🚀 go-pugleaf

David Kaye wrote:
> jcdill <jcdill.lists@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> There was cell service AND WiFi internet signal at Black Rock City in 
>> 2009.  
> 
> They've had Internet for at least 6 years, but the cell service is a new 
> thing.  Does this mean that some enterprising cell company brings in portable 
> cell sites?  Otherwise I couldn't think of how else they'd do it.  It's way 
> too far to get a signal in and out of Gerlach or Empire I'd think.

There has been internet on the playa (not necessarily for public use) 
for at least 14 years.  They streamed the burn from the playa to people 
who couldn't make it out in-person in 1996, as well as posting daily 
updates of the Black Rock Gazette online on the website:

http://itsbeach.com/burningman/onsite/brg/thursday/

The cell service in 2009 was from people putting in ad-hoc cell towers 
and then using some other technology to transmit the calls back to town. 
  I forget the name of the technology but it was a hot topic a few weeks 
ago when someone was discussing putting in a repeater that uses the 
internet to carry the calls from his house (where he has no native cell 
signal) to the cell provider - I *think* that's the same technology used 
to get cell service in BRC in 2009.  If you really want to know, Google 
is your friend.

It's also *not* that far to Gerlach.  In years past they would hold 
Burning Man out in the middle of the playa (20 or more miles from 
Gerlach), but these days it's ~2 miles from the road, less than 10 miles 
from Gerlach.  In 1996 they had problems with the internet-over-radio 
signal to Gerlach (terminating on an ISDN line at the hotel) bouncing 
off the playa because they hadn't accounted for the curvature of the 
earth from the distant location on the playa to Gerlach.  (Someone who 
knows more than I do about radio can certainly explain this better than 
I just did.)

jc