Hi I am very much interested in building my own Outernet receiver here in the Philippines. But it says on the Outernet website coverage coming soon.
Would it be possible to have a brief time frame added and what kind of coverage can the people of South East Asia and the Philippines expect from Outernet in the near future.
Keep up the great Work.
Seasalt Bohol Philippines.
Time frame is within the next couple months, afaik. We should be able to cover East and South-East Asia by then.
Thanks Branko, Appreciate the swift reply. Could you please give me some guidance on what equipment / antenna, I will need to buy / build to be a early adopter of the South East Asia signal.
Regards
Seasalt
Hey Seasalt,
Do you create any documentation so others can replicate your work. If so, where do you publish them?
I would love to share any Outernet designs and hardware experimentation and successes that I can find or make. I guess for the time being I would just put my ideas up here in the Forums. Are you in South East Asia?
I am particularly happy for Outernet to be arriving in the Philippines as they only have 2 Mobile phone companies and Mobile internet is very expensive for the average Filipino.
Seasalt
Hi,
I am in Europe, working on a research project about open hardware. I will be in Asia in Autumn with NoisebridgeChinaTrip5 - Noisebridge
I am specifically interested in how people spread knowledge and work together remotely when it comes to open hardware projects.
T.
As a quick update, we are using AsiaSat5’s C-band beam. The downside to this selection is that it requires a C-band dish (the really big ones). But this signal actually has considerable reception all throughout the region. We will eventually add at least two Ku-band satellites in SE Asia, but for now, AsiaSat5 does offer something. And it works very well in tropical areas, due to the lower frequency (compared to Ku) and their propagation characteristics.
Thanks heaps for the quick update on C Band beam into Philippines…
I was planning on setting up a land based system first and then putting a smaller unit on my boat here in the Philippines.
So I guess I and every one in Asia who wants a Outernet receiver is now going to learn how to make a C Band Outernet receiver.
Do you have a PDF guideline on how to build a Outernet C Band Receiver?
Regards
George Bohol Philippines.
Have you ever built a C Band receiver? Any advice would be appreciated.
I just fed the info re Asiasat 5 into www.Satbeams.com and it is coming up with the following for a Dish Antenna placed at Bohol Philippines.
Reception details
EIRP level = 48 dBW
Recommended dish size = 70cm / 27.6in
Copyright 2007-2014 www.satbeams.com
Does 48 dDW EIRP level and 70cm sound right for a Outernet dish antenna on Asiasat 5 C Band.
George
Bohol Philippines.
Just to clarify, if we only buy the lantern nothing else and we are in the Philippines we should be able to receive a signal and use Outernet on our computers? Secondly, exactly what news sites are you going to place on Outernet? If this works well I plan on showing it off to the villages on my island chain. Thanks.
Hi Mikecurt.
No one has answered so I will jump in.
From what I understand Outernet is trying to broadcast a worldwide ONEWAY data feed of Internet related information called the “Library” to every one on earth for free. Which can then be buffered onto a hard drive and shared by WiFi to users mobile and fixed computing devices.
In order to do this cost effectively Outernet is renting for the time being satellite capability from established satellite providers.
Two days ago Outernet said they would be able to provide a signal to the Philippines on a leased satellite C Band transponder on Asiasat 5. C band is a kind of “Older Technology” that requires larger Dish antennas to pick up the Outernet signal. My preliminary unconfirmed assessment is a 80 cm dish will work. (This could be wrong . It could be much bigger needed.)
Outernet Satellite receiver hardware solutions are intended in the future to be fully Open source to connect to the Outernet satellites.
The first choice of hardware I believe is Pillar which is basically a mashing together of several off the shelf easily available components to make a hybrid open source satellite Data receiver. Once you add the appropriate Dish antenna you will be able to aim at the Outernet Satellite and start receiving the Outernet Library database for free.
Lantern satellite receiver is available from Outernet as a fully assembled small solar powered stand alone unit and once all of the proposed high powered Outernet satellites are transmitting down from Space you will be able to receive the Outernet Library data by just putting it in the sun. My understanding is that a Lantern plus a cable connection to a large stationary C Band dish satellite antenna should receive Asiasat 5 Outernet data feed in the Philippines today.
Please note these comments are only my understanding of a project that is moving excitingly fast and by necessity things are changing.
George Bohol.
Yes, based on what SatBeams states, an 80cm dish in the Philippines should work. I’m quite surprised by that, but you’re basically at the equator and directly under the satellite, so it does make sense. We have not built a C-band unit, but from the perspective of demodulation and decoding of content, anything that comes out of the end of the LNB is all the same to us. The different between C band and Ku-band is just the LNB and dish size. The output from the dish/LNB is still downconverted L-band, which is what gets fed into the Orx/Pillar/Lantern.
Hello George, Syed, and everyone here at Outernet, my question is,
I want to buy the Outernet Lighthouse on your online store via PayPal worth $99 (approx. P 4,600+) and I just want to ask, is the shipping from the US to the Philippines free or I would have to pay more bucks for that shipping fee? I would like to connect to my loved ones abroad for free using the Outernet. Thanks.
Ramil
San Mateo, Rizal, Philippines
I am also very interested in getting a Lighthouse and having it shipped to the Philippines.
Is there a Philippines distributor yet?
George
You do realize Outernet is a one way data transmission. It is NOT a two way internet connection.
George
You can’t. Outernet is using one-way data cast from satellite to Lighthouse.
I found this page on Facebook. No idea about who is handling it. Seems this is not an official Outernet FB page. However they are not selling any Outernet related products.
It’s not official for sure, tho I don’t see any harm in its existence.
yes, it’s true 