gonna try again to set up a stationary node @ 4:30 C. we have a great location this year close to the esplanade so hopefully the playa will be covered.
last year i couldn’t finish setting up because my phone screen cracked due to the battery swelling. i was charging it in my tent under a shade canopy, but the heat was still too much for it. this year i will be doing all my charging at night when it’s cooler & i can monitor it better.
let me know if there are any other gotenna burners out there.
@danielagotenna : any progress on getting the rangers gotenna meshes? much lighter & convenient than carrying my ham radio.
2013 i was in deep playa when a girl near me was struck by a bike. she wasn’t wearing any lights. cellphones didn’t work & i wasn’t carrying my ham at the time. someone ran to get help & eventually a sheriff truck came by.
2014 i came upon the scene where a woman died because she tried to jump off a moving party bus & was run over by the generator trailer. emergency services had already been notified but had not arrived yet.
BM staff have bought goTenna devices in the past but we haven’t heard from anyone in the organization itself in the past year, as far as I’m aware. That being said, we know of plenty of regular users/customers who expect to be using theirs at BM this year!
hey! I’ll be at BM this year at Miki Beach, 2 and D. Will be bringing a bunch of goTenna Mesh units to hand out to the community, as well as a goTenna Pro Kit to enable off-grid installations of apps for new users! Don’t have plans to set up any stationary nodes, but you should expect a good bit of units at our camp! Considering we are at the edge of the playa it should reach out pretty far into the deep playa!
i envy your fantastic placement! what’s your playa name in case i swing by?
if you’re wandering around, stop by STRANGELOVE @ 4:30 C. ask for “Tingle” (a girl my 2nd year gave me that playa name & it has unfortunately stuck). although this year we have a unusually high number of virgin members so don’t know the new crew yet.
last year we had a fire juggling camp across from us with an erotic sock puppet show. let’s just say our nights were pretty damn interesting & memorable!
Don’t have a playa name yet, but my default one is Jorge you can probably ask around for the goTenna guy and find me if I’m around! If you want to make sure I’m around I’m hosting an interactivity event, Berlin Style Ping Pong, from 6-8PM Monday and 4-6PM on Friday if you’d like to come by and play with us! Bring friends!
sounds good. I’m gonna leave on friday morning. don’t need to see the man burn since nothing has compared to the epic 2013 man. i don’t like the feel of the place after thursday. Sat-Tues the place is heaven. from wednesday on the rude people seem to come in & i don’t enjoy the crowds anymore.
great idea. it’s too bad the neighboring town of gerlach put in a cell phone tower. our camp discovered we can get 3 bars if we stand about 8 feet off the ground on a ladder, through ATT & not Verizon. used to be no cellphone reception & the only way to get a call out was via ham radio off the UHF repeater. i donated $20 every year to the Black Rock Amateur Radio Association for a phone patch code.
it was nice to be at a place & event where people didn’t have their cell phones out taking selfies or posting. times have changed.
I will be bringing 3 goTenna Mesh to the burn this year. Will be at the Wanderers at 3:45 and G. I will be giving my brother one and he will be around 4:15 & K.
I will donate 6 goTenna Mesh devices to anyone who commits to setting up at least one stationary node and taking photos and screenshots, and really really using all the devices at BM and coming back and reporting back about it to all of us here on Mesh Community at the end.
If any of you on this thread are interested, propose what you’ll do here and I’ll pick the best idea/use-case. Simple.
how about a democratic solution : you have 3 gotenna users ( jperdomo, MFRuckus & teramitsu) who have already committed to testing their personal units out at this year’s festival & 6 units up for grabs.
i propose sending each of us 2 units each & we will find camp uses for them as well as commit to sending daily shouts to test coverage.
our dj’s are invited to play on traveling art cars & dance buses. i will see if i can secure one to the art car as it travels around the playa at night with a dance floor filled with revelers. would make a great photo & a very novel traveling “stationary” node.
asking my camp for ideas & trying to see what events they are doing. when will you need the proposals? our members are from all over the world (russia, spain, england, belguim, korea, japan, ny, san francisco & l.a.) so have to account for the time differences.
by the way. what is the operating temperature of the units? my phone battery swelled last year inside a shade tent. would a gotenna mesh on a pole high over our camp survive the +110 degree heat, caustic alkali dust & 70 mph winds?
The only true deadline is probably some time next week to ensure you get them in time before you leave — and to make sure everyone gets their apps downloaded/set up before going offline (unless you’re using GIDs and don’t care about downloading offline maps).
The gotenna on my roof survived multiple weeks of triple digit temperatures. If you plan on connecting it to a solar panel I suggest you use the panel to shade the gotenna if you are worried about it.
you can probably ask around for the goTenna guy and find me if I’m around! If you want to make sure I’m around I’m hosting an interactivity event, Berlin Style Ping Pong, from 6-8PM Monday and 4-6PM on Friday if you’d like to come by and play with us! Bring friends!
