends drove to Wales as we sat by in New York. The first video transmission was a success. The wireless system worked at a distance of 6 miles and was up-linked with an inmarsat phone, sent around the world 12 times and then received by another inmarsat just inches away to produced the live images. Initially the video cropping software had issues with the Contact software, but with the phones running hot over the Atlantic Ocean, we figured out the video editing/Contact mystery. Java support, installed from two different programs had unknowingly started a fight with each other. In the end we helped them make their peace. Jay had now not slept in 48 hours.
Things always fail in the least expected ways
We witnessed the usual quirks of expedition technology; the least expected factors are those that will screw up. That’s the whole idea behind trials in November of a technology that is not to be used until May the following year. And the number one rule of adventure technology: It doesn’t work, until it has worked – all the way – all the time. What looks great on a white board will more often than not prove as great when in base camp.
Last Sunday, Jay got some sleep at last and the guys went even further and made a transmission at 8 miles. We watched the footage appear successfully on our test Contact 2.0 website from the comforts of our office while the boys were over in Whales dealing with the cold and rain. The guys on the camera end even signaled via the wireless video for the receiving end to give them a call.
Full distance trials
During trials, the transmitting antenna was turned 45 degrees away from the receiving antenna, yet was still functional. Since the Brits don’t know much about Thanksgiving, they were out again this past weekend attempting to go even further than Summit to Base Camp distance, the goal being to increase transmission range until the distance of Everest and BC is accomplished and then some.
No Turkey in Wales
While most of us here in the US were scarfing grimmace proportions of Turkey, the UK boys were readying up for even more tests. This past weekend they managed to complete wireless transmissions over a distance of 20 km - roughly 12.5 miles.
By using GPS coordinates from previous North side climbers, we estimated the planar distance from the summit to base camp on the Rongbuk glacier. By then calculating the height difference between the summit and base camp. With some help from high school geometry and Pythagoras our estimates for the line of site distance from the summit down to base camp comes to be roughly 13 miles.
The team has effectively reached their goal - however, just there is not good enough. Yesterday the team was supposed to go further and test the system at 30 km, or 18 miles to further bolster confidence. Upon hearing from them we will post the results from that test.
Shackelton spirit
This endeavor will be a major step towards the ultimate adventure communication dream in true Shackelton spirit; live video from any part of our wild world, straight to your living room, or office computer, or PDA. From all of us, to all of you, wherever we are!
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